Trees For Trout Stream Bank Revetment At Lawson Cary, JR. Access On The Falls River
At one of our 2024 winter meetings, John Genovesi told us that he and Corey Pelletier developed a plan to utilize the 400+ used Christmas Trees that were collected at the Check Station in January. He explained that Trees for Trout has become so popular that we collected enough trees for more than one stream bank revetment project in 2024 and that’s what they planned for late Summer/early Fall.
The volunteers who completed the tree installation at the Lawson Cary, Jr. Access.
Sure enough, when water levels lowered, we heard from John that our first project of the year would be July 18 and volunteers were needed. At the time of the notice we were experiencing extremely hot/humid weather, but the forecast for the 18th promised slightly better conditions. So with fingers crossed that the forecast was accurate, plenty of volunteers representing Rhode Island TU, EA Engineering, and Save the Bay showed up. We partnered with the RIDEM Team to unload used Christmas Trees from the trailer and haul them to the river (fortunately a short and downhill distance).
Corey Pelletier explaining where the trees should be placed .
With everyone pitching in, we installed three loads of trees dispersed on both sides of the river before noon.
Our reward for the day was the camaraderie among everyone involved. Longer term, the reward will be to see new banks extending out from both sides of the stream because we know that the deeper, colder water that results will be beneficial to the resident wild Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontenalis) population.
