May 2019 - This summer PLC and the NH Fish and Game Department will be working to improve fish habitat in Scataquog Brook at our Proctor Preserve in Lyndeborough. The stream restoration project will involve felling a small number of trees away from the stream, and then carefully and strategically placing them, either whole or cut into specific lengths, into the stream. The practice has been used for about twenty years in New Hampshire, first in the White Mountain National Forest.

Downed wood in streams is natural (trees fall, including into streams) and provides essential functions such as retaining sediment and nutrients, creating habitat for aquatic insects and fish (and even wood turtles!) and forming the deep pools that are favored by brook trout. Intentionally placing wood into streams mimics and speeds up this natural process. Based on scientific studies in the eastern U.S., we know that streams that flow through forests that have never been cut have a lot of wood in them. We will aim to get the stretch of Scataquog Brook flowing through the Proctor Preserve to about 75% of what would be naturally-occurring. If you’d like to volunteer to help with this summer’s project, contact john.magee@wildlife.nh.gov.