ALLABEN – A stream restoration project in the Town of Shandaken has begun to improve water quality, address instability and improve aquatic and riparian habitat.
The work, by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County and the Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District, is in the Broadstreet Hollow about 30 miles west of Kingston.
The Broadstreet Hollow stream flows into the upper Esopus Creek near Allaben in the Town of Shandaken and is part of the river drainage network that feeds water to over nine million residents in the state.
Leslie Zucker, Cornell Cooperative’s project manager, said this is the beginning of a two-year study and analysis.
“We go in and do an analysis looking at the issues at the site. Maybe they are water quality issues, maybe there is a habitat impairment, but often the site unstable for some reason,” she said. “Maybe because of how it was managed in the past, because a large flood has occurred and shifted the stream, and so the stream channel is no longer in that naturally stable state and it is eroding into its outer banks and it may have split its channel, maybe accumulating sediment, may be eroding banks rapidly.”
The project site will be cleared only where necessary and wood and rock found onsite will be reused.
Once the instream construction is over, the site will be replanted with Catskill native trees and shrubs.
The $1 million cost of the project is being funded by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
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