Fannin County, Texas -- Upper Trinity’s contractors are finishing up construction on five new streams near future Lake Ralph Hall, which will flow into the North Sulphur River. The newly connected tributary streams are naturally beginning to flow with rainwater this fall, bringing life back to areas impacted for decades by severe erosion and loss of habitat.

Texas Mitigation Solutions (TMS), a joint venture between Ecosystem Investment Partners and Mitigation Resources of North America, restored over 32,000 linear feet (just over six miles) of streams below the lake’s Leon Hurse Dam. These streams are connected to the North Sulphur River and were disrupted when the river was channelized in the 1920s.

Restoring the tributaries of the river to their natural, curved paths helps mitigate the area’s severe erosion and provide previously lost habitat.

“This work will bring back river pool habitats and improve water quality immediately downstream,” explained Nolan Drewery, Texas Mitigation Solutions Construction
Supervisor.

TMS started by working with its design engineer Beaver Creek Hydrology to map the original location of the North Sulphur River tributaries. They designed improved paths to reconnect the former North Sulphur River with four supporting tributaries that closely match their original locations.

Next, crews dug out the pathway for each tributary, ensuring each has sufficient bends to slow down the flow of water. Afterwards, they created “a space for each tributary’s floodplain,” or the land area that floods naturally during heavy rainfall. Live staked willows, biodegradable matting and native grasses will help establish the streams and provide habitat for local wildlife.

To prevent the new riverbeds from eroding, crew members also incorporated “gravel” and “woody riffles”—gravel and logs laid across the stream to slow the flow of water.

“Now that everything is connected, we’re just waiting for the rain to come and naturally fill the new streams,” Fitzgerald explained.

This winter, TMS and subcontractors will continue to plant grasses and 40,000 native trees, and then the team will transition to monitoring the site for the next seven years to ensure its success.