LIVE STAKING SAVE CITY'S STREAMS
2019, The French Broad Riverkeeper, MountainTrue, and The City of Hendersonville partnered to combat sediment erosion along the Clear Creek and Mud Creek waterways. A group of nineteen individuals spent their Saturday traveling in canoes and planting ‘live stakes’ into the stream banks. These stakes have the potential to grow into trees that will help stabilize the sides of the creeks and reduce the overall amount of sediment entering the river.
“The goal of this event, and others like it, is to plant these stakes and help re-establish a healthy vegetative buffer along the banks of the river,” said Michael Huffman, Stormwater Quality Specialist for the City of Hendersonville. He explained that stem cuttings are taken from trees during their dormant season and are inserted directly into stream banks. These cuttings, referred to as ‘live stakes,’ will eventually grow into new trees and are an effective way to establish a root network to prevent further soil loss.
Volunteers planted 1,300 elderberry, silky willow and silky dogwood stakes along a mile and a half section of waterway spanning portions of Clear Creek and Mud Creek. Before heading to the canoe launch site, event organizers gave volunteers information on what areas to focus on and a tutorial on how to effectively place the stakes for the best results.
“We have had a lot of success with these types of events,” said Anna Alsobrook, Watershed Outreach Coordinator with MountainTrue. She explained that in other areas of the French Broad Watershed, they have seen 80-90% survival rates of the live stakes they have planted. “Some of the stakes we planted 4-5 years ago, we’ve been able to harvest from,” she said. “It is becoming a self-sustaining system.”
Saturday’s event has been the biggest live staking effort in the Hendersonville area to date. Information on future ‘Paddle-n-Plant’ events can be found at: https://mountaintrue.org
The City of Hendersonville will also be hosting a Streambank Repair Workshop facilitated by the NC Cooperative Extension on March 13, 2019. This workshop will teach participants how to protect streambanks and improve the environment by stabilizing streams on their property. More information and a link to sign up can be found at: https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/workshops-conferences/srw/
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