USGS Multimedia Gallery: (Video)--Bioengineering techniques create natural-looking and functioning streams in urban headwater channels, Villa Man Creek, Wisconsin freeway reconstruction project

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Faith: Karla, could you tell us a

little bit about the bioengineering

techniques that have been used on this
site?

Karla: Absolutely. One of the goals

we've had from the very beginning with

our first stream relocation is we

wanted to make them look as natural as

they would in nature and yet stabilize

them because they're new and because

they're not vegetated yet. So what we

did in our first relocation is we were

already into construction, and we

realized later on during construction

that we needed more stream bank

stabilization. And the contractor came

up with the idea that he was going to

bring in a lot of really heavy riprap,

so that was not only gonna be

expensive, but that really wasn't the

look that we were going for. And I

remembered years ago we had started to
use biologs.

So we decided to bring them in, and we

used them on our first project to start

stabilizing stream banks, and that's

turned out to be one of our greatest

tools. And we use them and they work

great. What happens is over time they

start to vegetate and they stay in

place and they do provide the stability

that we're looking for. In addition to

that we use this natural, it's like

coconut weed fiber matting, and there's

two reasons we really like that. It's

natural. It doesn't have netting, and

for little critters like little

amphibians or even with any kind of

snakes or birds they don't get tangled

in that like they do with some of the

plastic. So when you're in a more

sensitive natural area, we always use this netting.

It has a lot more give, so they don't

get caught in there, and also, what you

can do is you can see here we use a lot

of rootstock plantings, and a lot of

our stream bed and along the channel

and sometimes a little further up,

depending on the degree of inundation

on the channel. But, what we do is we

cut holes in this matting and we put

the rootstock in there, and what

happens then is when the rootstock

starts to expand, the matting gives. So

it isn't like some of the other tighter

mattings where it will actually

constrict the rootstock so it can't

just start to expand like we want it

to. And in addition to that we have

what we call our rootstock protection.

We learned the hard way I think on one

project that I replanted twice because

we had planted the rootstock and then

the geese showed up. And what they do

is pull it out, they eat the little

tubers, and all of a sudden the

rootstock was all floating in the

water. So we planted it again. The next

time we went back, floating in the

water, so we decided we were gonna have

to figure something out to keep the

geese from eating the rootstock before

it gets rooted and established.

So I had gone to a workshop years ago,

and they had talked about potential

staking, and this is actually another

item that DOT uses on any project where

we have rootstock. And you have this

basing at the stakes, and what's

critical to these is that not only that

the stakes we set out where the geese

can't reach in and grab the rootstock.

But you also have it on the backside so

that once the silk fencing would be

down they can't also grab it from the

other end. And you need these three

layers of twine. The reason you really

need that is so that goslings can't go

under. The goslings go under, the

parents follow, and then you also need

the additional two heights.

So like I said what we always try to do

is incorporate as many natural biotech

products as we can, and to keep it more

natural and very critter friendly,

which is one of my top priorities on
any projects so.

Faith: How does the maintenance work

for projects like this, too? Do you

have to come back so often and check

things? Like, everything is in place

now. Does somebody watch it and make

sure that things stay in place?

Karla: Well, we get wetland mitigation

credits, and anytime we have wetland

mitigation credits, we have to come out

and monitor any of our wetlands. So we

do that for a period of five years, so

long after the contractor and

everybody's gone, I'm still out here

every year doing vegetative monitoring,

doing maintenance or management of

invasive species, and just checking on

how everything is going.

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