CAVENDISH, Vt. – On March 25, the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association (CCCA), with the support of the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library, hosted a presentation on strategic wood addition with Jud Kratzer, a fisheries biologist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife.
Strategic wood addition addresses the issues that can arise when a stream has a deficiency of woody material habitat. This wood addition is performed in a stream where it is likely to stay and have a lasting, beneficial impact. The felled trees added to the stream are selected and positioned to maximize benefit and stability.
Kratzer explained that large woody material has been a natural and important component of stream habitats in the Northeastern United States. Mature forests naturally contribute this material when trees fall into streams. “Two of the best things we can do for streams is to protect and restore streamside forests, and to leave downed trees where they lie.” Strategic wood addition is a method for helping to restore streams where the forests have declined along their banks.
“In this age of increasing flood frequency and severity, restoring large wood loading to upland streams can benefit not only the aquatic organisms in the stream, but also humans living downstream. Large wood can improve floodplain connection in upstream, undeveloped areas, thereby potentially reduce flood impacts downstream through flood flow storage and sediment retention. It can also help to reduce nutrient loading downstream,” according to the Strategic Wood Addition Handbook.
Strategic wood addition has also been effective in increasing fish populations. In one six-year study of a watershed, the brook trout population tripled on average where large wood was added using these techniques. This study also showed that strategic wood addition not only increased brook trout in the areas of improvement, but also increased brook trout in the stream as a whole.
Kratzer also addressed what Vermont’s streams and rivers looked like before European settlement, and how ongoing developments impacted them. For more information, you can find the Strategic Wood Addition Handbook online at www.anr.vermont.gov/content/vermont-strategic-wood-addition-handbook.
You can reach Kratzer with your questions at Jud.Kratzer@vermont.gov.