Project aims to undo ‘degradation’ of Kentucky stream. Why it matters for habitat, state
Amid the steep, wooded hills and farm fields of northern Pulaski County, there’s a spot where more than 4,000 saplings are taking root and the stream winding through them is coming to life.
Workers planted the trees as part of a project to rebuild the stream, called Long Branch. If the project works as hoped, the stream could someday provide habitat for a small fish called the Buck darter that is found only in this watershed.
Someone straightened Long Branch decades ago, most likely to make room to grow hay.
That was detrimental to the stream, altering the flow and natural biodiversity and creating conditions for increased erosion.
“I would say that it was degraded to accommodate human needs,” said Dian Osbourne, director of protection for The Nature Conservancy in Kentucky.
It was also not good for nearby Buck Creek. Long Branch is a tributary, so the changes washed more sediment into Buck Creek, one of the state’s highest-quality waterways.
The Nature Conservancy is leading the project to restore Long Branch.
The work is part of the group’s larger efforts to deal with the effects of climate change in Central Appalachia, including the loss of habitat and biodiversity.
“We can undo that degradation now with restoration,” Osbourne said of Long Branch.
How it works
Contractors used equipment and hand tools to re-create the natural bends, pools and riffles of the stream, placing rocks, tree root wads and burlap material at some places along the banks to create habitat and keep down erosion until grasses planted beside the stream can protect it.
That restored the natural flow and conditions of the stream over a distance of 1,600 feet — more than the length of five football fields.
The final stage of the restoration work was to plant trees native to Kentucky the length of the stream.
A crew from Corridor Land Services in Lexington finished planting the trees by hand over a week ago. The planting included more than 25 species of trees, including oaks, maple, birch, black walnut, sycamore and dogwood, according to Adam Jackson, the company owner.
The trees will help keep down erosion, shade the stream to keep temperatures right for certain fish, improve water quality and provide habitat for bats.
“The overall goal of this is to restore the habitat, the hydrologic flow regime, water quality and the biological integrity of Long Branch,” said Randall Payne, an environmental scientist with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which is financing the project.
Money for the $793,000 project came from a fund to offset the impact of building a highway interchange a few miles away at KY 80 and KY 461. Federal law requires such mitigation when a project affects certain waterways.
“All of this restoration will provide better water flowing into Buck Creek,” Osbourne said.
What makes Buck Creek unique?
Payne said Buck Creek is a “reference reach,” meaning the water quality and biodiversity are so good it is a benchmark to judge other waterways against.
The creek, which lies mostly in Pulaski County, flows into the Cumberland River.
The Buck Creek watershed provides habitat for rare or endangered mussels, an endangered bat species, 77 species of fish and numerous plants, some of them considered rare, according to The Nature Conservancy.
The creek has good populations of smallmouth bass and rock bass for fishing, and is popular for canoeing and kayaking,
“No other stream in Kentucky has caves that flow cold air and fog over the water, springs that gurgle fresh water along the bank and rugged beauty that rivals the Red River Gorge,” the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources says in its description of the creek.
The restoration work on Long Branch was done by Resource Environmental Solutions LLC. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kentucky Waterways Alliance and and Kentucky Stream Restoration LLC also were involved, according to The Nature Conservancy.
The environmental group has carried out other projects to protect Buck Creek from threats such as logging, invasive species, unimproved crossings and off-road vehicles.
The goal is to put together a corridor of connected properties, protected from development, that will provide migration routes for different species. Central Appalachia is an especially important corridor, Osbourne said.
“Alone, it’s not going to stop climate change, but it’s going to help species adapt to climate change by providing more migratory pathways with healthy habitat,” Osbourne said.
