shiloh road Spring creek

[Mike]

Decreasing the width to depth ratio improves the chances that bigger fish than present pre-treatment will occupy a given stretch or piece of habitat.

 

[troutbert]

IMHO the cause of that over-widened stretch was an old structure extending across the stream. That is still there.

And that is not unique to that stretch. There are many old structures in Spring Creek that caused widening of the stream. Not intentionally of course.

 

[tomgamber]

Veg will grow back.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

Joebamboo, on the contrary it appears these structures were installed with little disturbance to the streambank. These structures look built out into the channel to narrow an over widened reach. From what can be seen in the photos it looks like few if any shrubs or trees along the stream were cut.

yes some had to be removed, but those overhanging bushes maybe extended less than a foot in some places. Furthermore, the water under the brush typically is too shallow most of the year. On the other hand, narrowing the channel, deepening the water and the placement of rocks should more than compensate for the loss of the marginal benefits the prior bank structure provided.

 

[joebamboo]

Time will tell. Hopefully I will still be around to see if that happens.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Looks good to me.

 

[FrankTroutAngler]

Update. I walked along Benner Springs this afternoon. Here are photos of what they did. They installed structures on the opposite bank from the park area, a good distance. The first phase placed structures on the parking lots side of the bank. The new configuration greatly narrowed the channel and already you can see the clearing of the grass and sediment from the center. The stream is deeper and they also placed some decent sized rocks to provide cover in the stream.
If they continue down to the wide area below the island, this will significantly improve the stream IMO. Those flat areas make the Benner springs section the warmest on spring creek.

The reason you can already see the clearing of the grass and sediment is because this is where the excavator was driven up and down the stream.