Hog Lot Branch & Bates Branch
Stream Restoration Project

 

Bates Branch post-restoration with instream structures to stabilize streambanks and new riparian buffer.

Hog lot Branch & Bates Branch

Tributary of Little Tennessee
Macon County, Franklin, NC
Status: Complete
Stream Restored: ~1,250 feet

Partners:

Resource Concern/Issues:

Hog Lot Branch and Bates Branch are headwater streams that suffered from critical erosion and incised streambanks. The streambanks were steep, severely eroded, and unstable. Both streams lacked a riparian buffer. Also, hellbenders, a species of concern, were sighted in Bates Branch in 2003.

Project Objectives:

Morgan Harris, Working Lands for Wildlife
Eastern Hellbender Initiative, and the Conservation Management Institute at Virginia Tech, surveys Bates Branch for hellbenders and hellbender habitat.

  • Improve water quality by reducing sediment, organic, and inorganic loading of the stream and reduce streambank erosion

  • Stabilize the stream reach to prevent further aggradation or degradation by providing an improved dimension, pattern and/or profile that will improve sediment transport, and manage surface waters and groundwater levels in floodplains, riparian areas, and wetlands

  • Construct rock and woody structures to provide instream habitat, stabilize streambanks and the channel bed

  • Establish a riparian buffer, remove invasive plant species and reestablish native plants, trees, and shrubs

  • Remove barriers to provide an opportunity for the aquatic organisms to access additional habitat and migrate up and downstream

  • Install structures to create or enhance hellbender habitat

  • Establish a riparian buffer, remove invasive plant species and reestablish native plants, trees, and shrubs

Jason York, Michael Baker International, performs a macroinvertebrate assessment as part of the design assessment process.

Prior to restoration, Bates Branch & Hog Lot Branch had high, unstable streambanks that were severely eroding.