ALUM CREEK — After restoring habitat to more than 20 miles of the Little Coal River in recent years, the West Virginia Conservation Agency, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Coal River Group are now targeting the main stem of the Coal River for similar work.
Work is expected to begin in late summer or early fall on a 2-mile stretch of the Coal extending from the Forks of Coal, where the waters of the Big Coal and Little Coal rivers merge, to Alum Creek Lions Club Park.
By the time construction ends in spring of 2023, more than 100 bank-stabilizing and sediment-flushing structures made from two- to four-ton boulders and toppled or uprooted trees will have been installed at predetermined points along and in the river segment.
“The goal is to make this section of the Coal wild and wonderful again,” John Nelson, a West Virginia Conservation Agency watershed specialist, told those attending a public meeting on the project in Alum Creek on Thursday. Nelson and colleague Ross Tuckwiller, a watershed technical design specialist with the agency, will oversee work on the project.
Slide-prone riverbanks and heavy siltation, which clogs stream channels and causes rivers to widen and run shallow, have degraded aquatic habitat in the main stem of the Coal over the years. Stream structures that have proven their worth in markedly improving stream habitat in the Little Coal following years of restoration work by the two state agencies and the Coal River Group will be employed in the new project.
Nelson said plans call for installing cross-vane structures made with boulders left over from Little Coal restoration work. The cross-vanes channel silt to midstream, where it will eventually be flushed downriver, deepening the channel and exposing riverbottom cobble rocks that provide habitat for aquatic insects — a prime food source for fish. Cross-vanes also decrease stress on riverbanks and increase in-stream oxygen levels.
To stabilize riverbanks, toe wood structures made of toppled trees and tree sections from the project will be secured to slip-prone shorelines below the water surface and topped with sod mats and young tree plantings.
A variety of other structures built of boulders, logs or a combination of both will be installed as prescribed by habitat specialists.
Nelson said a drone was used to scan riverbanks in the project area with pulsed laser beams to create a detailed, three-dimensional map used to chart the placement of stabilization structures. An echo-sounding bathymetric scanner attached to a boat floated the 2-mile section of the Coal to provide detailed images of the riverbottom to learn, among other things, sites best suited for fish to feed, shelter and breed.
In coming weeks, permission will be sought from property owners along the river segment to allow contractors to access work sites and stage heavy equipment and material.
Money for the project comes from a state-managed stream restoration fund consisting of fines collected from pollution violations.
CLICK HERE to follow the Charleston Gazette-Mail and receive