Operator Denis Strong maneuvered his large track hoe to gently place a two-ton limestone boulder onto the end of a deflector that he was building in the stream. The tapered line of block-like stones grew out into the channel as he skillfully added rock after rock. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hydrologist Larry Brannaka directed Strong as three Penn State student interns looked on.
As soon as the last boulder was placed, the interns added a layer of black geotextile material and chinked the cracks between the boulders with smaller stones. When Brannaka was satisfied with their work, Strong used his track hoe to create a “ramp” of soil and stream rubble behind the rock vane.
Wallace Run, the recipient of this habitat work, has a split personality. It begins as a trickle on the Allegheny Front in State Game Lands 103. Flowing mainly northwest for about eight miles, it gathers water from various small tributaries to become a Class A Wild Trout Stream. Its upper watershed is nearly 100 percent forested, and it would be hard to find a more pristine trout stream in Centre County. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission lists this section of Wallace Run in its Wilderness Trout Stream program.
At Gum Stump, the stream turns, flowing southeast along Route 144 for four miles. Here, Wallace Run changes character as it suffers the consequences of human influence. Businesses, houses and a baseball field are built near the stream, and there is also some agriculture. A vegetated riparian zone is absent or limited in most areas. The stream channel is wider, too, and shows evidence of past dredging in many areas. Wallace Run flows through Runville and on to Wingate, where it joins Bald Eagle Creek.
While this split personality has been the status quo for many years, efforts are underway to improve the lower four miles of Wallace Run and end its aquatic schizophrenia. Good people, such as those volunteers in the Bald Eagle Valley Watershed Association, Centre County Conservation District Watershed specialist Ann Donovan, and USFWS hydrologist Brannaka, are making a difference.
In 2008, a Wallace Run stream assessment was funded by the Coldwater Heritage Partnership and conducted in conjunction with the Bald Eagle Watershed Association and the Centre County Conservation District. According to the assessment, “Because the riparian buffer zone has been removed, severe bank erosion is common in this (lower) section.” Trout habitat is also lacking and the stream no longer qualifies as a Class A fishery. Again, quoting from the assessment report regarding the lower reaches, “Long straight sections of Wallace Run are too wide, lack pool habitat, and are therefore poor quality habitat for larger size trout.”
The recommendations of the report for the lower four miles of Wallace Run include improving habitat for trout, stabilizing the stream banks, establishing a 50-foot-wide vegetated riparian buffer, enforcing best management practices within the watershed and enhancing communication with SEDA-COG and Penn DOT about ditch and culvert cleaning.
According to Donovan during the winter of 2008, an initial habitat project was conducted on property of Gary and Dolly Brown. While this PA Department of Environmental Protection project was done primarily to protect the Brown’s house and garage, the project was planned using Natural Stream Design techniques. These techniques are devised to work with the forces of nature, rather than trying to fight them, so trout also benefited. Restoration included tapering eroding banks to create a new floodplain and adding rock vanes and cross vanes to stabilize the stream channel and create fish habitat.
The streamside area was planted and jute matting used to cover erodible soils until the herbaceous vegetation could establish itself. The Browns also planted many trees along the stream to provide shade and further stabilize the stream banks.
Although some of the trees died during last year’s dry summer, many are growing, and today the riparian zone is covered with waist-high grasses and wildflowers. The rock vanes are trapping sediment and the cross vanes have already encouraged the water to begin to dig trout-holding pools.
A second habitat project
Work is currently progressing on a second Wallace Run project, just upstream from the first one. This project, a partnership among the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Centre County Conservation District and the Bald Eagle Watershed Association, will improve 1,000 feet of stream by adding ten rock vanes and three log vanes on the properties of Ray Lucas, Mike Davidson and Dick Davidson.
“The project has four purposes,” Brannaka said, “first, to stabilize the stream; second, to prevent erosion and retain sediment; third, to improve fish habitat; and lastly, to help protect a natural gas pipeline that feeds Bellefonte and State College.”
The first rock vane had already been finished when I visited the project early last week, and the second vane was under construction. Donovan and Brannaka pointed out areas where steep eroding banks had already been tapered and a bankfull bench had been created to handle the flood water by slowing its velocity.
According to Donovan, this habitat project was made possible through multiple funding sources and donated materials. Major funding for the project has been provided by the Department of Economic and Community Development through state senator Jake Corman and a Growing Greener II County Environmental Initiative grant through the Centre County Commissioners to the Centre County Conservation District. Additional funding was provided by NiSource, Inc., through the Bald Eagle Watershed Association, a Dominion grant administered by the Western PA Conservancy, as well as a National Fish and Wildlife grant through the Wildlife for Everyone Foundation.
Jeff Confer, of Con-Stone, Inc., generously donated all of the rocks for the project and two loads of gravel. Martin Melville, of Melville Forestry Services, provided all of the hemlock logs, and Lucas donated the fill. The Centre County Conservation District acquired trees and in-kind services were provided by the USFWS and CCCD.
Other good things are happening in the 24-square-mile Wallace Run watershed. The Center for Watershed Stewardship at Penn State, under the direction of Lysle Sherwin, has adopted Bald Eagle Creek for the latest Keystone Project. His students conducted a door-to-door outreach effort in the Wallace Run watershed to educate people about the importance of buffers. Members of the Centre County Pa Senior Environmental Corps are setting up regular stream monitoring. According to Donovan, one station will be in the game lands and a second station will be located at the Lucas/Davidson project site.
This year’s habitat project should be completed by mid-July. The partnership is looking for additional Wallace Run properties in need of habitat work. For more information, contact Donovan at the CCCD at 355-6817, or e-mail her at amdonova@co.centre.pa.us. Mark Nale, who lives in the Bald Eagle Valley, is a member of the PA Outdoor Writers Association. He can be reached at MarkAngler@aol.com.
In Print
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