Field Notes Friday: Woody debris in streams

This week Jason Berard, VP of Stewardship, visited our Up on the Hill Conservation Area and found a local brook that had a decent amount of woody debris in certain areas. Jason explains how having woody debris in brooks, streams, and rivers creates important habitat for aquatic species like fish who can depend on the debris for shelter, spawning, nurseries and foraging. Woody debris/ material also improves water quality, stabilizes banks and beds, and can alter the water flow to create scour pools like the one Jason found. The increase in physical habitat variety increases the diversity of plants and animals that can populate the river or stream.
Being able to conserve important stream habitat like this is one of the many reasons we are very thankful to Harvey and Chris Hill for donating this land to us and for helping us conserve all of the wonderful habitats it contains.