Valley Quarries owns this reach of Falling Spring Branch, and they co-operated with FSG nearly a decade earlier by allowing us to open the constriction in a dam, as well as electrically fence off cattle, install stock watering points, plant trees, and develop a small nature trail. Because the slight enlargement of the opening of the old dam was not sufficient to improve conditions, FSG proposed to Valley Quarries more aggressive measures. When presented with the proposal to reconstruct the Quarry Reach and when other attendant benefits were listed, Valley Quarries was on board immediately. Two other key landowners, John Helman and Miriam Ryder, also graciously agreed.

Part of the magic of this outcome was the integration of the out-of-town and local efforts. It was important that familiar faces showed up in certain places so people felt comfortable. Our arrangement with Valley Quarries, beyond permission to operate on company land, also included purchasing construction materials. The final ingredients were then in place: Supportive, cooperating landowners combined with an understanding of the problem.

Show me the Money
In FSG's early days, there was little money available for reconstruction of streams. Commonly, restoration took place when damage occurred and someone with money could be identified to fix it. Mitigation for damage to wetlands through stream restoration (known as "out-of-kind") was another way. But in the ensuing years following FSG's formation, public funds began to show up via EPA mandates for watershed planning and state-level efforts to comply with the mandates.

With a good proposal for the design, permitting, and construction of the Quarry Reach restoration, FSG, in conjunction with our restoration consultant, Ecotone, Inc., a Maryland firm, submitted a package for the second round of the Pennsylvania DEP's Growing Greener grants. Earlier, FSG President Bill Horn, a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior, had secured a challenge grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

The word "challenge" is important here. Since our total project budget was $225,000, we needed to raise the other $150,000 to get the $75,000. Growing Greener provided us $121,000. FSG's treasury had about $15,000 in it, and Ecotone made in-kind donations of its services to total the needed $150,000. Armed with these funds, NFWF contributed $75,000. We were all set.

Initial construction planning and layout work began in May 2002. On the ground, the work took just seven weeks. In that time, we altered the channel, improved the habitat, created wetlands, and dredged excess sediments to deepen the channel.

The Results
In the cold, scientific prose of stream-restoration science, the following could be construed as nothing but the hard facts of a howling success. Quarry Reach is now healthy and productive. The following is an excerpt from an article prepared by our consultant Ecotone, Inc., of Jarrettsville, MD, and submitted to Land and Water magazine, a major trade journal in the field of environmental restoration:

"Successes from the project seem to be evident only days after construction was completed. Due to the narrowing of the stream, low flow velocities in the stream have increased from nearly 0 feet per second (fps) to over 3 fps in areas where habitat structures were installed. Already these increased velocities have scoured out holes more than four (4) feet in depth and rainbow and brown trout have been spotted colonizing these lunker holes only several days after they were created.

"Electrofishing efforts performed by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission in 1976 indicated biomass of rainbow trout and brown trout totaling 18.5 pounds/acre and a total of only 40 trout over 2,500 linear feet. A cursory electrofishing effort in September of 2001 found only 2 brown trout in the reach. If trout densities in other reaches of Falling Spring are any indication of the potential of the restored Quarry Meadow reach, (many of the holes and cover in the restored reach are deeper and of higher habitat value than excellent reaches holding numerous trout on other reaches of Falling Spring), the population could increase to well over 250 pounds/acre, a 1,300 percent increase."

While the foregoing is impressive and perhaps more easily understood by those versed in the science of stream and fisheries biology, below, in closing, I offer what all the organizing, communicating, fund-raising and high science are really meant to accomplish. In its purest and highest form, this, a letter from a satisfied angler, is what it's all about:

"I first read about this stream in the late 1970s in a fly-fishing magazine. Last week I finally got to fish it with my son and Ed Shenk. Your group has done a fabulous job maintaining this stream and the riparian zone around it. We had a great morning fishing the Quarry Meadow and caught a number of beautiful rainbows on dry flies including an 18-incher caught by my 10-year-old son from a pool that Ed and I had already worked over! I would like to send a small contribution to your group to thank you all for your great work and as a thank you for making this stream available to all that would like to experience it. Please e-mail your address and I will put a check in the mail. Thanks again, Bob Pavelka."

Last Fall, Falling Spring Greenway, Inc., was awarded its second Growing Greener Grant for additional restoration of Falling Spring Branch in the amount of $199,462. For additional information about Falling Spring Greenway, Inc., email Dennis J. LaBare, Director of Development: dslabare@corlink.com.