It is a frigid morning in the mountains. We are bundled up but still cold. NCSU has partnered with Black Mountain Parks and Rec Dept to host today's workshop. There is no better place to work on streambed restoration than this area which still has many issues in the wake of TS Helene (Sept 2024). After a short van ride into a neighborhood, we set up on a residential road. All materials needed were already in place.
Our task today is to restore a streambank behind a residence. So we were working on private property. Once of the issues here, is much of the work needed on small streams is on privately owned land. Permission is needed and not always given. So we needed to be careful to stay and work only were we were permitted.
Our instructor is holding a small branch of a shrub we will be live staking into the stream bank. We had about a half dozen different species of shrubs and trees which do well in wet areas and are native to the area. Although, it's possible to cut your own live stakes from living shrubs and trees, we were using purchased stakes. They were about 18" long and in various thicknesses depending on species.
The stream we were working in had eroded to a 2 foot vertical downcut (like a 2' waterfall). The ground cloth we are using is a mat of coconut fibers. In areas where the bank has been undercut, we used a length of matting rolled up with mulch inside, like a taco. The taco was shoved into the undercut and then staked in with giant pencil shaped stakes. Then sides of the stream were covered in mulch , sprinkled with various grass seeds and covered in matting, staked in place. Then we took the live stakes and pushed them into the mat and soil. See the skinny live stakes in the matting above. The live stakes develop root hairs quickly in water, so just have to be sure to put them in right side up.
We used different species of live stakes including rather thick stakes on Black willow here.
One of the Black Mountain employees gave a wonderful commentary on the benefits of River cane. They almost always look unsightly and dying but are very beneficial. They spread via rhizomes which create a more stable floodplain. The cane also acts like a water buffer, slowing flow, lessening erosion. Since it is similar to an invasive European variety of Phragmites, it is overlooked. We were told that when federal funding is involved, River cane is not on a list of species that funding can be used for. Thus, nurseries often don't propagate it.
As we finished our project here. participants were invited to take some of the leftover material to practice with. We were able to grab a few live stakes and seed for a project at Caraway Creek Preserve.
