20021259 Ver 1_Staff Notes_20080410

20021259
Notes from field visits 4/10/08
Eric Kulz, Tammy Hill and Larry Eaton visited 3 stream restoration sites on 10 April
2008. All sites had problems with beavers.
The first was the Deep Creek site in Yadkin County. At many places it was easy to
forget that we were looking at a restored stream. The first site we stopped at was the
main channel below the last structure upstream from the culvert. I have never seen so
many stoneflies in a stream restoration before. It made me happy. The stoneflies were
all winter, but indicative of decent to good water quality. They were: Isoperla (probably
namata), nemourids (probably Amphinemura, and a Clioperla cho. Also collected were
caddisflies: Diplectona (hydropsychid), Ironoquia and the stone cased Neophylax, also
intolerant taxa. Multiple species of mayflies were also found: Hepatageiid (Stenonema),
two-tailed baetids (possibly Acentrella) and Amyletus. Also collected were riffle beetles
and a water penny.
Slightly further downstream, in a slower flowing glide, we found stoneflies (Isoperla), a
damselfly (Argia) and several mayflies (Stenonema, Caenis, Eurylophella and multiple
baetids). Moving upstream, the riffles became less pronounced and the beavers more
prevalent (they seem to like to build dams on top of riffle areas). A sample in the
tributary yielded Isoperla and nemourid stoneflies and a dragonfly. Moving over to the
main reach upstream, at another beaver-modified riffle, we found the mayfly Ameletus,
the caddis Ironoquia, a dragonfly, mosquito fish and lots of midges.
One section of the wetland restoration consisted of a significant piece of open water,
dubbed "Ortosky Pond".
The afternoon sites were at the Berger bank (Second and Homestead Creeks), which
looked much like they have in previous years. The upper part of Second Creek was
flowing well. We found the mayflies Stenonema and Eurylophella, the clam Corbicula,
midges, crayfish and Gambusia. Further downstream, flow was slowed and we found
damselflies, a right handed snail (Helisoma anceps), midges and more Gambusia. The
middle section was characterized by oversized pools at the bends connected by Juncus
and Typha choked areas which should have been riffles. Leptophlebid mayflies were
found at several stops. Just below the big tree, all that was caught was one mayfly
(Leptophlebia), cladocerans (indicative of slow water), amphipods and isopods. Several
more sites below the tree yielded only amphipods, isopods and beetle larvae, suggesting
that water has stopped flowing in at least the lower half of the project.
Homestead Creek was not 35 degrees, raining and having a bankfull event for this visit.
Water was visibly flowing in riffles, if one looked carefully. Bugs at a half dozen sites at
the top half of the project were unimpressive. While the first site, near the top of the
project, had a small crayfish, a bivalve (Sphaerium), two of the most tolerant mayflies
(Caenis), amphipods, isopods, dytiscid beetles, midges and a left handed snail (Physella)
(barely perennial and probably little flow for most of the year), and the second site added
a green sunfish (probably washed in from the upstream pond) to the crayfish, snail,
amphipod and isopod, the rest of the sites looked much like intermittent pools we have
seen elsewhere (amphipods, isopods, dytiscid beetles, in all, plus one each of mosquito
fish, clam (Sphaerium), fresh hatched salamander, and Caenis (mayfly).