Projects

Over the years this TU chapter has built many stream improvement devices on several local streams.

Havice Creek is one of those three tributaries that join underground to form Honey Creek. This stream begins in a mountain valley, flows into Big Valley, where numerous limestone springs add to its' volume, and disappears into a sink hole about three miles after emerging from the trees. Havice Creek is a nice little trout stream. We think this TU chapter has made it a little bit nicer.

A few hundred yards before Havice Creek disappears into that sink hole, it crosses over the Corey Peachey property. A state road runs thru this property and where road meets stream there is the bridge. This is not the same bridge that once stood there. Hurricane Agnes damaged that one beyond repair. Agnes brought a lot of loose timber out of that mountain valley, by way of Havice Creek, and deposited it against the bridge. An unauthorized dam formed at the bridge. A lake was formed. Much valuable property was flooded. Much of the roadbed thru this property was eroded and otherwise damaged. To prevent this from happening again when the next Agnes strikes a new, bigger, stronger, wider, better bridge replaced the old one. And that's not all. In the wisdom of the times it was decided that the hundred yards or so of Havice Creek above this bridge should be bulldozed into a timber chute. That way all of that loose timber will just go shooting right under the new bridge. So this little piece of Havice Creek was channelized.

What is missing in the picture at left? The answer--meanders. This section of Havice Creek was turned into a shallow drainage ditch. This does not make for good fish habitat. TU to the rescue. The Fish Commission was contacted, funds were raised by the chapter and from Embrace-a-stream grants, plans were made, and stones, planks, and telephone poles were laboriously shoved, dropped, plopped, bored, and hammered into place. Two jackdams and various deflectors and flow restrictors remade this drainage ditch into a happy home for fish. They are in there too. Havice Creek would be a destination stream almost anywhere else. Here it is mostly overlooked, what with Penns Creek over the mountain, and Spring Creek over the same mountain in another direction, and Honey Creek a few miles away in the other direction. Havice Creek is just something to get past to get to Penns Creek.

Upstream is another of our projects. This one is located in the mountain valley Havice Creek flows thru. Here the stream flows low and clear. It is native brook trout water. What a tangle of trees this water must have once been. The tangle of trees is now mostly gone and with it went much fish habitat. A fallen tree in any stream, especially a small mountain stream, is like a magnet in drawing fish. It is a place for fish to live and hide from predators. As you can see in the lower center of the picture at right there is a tangle of trees forming over the stream. We didn't put it there. It just started building up. Beneath the trees is a jackdam. We did put that there. In a place like this nature seems to have its' own plans about these things.

The project on the lower end of the west branch of Kish Creek is truly a joint effort. The Fish commission planned it and supervised the construction. Members of the Tuscorora I U Adult Education Program built it. This TU chapter and the National Rifle Association funded it. Here the west branch intersects with Route 322. This stretch of water is broad and shallow. It was bulldozed to be that way when the bridge above was built. It wasn't even decent habitat for crayfish. To help to rectify this situation a series of deflectors were installed along both sides of the stream. They seem to be working. These days rise forms can be seen along the downstream sides of many of the deflectors. A plaque was placed beneath the bridge stating that this project is part of the Fish Commission's Adopt-A-Stream program. Would someone please adopt this stream. The west branch needs all of the help it can get.

Honey Creek is actually two streams. There is the one that emerges from the cave and there is the one that disappears into a sink hole. The second one is another freestone mountain stream. In the summer of 1999 a chapter project will be started at the freestone end of Honey Creek in Reeds Gap State Park. There are already several stream improvement devices installed at this state park. This was done by the Youth Conservation Corps. We will be adding some more. And what is missing in the picture at right? The answer--fallen trees. The fish have some habitat here. They could have much more. We will be working to see that they do, or should I say that the Indian Valley High School Conservation Club will working to see that they do. As always the Fish commission will be doing the planning and the supervising. The Conservation Club will be doing the building. We will be doing the funding. This chapter of weezers and geezers just can't do the heavy work anymore.