Onion River Restoration Project (Part 2)

Earthology staff got wet and dirty again during efforts to restore the Onion River headwaters in Wisconsin. The local Trout Unlimited chapter (Lakeshore) had stockpiled old Christmas trees to use for bank stabilization. Last weekend, volunteers repaired a section where the stream had back-cut a previous stabilization effort and was eroding the stream bank. The goal was to use the existing coconut fiber logs and ash tree trunks as a framework, then compact the Christmas trees into the nooks and crannies.  This will slow down the water velocity and allow the sediment to be trapped in the Christmas trees thereby creating a new stable stream bank.

Figure 1. Onion River headwaters where stream flow cut into a previous stabilization site (far side of channel).

Figure 2.  Same section of the Onion River headwaters after placement of Christmas trees (far side of channel).  The near side of the channel was also seeded (and matted) with prairie grass for stabilization of sediments.