Rick Bonar, President, Foothills Research Institute describes two innovative structures to protect fish bearing streams in the Alberta foothills during the FRI 2012 Fall Open House Tour. He starts at a pioneering stream crossing rehabilitation project built under the Foothills Stream Crossing Partnership of Foothills Research Institute. It is Alberta’s first geotextile reinforced soil structure and replaced a five foot hanging culvert that was a fish barrier.
At Gregg River, stream bank erosion was threatening the road. Rather than using a typical rock rip-rap solution, this innovation is an engineered log jam. Trees were harvested, roots and all and placed in the scour hole, then anchored in place with cables. The “log jam” provides fish habitat and serves the pupose of redirecting the river’s flow back to its original channel.
