Urban Stream Restoration

As you may remember, I spent a lot of time in my undergrad studies working to restore an urban stream near Richmond, VA. The construction date got pushed back three or four times, but I was recently in town and stopped by my alma mater and was informed that, not only had construction begun, but it was almost done! Amazing how quick it progresses.

I'll post a few pictures, but it's hard to really get an idea of the magnitude of change without having first visited the site. To give a hint though, this is a headwater stream and the banks were easily 7-8ft tall in places. If anyone is ever in Richmond, stop by an I'll give you a tour!

And then some pictures of the newly-restored sections!!

From highly degraded to nearly pristine-Levisa Fork and Smith River

I helped out some labmates Thursday through Sunday last week and had the opportunity to work in drastically different systems that both contain state Endangered species. The Levisa fork is located in Buchanan County Virginia. The river is impacted by coal mining and sewage and has channelized to reduce flooding and to accommodate a railroad and 460 that parallel it on opposite sides. I've attached a picture of the state Endangered variegate darter (Etheostoma variatum), a fish that Jane Argentina studies and coal processing plant right on the river.

Saturday and Sunday I had the opportunity to help Jamie Roberts survey the Smith River above Philpott dam in search of the Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), a state and Federal Endangered species. We only found four but it was great to work in such a nice stream. The river itself is in the Blue ridge physiographic province, and has medium gradient with a mixture of bedrock, cobble, and sand substrate.

Fishes of the New River - Striped Bass and Madtom

Sorry for the delay!




Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) can be found where the New River has been dammed near Radford(Claytor Lake). Claytor Lake is periodically stocked with striped bass, which tend to travel upstream. Striped bass live in schools and prefer large freshwater resevoirs and lakes, and as a result, have been stocked in nearly all of Virginia's resevoirs.

Margined Madtom (Noturus insignis) is native to the New River Drainage Area, but has also been introduced to the various other rivers in Virginia including the Potomac, James, and York. It looks like a small catfish, with a long body and large eye. It prefers mild to moderate sloping creeks and larger rivers.




From:www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/

-Garrett

The Kanawha darter and Kanawha minnow: Fishes of the New River

The Kanawha darter (Etheostoma kanawhae) is a New River drainage native species (and endemic to the New River Basin) and is currently listed as lower risk and near threatened under the IUCN Red List (picture above). It is a warm water species and prefers fast currents of riffles and runs in clear, small to medium rivers and streams.



Another endemic and native species to the New River drainage is the Kanawha minnow (Phenacobius teretulus)(Second photo). It too is a warm water species that prefers fast riffles and runs in clear, small to medium rivers and streams. The Kanawha minor prefers habitats consisting of gravel and rubble rather than those of sand, silt or larger substrates. It tends to occur (in the water column) on or near the river bottom of these faster currents. It is currently listed as vulnerable under the IUCN red list.

Images from arkive.org (Noel Burkhead, USGS and Angela Burns)

Fishes of the New R. - muskellunge and largemouth bass

Although perhaps a boring pick (at least if you're into non-game species) I wanted to post the largemouth bass, because it isn't typically found in many areas of a river like the New. Also, muskies are just awesome and I like this picture a lot!

Largemouth bass are habitat generalists, but usually do not tolerate current. They are most often found in lakes and slow moving sections of river, especially near aquatic vegetation. Even though swift current existed at our sampling site, the large amounts of submergent aquatic vegetation (elodea?) favors largemouth. The sampling site is less than 1/2 mile upstream from a large slow section, which is probably home to the source population for the bass shocked in our sampling site.

Muskies in the New River generally are found in stretches with a variety of depths, and large complexity of habitat patches such as vegetation, susbstrate type, and flow velocity (Brenden 2005). In general, muskies locations are positively correlated with submergent aquatic vegetation, though these relationships are usually in lakes. The New River may have sufficient habitat suitable to ambush-predation that association with vegetation is unnecessary (Brenden 2005). Water temperature and flow velocity may play a part in seasonal habitat selection, though with the present low flow and ideal water temperatures that may not have any bearing on depth selection on the day we sampled. As ambush feeders muskies will often select habitat near their preferred prey (castomids and large, soft-rayed fishes in general) once they reach >30 inches in length. As such they are often found in deeper sections of river, especially during low flows, warm weather, and during the day. As apex predators, however, they pretty much go where they please when they are on the prowl for food.

Fishes of the New: Northern Hogsucker and Roanoke Darter

This is a Northern Hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans). It is a habitat generalist, but is very intolerant of pollution and siltation. It uses a specialized snout to stir up the bottom to feed on invertebrates, mollusks, and algae. Its spawning habitat is over gravel in pools and riffles.













This is a Roanoke Darter (Percina roanoka)...not the best specimen (they can be very pretty).  It is introduced into the New River.  It is a native of the Roanoke river drainage.  Although, not native it thrives in the New. It prefers clear streams with gravel, cobble, and boulder riffles and runs.  It feeds on insect larvae in these areas.

This is the Appalachian darter Percina gymnocephala (right), one of the three endemic darters of the New River drainage and the only endemic Percina. They were only recently described by Beckham 1980 and relatively little is known about these guys. I've collected them in the Blue Ridge province usually in riffles and have never collected them in the Ridge and Valley or Appalachian Plateau. Underwater they can be seen perching on the bottom with intermittent bouts of swimming in the water column especially if I stir up sediments containing their food, macroinvertebrates. Like all Percina, they probably spawn by depositing their eggs into the substrate. This one was collected about a year ago in Chestnut Creek near Galax, Virginia.

This is a picture taken of the rainbow darter Etheostoma caeruleum using a v-shaped contraption for viewing fish. There are some questions as to if this fish is native to the New or not. It was suspected as native but has undergone a population explosion in recent years particularly in the northern parts of the drainage; however, I've collected it as far south as Dismal Creek, a tributary of Walker creek, a system in the middle of the NRD. Like a lot of darters, it is a riffle dwelling, benthic invertevore, that can be found over rock substrate and deposits eggs into the substrate.