Teamwork on Halfmoon Creek

August 16, 2022 Renee Carey

The second week of August the stream partnership worked on a project on Halfmoon Creek in Centre County.

The Centre County Conservation District is working with the landowner on some management changes.

Once completed this project will have new cattle exclusion fencing and a stream crossing to protect the newly stabilized streambank from erosion.

The District is using funding partially from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). When DEP’s watershed manager was reviewing the project on site with the District, he asked if the landowner had been approached about log and rock structures to stabilize the eroding streambanks.

The project has a lot of partners and a lot of moving parts. In early July we all met on site to review everyone’s timeline and discuss how to coordinate and what needed to shift around.

One thing led to another and the stream partnership worked on the streambanks while the fencing crew worked on the new pasture fencing and getting the livestock out of the stream.

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission oversaw construction and were in the stream building the structures. Sara helped out for one of the days they were working.

In these photos you can see the difference before and after log vanes and log framed deflectors were installed. In this before photo, notice the height of the streambank. You can also see the cutbank, or the dirt, with the grass on top.

In this after photo the left side of the photos is graded and ready for seeing and mulching. The right side still needs some backfill and graded. Now during higher flows, the water will be able to rise up and flow out of the stream channel instead of washing away soil and eroding into a deeper canyon.

Chesapeake Conservancy is also involved in getting various Best Management Practices installed that will reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients entering the stream.

ClearWater Conservancy is using grant funding they have to plant a riparian buffer in the areas the livestock will no longer have access to the stream. By installing the log and rock structures first we’ve stabilized the streambanks with trees adding to that stabilization as their roots grown and help hold the soil.