ADDITION OF SPURS TO STONE TOE PROTECTION FOR WARMWATER FISH HABITAT REHABILITATION1

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Longitudinal stone toe is one of the most reliable and economically attractive approaches for stabilizing eroding banks in incised channels. However, aquatic habitat provided by stone toe is inferior to that provided by spur dikes. In order to test a design that combined features of stone toe and spurs, eleven stone spurs were placed perpendicular to 170 m of existing stone toe in Goodwin Creek, Mississippi, and willow posts were planted in the sandbar on the opposite bank. Response was evaluated by monitoring fish and habitats in the treated reach and an adjacent comparison reach (willow post planting and standard toe without spurs) for four years. Furthermore, physical habitats within the treated reach were compared with seven reaches protected with standard toe on a single date three years after construction. Overall results indicated that spur addition resulted in modest increases in baseflow stony bankline, water width and pool habitat availability, but had only local effects on depth. These relatively small changes in physical habitat were exaggerated seasonally by beaver dams that appeared during periods of prolonged low flow in late Summer and Autumn. Physical changes were accompanied by shifts in fish species composition away from a run‐dwelling assemblage dominated by large numbers of cyprinids and immature centrarchids toward an assemblage containing fewer and larger centrarchids. Biological responses were at least partially due to the effects of temporary beaver dams.