Sunday, December 26, 2010

Roaring Creek WV and Kettle Creek PA

Roaring Creek
A few years ago, I was watching TU TV and there was a very interesting story about the Kettle Creek Watershed area.  They were discussing a passive restoration system being used to combat acid mine drainage problems in the watershed.  The work was being done on Middle Branch, a tributary of Twomile Run in northwestern Clinton County, PA.  The Kettle Creek watershed and the Roaring Creek watershed in Randolph County, WV are very similar.  They were both reasonably healthy in the headwaters and had a population of brook trout present.  Both watersheds were ravaged by abandoned mine drainage in the lower sections.
I just received the Winter issue of TROUT, the quarterly publication of Trout Unlimited. I am happy to report that after 13 years of work from dedicated volunteers that brook trout have returned the Middle Branch.  Brook Trout are once again naturally reproducing in the stream and benthic populations have increased.
Two years of preliminary data collection has been done on the Roaring Creek watershed.  The paperwork is done and now we can all hope that Roaring Creek can mirror the success of Pennsylvania's Kettle Creek.

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