On October 20th, MWA assisted Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Fish and Boat Commission in live staking.
Live staking is used to increase fish habitat, slope strength, and plant cover. The live stakes are usually a foot to two feet long with a spike at one end and a flat end at the other. The flat end is used to assist in pounding the stakes into the streambank. The live stakes will assist in holding back the bank. The live stakes will also help to improve the water quality. Water quality can be determined by macroinvertebrate sampling and/or water sampling.
MWA harvested over 200 native live stakes from the watershed the day before with the help of volunteers.
(Youghiogheny Riverkeeper, Eric Harder)
This was a part of a bigger project called the Back Creek Restoration Project. The landowner was losing a foot of their property every year because of sedimentation loss. The project’s main goal is to lessen the amount of sediment that is in the creek. There were logs placed on the stream bank to create a barrier. With a barrier in place, sediment loss will decrease exponentially over the years. They will also act as a barrier in holding the streambank together as they grow.