Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2021 - 57

CURRENTS
Grants Awarded for Sinnemahoning Watershed Restoration Projects
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC)
announced nearly $380,000 in grants to develop and implement
projects that benefit fishing, boating, and aquatic resources in
Cameron, Elk, Potter, and McKean counties.
The funding is available through a 2007 settlement agreement
with Norfolk Southern as restitution for environmental damages
from a June 30, 2006, train derailment in rural Norwich
Township, McKean County. Under the settlement, Norfolk
Southern agreed to pay the Commonwealth $7.35 million as
restitution for environmental damages. The PFBC received $3.675
million through the settlement and created the Sinnemahoning
Creek Watershed Restoration Grant Program.
The funds received through this damage settlement have
been used to improve public fishing and boating access, fish
habitat, water quality, and stream health and to restore stream
connectivity through the removal of barriers to fish movement
such as dams and culverts.
The nine external projects funded total approximately
$330,000 and include:
* Cameron County Conservation District, $48,625 -
" FIN-74 Mine Pool Reclamation Phase II "
As part of the effort to restore the historic wild Brook
Trout fishery within the Sterling Run watershed, a passive
treatment system will be constructed at the abandoned
and unreclaimed FIN-74 coal surface mine discharge
to remediate acid mine drainage to Finley Run, a major
tributary to Sterling Run.
* Jay Township, Elk County, $15,500 - " Kersey Run
Streambank Restoration Phase II "
In accordance with an existing stream channel evaluation
and repair plan, implement instream habitat and streambank
stabilization structures on one property to repair
approximately 300 feet of severe bank erosion, minimize
future erosion, and channel deposition of sediment and
gravel. The proposed measures are intended to prevent
property damage resulting from flooding, and to improve
water quality and physical habitat for wild and stocked trout.
* McKean County Conservation District, $23,625 - " Fish
Habitat Improvement and Stream Restoration Program "
Improve fish and wildlife habitats in streams and riparian
buffers with a primary focus on improving habitat for aquatic
Species of Greatest Conservation Need by installing instream
structures, stabilizing eroded streambanks, and planting
native trees and shrubs in riparian corridors on at least three
different properties.
* Potter County Conservation District, $33,625 -
" Sinnemahoning Creek Watershed Streambank Stabilization "
Stabilize at least three severely eroded streambanks for a total
length of over 800 feet on both public and private properties
on First Fork Sinnemahoning Creek and its tributary of
West Branch Cowley Run. The project will reduce stream
sedimentation, improve water quality, and benefit both
Brook Trout and Brown Trout.
* Potter County Conservation District, $28,625 -
" Bittersweet Lane Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP)
Restoration on Little Portage Creek "
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Little Portage Creek is a high-quality cold water fishery and a Class
A wild Brook Trout and Brown Trout stream. The single barrier to
upstream passage of fish is a timber deck bridge on a steel frame
with a poured concrete stream bottom as its floor. The project will
replace the existing bridge with a bottomless arch structure and
thereby restore fish passage and habitat connectivity to nearly 9
miles of good habitat upstream.
* Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, $22,880 - " East Branch
Clarion River Fish Habitat Improvement "
East Branch Clarion River is a high-quality cold water fishery
supporting stocked and wild Brook Trout and Brown Trout. The
proposed fish habitat improvement reach is approximately 0.5 mile
downstream of East Branch Dam and is on Pennsylvania Game
Commission property (State Game Land 25) in Elk County. The
project involves replacement of six old, dilapidated, log-framed
cross vanes to improve habitat within a 2,600-foot stream reach.
* Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, $24,070 - " Kinzua Creek
Fish Habitat Improvement "
This project will install multiple fish habitat improvement
structures along approximately 3,000 feet of Kinzua Creek in the
PFBC's Keystone Select Stocked Trout Waters section within the
Allegheny National Forest in McKean County.
* Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, $30,000 - " West Branch
Hicks Run AOP Restoration "
This project will replace two culverts with timber deck bridges on
tributaries to West Branch Hicks Run that are currently barriers
to AOP. This stream has a Class A wild Brook Trout population
and is located on Pennsylvania Game Commission State Game
Land 14 in Cameron County. By replacing these two barriers
to fish movement, approximately 3.5 miles of currently isolated
headwater habitat will be reconnected to the lower sections of
these tributaries.
* Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, $100,000 - " Purchase
of the Kelsey/Taylor property at the confluence of Prouty
Run, Borie Branch, and First Fork of Sinnemahoning Creek "
This 90-acre property in Potter County has long been closed to
public fishing access and has a Class A wild Brown Trout and
Brook Trout population. There are over 3,000 feet of stream
frontage within a mature stand of trees that has not been cut for
decades. Following the property purchase by the Conservancy,
the deed will be transferred to the Pennsylvania Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources as an addition to the
Susquehannock District Forest, which is contiguous on three sides
of the property. This property acquisition will provide access to
these streams for public fishing.
In addition to these grants, the PFBC has committed $52,120
from the Sinnemahoning account to leverage additional funds from
Pennsylvania Sea Grant for an internal research project on Brook Trout
and Rainbow Trout.
Including the current grant announcement, the PFBC has
awarded over $3.4 million in grants to external partners from the
Sinnemahoning Creek watershed settlement fund since the start of
the grant program in 2008. This current grant round will be the last,
because the entire restoration account has been utilized for completed
projects or committed to projects yet to be implemented. Forty-five
projects have been completed, and 14 projects remain active.
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * November/December 2021
57
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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2021

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