Clark BranchStream Restoration Project

The project team installed rock vanes in the Clark River. The vanes play a crucial role in restoring the stream’s proper profile. By stabilizing the stream slope and redirecting water flow towards the center, rock vanes help prevent erosion and create deeper, slower-moving pools. These pools not only dissipate energy but also provide ideal habitats for fish, enhancing recreational opportunities like fishing.

Post Construction

The project team installed rock vanes in the Clark River. The vanes play a crucial role in restoring the stream’s proper profile. By stabilizing the stream slope and redirecting water flow towards the center, rock vanes help prevent erosion and create deeper, slower-moving pools. These pools not only dissipate energy but also provide ideal habitats for fish, enhancing recreational opportunities like fishing.

Before restoration, Clark Branch’s stream profile was significantly out of balance, leading to unstable banks and increased erosion.

Before Restoration

Before restoration, Clark Branch’s stream profile was significantly out of balance, leading to unstable banks and increased erosion.

Clark Branch

French Broad River Watershed
Avery  County, Newland, NC
Status: Complete
Stream Restored: ~ 2,900 feet
Planting Stats: 5,752 livestakes & 999 trees
Carbon Sequestration:  25.5 tons
Sediment Reduction: 109 tons

Resource Institute’s Partners:

Natural Resource Concerns/Issues

  • Streambanks on the Clark Branch River were steep and severely eroded and lacked a riparian buffer

  • Original Stream = C4

Project Objectives:

  • Restored Stream Type = C4

  • Improve water quality by reducing sediment, nutrient, 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

  • Enhance flood resiliency by improving the stream’s capacity to manage high-flow events, reducing the risk of flooding, and protecting surrounding infrastructure and habitats through strategic floodplain reconnection and the installation of flood-tolerant vegetation