Willow Staking along Wildcat Creek

As we learn more about how streams are connected to the surrounding world, there is a growing desire to restore damaged streams. One of the tools for this restoration is planting willows.

 

Willows create important stream side habitat for both terrestrial and aquatic life. Pools of deep, cool water gather under the shade of a willow’s dense canopy. Insects feeding on or in the willows may drop to the water and feed a waiting fish. When the snows of winter melt and become the floods of spring, willows protect the stream bank from the erosive power of the flooding water. Their roots and branches both armor the stream bank and slow the floods velocity. Without populations of willows the banks of these creeks are washed downstream leaving a bare bank. These bare banks are also known as cutbanks.

John Muir Trout Unlimited is committed to restoring Wildcat Creek. Some of our projects include; removing plastic pollution washed down from winter rains, planting willows, building a new fish ladder in the lower creek, and creating a water quality monitoring program to better understand the aquatic habitat for fish.