Friday, April 01, 2011 2:21:27 PM -
March 31, 2011
Restoration bringing Paint Creek back to life
By John McCoy
John McCoy
A boulder structure located on Paint Creek near Mahan has already created a pool nearly 10 feet deep. Dwight Siemiaczko, Jim Reed and Dustin Johnson (left to right), all working to create better fish habitat in the stream, inspected the pool during a recent visit.
MAHAN, W.Va. -- Sometimes repairing a damaged trout stream requires bold action. Southern West Virginia's Paint Creek is getting "boulder" action.
Since 2007, work crews have been hard at work improving fish habitat in the mining-damaged watershed, mainly by arranging large rocks to narrow the stream and deepen its channel.
"It's definitely improving the fish habitat and the quality of the water," said Dwight Siemiaczko of the Lower Paint Creek Association. "The creek is a lot better off today than it was 20 years ago."
Back then, hardly anyone believed the section of Paint Creek downstream from Mossy could ever amount to much. Mine drainage had degraded its water quality. Dredging had widened its channel. Silt and sand from surface mines and road construction had smothered its aquatic life.
Jim Reed, a Division of Natural Resources fisheries biologist at the time, helped survey the stream's fish populations. He didn't find much.
"We found some fish near boulders placed in the stream during the [West Virginia] Turnpike expansion project," Reed said. "Downstream from there, we didn't turn up a lot."
The situation began to change in 1995, when Siemiaczko and a handful of like-minded Paint Creek residents formed a watershed association and began addressing some of the many environmental insults hurled at the stream during its heyday as a coal mining center.
"The first thing we did was to get people together to clean up trash," Siemiaczko said. "We walked every inch of the watershed, and we cleaned up the main stream and its tributaries. We carried more than 150 tons of trash out of here."
Members of the watershed association also partnered with Trout Unlimited and the state Division of Environmental Protection on small projects that made more difference than anyone thought possible.
"We put limestone sand into some of the acidic tributaries, and that helped improve the overall water quality," said Dustin Johnson, the DEP's Western Basin Coordinator. "We also worked with TU to put in some [trout] habitat-enhancing structures on tributaries that already had good water quality."
Those improvements didn't escape the attention of DNR officials, who in short order began stocking the stream with trout from Mossy downstream to the Turnpike Travel Plaza at Standard. In 2001, the state Natural Resources Commission established a Catch-and-Release Trout Fishing Area in a 2-mile segment between Milburn Creek and Skitter Creek.
Paint Creek's status as fishing destination had taken a turn for the better, but its fish habitat remained poor until a DEP program for surface-mine mitigation brought much-needed changes.
"Under this program, when coal companies destroy a length of stream [with mining activity], they're required to mitigate those losses by paying to improve one and a half times that length of stream elsewhere," Johnson explained. "We earmarked Paint Creek for some of that mitigation. We placed the first structures in 2007, and the project is ongoing."
The boulder-based structures generally take one of four basic forms -- cross veins, essentially U-shaped mini-dams that concentrate the stream's flow in the center and scour out deep pools; j-hooks, which create small pools and prevent swift currents from eroding stream banks; wing dams, which create fish-holding eddies; and riprap, which prevents banks from being undercut.
"There are three main sections of stream being worked on, each 2 miles in length," Siemiaczko said. "The work is scheduled for completion sometime in 2013."
Reed said the project's goal is to break up Paint Creek's long stretches of flat, structure-poor water into the riffle-pool, riffle-pool habitat found on high-quality trout streams.
"When you establish riffle-pool structure, you create hiding places for fish and you flush out the silt and sand that smothers aquatic insects," he explained. "At the very least, we're creating habitat that will allow trout, smallmouth bass, rock bass and baitfish to live in the creek."
Siemiaczko hopes the improvements eventually create a reproducing, self-sustaining trout population in Paint Creek. Reed and Johnson aren't sure that's possible, but they're quite certain the fishing will improve.
"We're creating the building blocks necessary for a good-quality fishery," Johnson said. "And the word is getting out. People are coming here to fish now."
The stream's proximity to Charleston and its easy access via the Turnpike have given it a ready-made constituency of eager anglers. In April and May, it's not unusual to see dozens of people fishing the stream.
Siemiaczko said he could remember a time when he had to drive two hours to go fishing for trout.
"Now I have trout fishing practically in my backyard," he said.
Reach John McCoy at johnmc...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1231
