#99 Restoration on the North Fork
August 21, 2008
Landowners along the North Fork take advantage of VDGIF’s Landowner Incentive Program to restore a section of stream bank and habitat for the James Spineymussel.
This show originally aired in August 21, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net
On a still, hot morning, I head out of town to visit some friends who are transforming their own corner of heaven in northern Albemarle County. Vickie and Mark Gottlob live in a house they finished building four years along the North Fork of the Rivanna. It sits on a wooded slope of Buffalo Ridge, named for the mammals that once roamed these parts. The Gottlobs are working with Louise Finger of the Virginia Department of Inland Game and Fisheries to help restore habitat in the river for another species rarely seen here: the Jamesriver Spineymussel.
This is my third visit to the site. Before Louise and her team of heavy equipment operators arrived earlier this week, I had come up to visit the river “before” so I could better appreciate the changes “after”. I had donned appropriate river wading gear and dropped down into one of the deeper holes. With cooling water up to my waist, I could see the bank slumping steeply into the stream and showing the signs of instability even an untrained eye could see. The Gottlob’s small floodplain pasture was being eaten away by storm flows and gravity, and all this dirt was settling in the river and clogging the very life out of it. But there were solid gravel bars, mounded here and there with piles of small cobble left by chub and other nest-building species. It had the potential to be good habitat for the spineymussel if it could be stabilized.
The Jamesriver Spineymussel is a rarely seen mollusk in our parts – but its influence has been felt for years – it’s presence blocked the building of the Buck Mountain Reservoir, a memory that runs deep with planners and residents. Today, on its behalf, federal money is directed into a program that Louise Finger manages for the state that restores stream habitats for species that are endangered or at risk. What makes it possible for the Gottlobs to undertake this $15,000 restoration job is that 75% is paid for by the Landowner Incentive Program – so they pony up 25% of the costs – and sweat equity counts.
And how did they come to this choice? Well, a picture can be worth a thousand words … The Gottlobs walked daily down to the river and over time could see the changes wrought by the erosion. On night, Surfing the web for all things Rivanna, Vickie saw before and after pictures of a similar project nearby on Welsh Run. A few phone calls, an on-site assessment by Louise, and the project was scheduled using some of the remaining funds set aside for the Rivanna watershed.
Today, talking down the path through the woods, I hear the earth moving equipment before I see it. As the field opens up before me, it looks like a giant is playing a rugged game of dominoes. There are thick gray rocks are strewn across the field near the curve in the river. Yesterday, the backhoe removed tons of dirt, and the tractor spread it in an upland corner of the field near the woods to be planted. The once unstable bank is now a gentle grade that slopes easily into the field. Closer to the water’s edge, Louise in full chest waders is directing her backhoe driver through the arduous process of selecting and placing just the right rock for just the right spot in the river as they build the structure that will sustain the new geometry of the bank.
These flat rectangular hunks of rock are ideal for building the vanes, weirs and sills that are the hardscape tools of the stream restoration specialist. Louise been at this for five years, and the Gottlob project is number 35 or so – she’s lost count – and though she’s set up an electronic transit on the bank above her to provide a reference to her design height, is apparent that this work is as much art as it is science.
The goal of the structure is to deflect the energy of the river and give the vegetation a chance to stabilize the bank. Landowners are required to maintain a 35-foot protective buffer for at least 10 years. Louise says that the grasses and flowers will soon give way to shrubs and tree seedlings that will deepen their hold on the bend.
So will the James spineymussel return to this stretch of the Rivanna? That part is not known, but what is almost certain to happen is that in only a few years, Mark and Vickie will be following a wildlife trail through the thicket in their field down to the North Fork of the Rivanna River.