The goal of this project is to install up to five miles of large woody habitat in tributaries to the White River in Rochester and Hancock, VT, in order to improve habitat diversity, macroinvertebrate diversity and abundance, and brook trout abundance and resilience to climate change. The project is part of an ongoing partnership with the US Forest Service to improve brook trout habitat throughout the Robinson Integrated Resource Project Area established by the USFS Green Mountain National Forest. Over 50 miles of in- stream habitat have been targeted, with TU having completed over seven miles of the work to date.
Historic land use practices have resulted in a mixed-age, but still relatively young, forest throughout the project area and most of New England. Felling trees into the stream at a rate of 170-210 pieces of large wood per mile (Nislow et al., 2003) replicates and restores natural woody habitat recruitment that would exist in a mature old-growth forested watershed. Reintroducing large wood habitat provides myriad benefits to brook trout, their resilience to catastrophic events, and the forest-stream ecosystem as a whole. This project will restore and enhance brook trout habitat by increasing the amount of large woody material in the stream channel and along the banks. Increasing large wood in the channel improves sediment retention and sorting and creates diverse instream habitats, such as step-pool complexes, particularly in smaller 1st and 2nd order streams (Naiman et al., 2002). It has been shown to increase brook trout size and abundance (Kratzer, 2018).
The project catchments are generally degraded because of historic land use and forest management practices that continue to affect the forest and stream systems. Because New England was deforested in the pre-industrial era, much of the current forest stands throughout the region are limited to 100-130 years old – not old enough to have substantial natural recruitment of large wood from the surrounding riparian area. Historic forest and stream management also dictated that wood was also removed for the safety of downstream communities. However, this lack of large wood has led to headwater streams that are shallow, wide, incised, and have monotonous riffle-run habitat for fish. Finer sediments are washed through the system rapidly, and nutrients within the water column have no biotic material to assist with nutrient cycling and uptake. This project addresses all these problems by reintroducing large woody material in quantities that the US Forest Service has modeled to be similar to historic old-growth forests (Nislow, 2003), essentially mimicking historic conditions which will, in turn, assist natural processes and large wood recruitment within the system.
This project also helps address climate change impacts on brook trout. By increasing large woody material, we increase deep scour pools and cover directly over the stream channel. Scour pools stay colder longer into the summer, providing thermal refuge for brook trout during the hottest months, and may increase groundwater inputs into the stream channel, which protects the stream temperature from sudden fluctuations in air temperature. Increased large woody material in the channel and banks also increases stream roughness, which helps to slow water down and push water out onto the floodplain, dissipating the velocity and attenuating the overall flood peak downstream.
This project is related to a prior Waters to Watch project on the White River, funded with an EBTJV-NFHAP award in FY2013 to the White River Partnership (link to completion report). The prior WtW project addressed flood- and flood recovery-related habitat modifications on four tributaries to the Upper White River in Rochester, Vermont, following tropical storm Irene by utilizing active instream management and design, establishing riparian buffers, and removing barriers to fish passage. The lead organization, strategies, and specific locations differed between the 2013 and 2020 projects; however, there are expected related benefits because both projects are in the White River watershed and have a shared goal of goal to maintain healthy, sustainable brook trout populations.
Human Interest/Community Benefit:
The project should improve recreational fishing opportunities for wild brook trout. Large in-stream wood has been shown to increase the size and abundance of brook trout, particularly in scour pools and under protective large woody material. Much of the project area is accessible by trail or near parking areas, facilitating angler access to the improved habitat and brook trout populations.
This project, and in-stream woody habitat projects as a whole, have an excellent cost-benefit ratio. For $15,000 per mile of habitat improvement, there is a 150-300% improvement in wild brook trout population within an overall more resilient stream system. The benefits only improve as the project reach increases. Increased habitat capacity for larger and more abundant brook trout populations in headwater streams with direct access to larger rivers such as the White River will help provide larger wild brook trout and potentially reduce the future need for stocking hatchery-raised trout.
Erin Rodgers, PhD, gave a presentation about strategic wood addition at the 2022 EBTJV annual meeting. The presentation, available on YouTube, gives a very clear explanation for how wood addition helps habitat for brook trout in New England streams, as well as co-benefits for humans and other species. Link: https://youtu.be/ImSsyw4qfoA
Literature Cited
• Kratzer, J.F., 2018. Response of Brook Trout Biomass to Strategic Wood Additions in the East Branch Nulhegan River Watershed, Vermont. North American Journal of Fisheries Management, DOI: 10.1002/nafm.10241
• Naiman, R.J., Balian, E.V., Bartz, K.K., Bilby, R.E., Latterell, J.J., 2002. Dead Wood Dynamics in Stream Systems. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-181. Nislow, K.M., 2003. LWD Recruitment Model for New England Streams. Canadian Journal of Fisheries Science. 12(2): 50-110.
• The Robinson Integrated Resource Project Area Assessment and Review can be found here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=48884
Project Timeline (FY20 project):
From 2019-2021 Trout Unlimited completed about 2.75 miles of wood installation in Upper White River tributaries (see map below). In 2021 partners had originally scheduled three weeks of large wood habitat work in the upper White River watershed on USFS lands. Unfortunately, one of those weeks had to be canceled due to inclement weather from the remnants of a hurricane. In those two weeks, they were able to complete in-stream woody habitat restoration on 1.25mi of Corporation Brook. They also completed some follow-up monitoring on a section of Corporation and Tunnel Brooks in 2021. They anticipate completing the proposed restoration mileage by the end of the 2022 field season and continuing post-project monitoring.
Follow-up monitoring will occur from 2-4 years out and includes large wood retention and recruitment in the system, brook trout biomass and abundance, and changes to in-stream habitat diversity.
Partners:
Trout Unlimited (lead)
US Forest Service
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Davis Foundation