Photo courtesy of Will Parson, Chesapeake Bay Program. This video was posted to our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts on 4/21/2021.
A must-watch!! We’re so excited to bring you this video about our largest trout stream restoration project to date, on Bolton Branch in Rappahannock County on the border of Shenandoah National Park.
This project replaced a failing driveway culvert with a new fish-friendly bridge and rehabilitated 800 linear feet of stream with constructed riffles and pools, as well as native plants on the stream banks to provide a riparian buffer.
The stream’s aquatic community improved almost immediately. Brook trout counts have grown more than thirty percent throughout the stream’s restoration area since the project’s completion.
Funding for the project was provided by the Nimick Forbesway Foundation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Additional assistance was provided by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Shenandoah Streamworks, LLC., and Ecosystem Services, LLC.