Hold on tight for a bit of reverse engineering:
The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP) is a collaboration between Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, the Ulster County Soil & Water Conservation District, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
All of the AWSMP’s stream management activities are undertaken in coordination with a local Stakeholder Council. The Stakeholder Council uses recommendations from Stream Management Plans to guide their decision making. Management plans contain a comprehensive review of stream characteristics, data, maps, and recommended management strategies.
The large amount of data and observations required to write a management plan for a stream come from a Stream Feature Inventory (SFI). This is where the rubber meets the road, or, where the wading boots meet the stream bed.
During a SFI, AWSMP staff from the Ulster County Soil & Water Conservation District walk a stream from top to bottom, collecting data on eroding stream banks, logjams, and infrastructure. These data are then analyzed and ultimately used to write a stream management plan.
Join AWSMP Stream Educator Tim Koch as he joins the assessment crew on a SFI of the Elk Bushkill Creek in the Town of Shandaken. This SFI is part of a larger effort by AWSMP to assess multiple headwater tributaries of the Esopus Creek, including McKinley Hollow Creek and Little Peck Hollow Creek. These tributaries may be contributing excessive sediment loads to the upper Esopus Creek in the Oliverea valley. Excess sediment supply leads to aggradation, or sediment “filling in” the stream, which can subsequently trigger bank erosion and raise flood elevations. SFI’s of the Esopus Creek headwaters may help to locate and prioritize restoration project sites aimed at reducing the sediment supply reaching the valley.
Stay tuned in the coming months for a SFI report on the Esopus Creek Headwaters and for a new stream management plan for the Little Beaver Kill in the Town of Woodstock.