North shore of Chadakoin River basin with recent bank stabilization work
A riverbank stabilization project on the Chadakoin River in downtown Jamestown is making progress.
The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District have been working together on the project on the section just below the National Comedy Center and then another section below the Warner Dam for the last several months.
CWC Conservation Director Twan Leenders said the north shore might look a little stark to pedestrians right now, “Because we ended up removing all of the trees there. Every single one of the trees growing there was dead or dying, or was some non-native invasive species that was actually doing damage to the bank. We had a lot of Black Locust trees growing there which have really strong wood and grow in places where nothing else grows and it’s a native species to the United State but not necessarily to here.”
Leenders said due to water currents, the bank was undercut by almost three feet in some areas.
He said pickerel weed had been planted a few years ago in the river by the shore to create a fish habitat and vegetative barrier to reduce wave action against the shore, “The first thing we did was have our backhoe operators carefully scoop all these plants out of the water and we staged them on the bank and we just put them back again. So, we’re hoping those will grow back right away. But, when you go down there right now it’s a mucky mess. We ended up having to escavate some of the bank, stacking rocks so that the area where the water level touches the bank is now armored with rocks and now backfilling it all. So, in a way it’s been good that it’s been raining so much so everything is settling in really nicely right now.”
Leenders said the area will be hydroseeded with native grasses and then planted with native plants and trees when temperatures warm up.
He said they’re also hoping to install a living shoreline on the south shore below the former Jimmy’s restaurant.
Temperatives?!?