Stabilization, Habitat Improvement Continues Along UC’s French Creek

UNION CITY — The south branch of French Creek along Union City Borough’s Little League baseball complex is taking on a new look, not only for humans, but for the fish, amphibians and insects that call the creek home.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is in the second year of a 3-year, $431,760 initiative that will minimize erosion on both sides of the stream, while improving its in-water habitat.

Work last year and earlier this year, with help from Union City Area High School students, focused on cutting and later spraying the tall, invasive Japanese Knotweed that obscured much of the stream along the ball fields. That work alone has resulted in much-improved visual and physical access to the creek.

Recent visitors to the ball fields have found a construction site, including piles of large rocks along the Little League access road that are being used as part of the stream bank stabilization efforts, plus backhoes, and workers sometimes in the water itself moving long timbers into place. A large pile of baled straw will be used to cover and protect the seeds that will be spread along the creek sides when the in-stream work is completed.

Kylie Maland, watershed manager for the WPC, said the Japanese Knotweed control efforts have had a significant impact on the property. She said the WPC will follow up next spring with an additional spraying effort to maximize that impact.

“We know that people are able to use (the property) better,” she said of the knotweed control, noting a second benefit was opening up more space for Little League parking. “That treatment was a great success.”

The stream bank stabilization and habitat improvements are being undertaken now along a nearly half-mile stretch of the creek, beginning approximately at the Little League batting cages along the first ball field off First Avenue, and extending to the west end of the complex.

Nick Micsky, watershed project coordinator for the WPC, said 16 structures of varying sizes, consisting of logs from a tree type called “larch,” as well as large stone, are being constructed along sections of the stream where bends and curves attract erosion. Micsky said the larch is being used because it grows very straight, and when kept wet will last indefinitely.

The structures not only serve for erosion control, but provide shady habitat for the fish, amphibians and insects needed for a healthy stream ecology, said Maland.

“It’s sort of a feeding station and house all in one,” she said of the structures.

The project also includes the placement of boulders in the creek that will both create additional in-water habitats, and “prevent flow deflection into the stream banks,” according to the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission’s design plans.

While much of the work is focused on the south side of French Creek along the ball fields, Micsky said approximately three property owners on the north side of the stream gave permission for stream bank stabilization efforts there as well.

“Everyone was pretty supportive once I explained everything,” he said.

Once the in-water work is done by the contractor, GL Adams Spike Excavating of Polk, Pa., the land along the stream that has been disturbed will be repaired, and seeds spread that include native, water-tolerant species of plants.

Next year’s work will include that second spraying of Japanese Knotweed, and plantings of trees and shrubs that will help stabilize the stream banks into the future.

The project is being done in collaboration with the Fish & Boat Commission, which Micsky noted did the design work for the stabilization efforts. He said the effort is timely, because the creek was edging ever closer to the access road that runs between the borough-owned complex to the east, and the Little League-owned property to the west.

Maland said it’s anticipated that the WPC will be able to undertake additional Japanese Knotweed mitigation efforts next spring along French Creek in the borough, likely in the area of Devereaux Park along Bridge Street, as well as the adjacent borough-owned property along Willow Street.

That potential opening of views to French Creek along what is known as the “Willow Street ball field,” as well as along Bentley Run that feeds French Creek adjacent to Devereaux Park, would enhance a planned extension of the borough’s “French Creek Trail” that is planned for next year.

Concrete paths that have been created in Caflisch and Devereaux parks in recent years would be linked to a path that is planned around the perimeter of the ball field property on Willow Street. That path would connect to the public sidewalk on Willow Street adjacent to the small bridge that crosses Bentley Run.

The path would run north-south to French Creek, parallel to Bentley Run, then run east-west along French Creek, and then north-side back to the Willow Street sidewalk.

The path extension will be either crushed limestone or concrete, depending on cost and funding. It is part of the borough’s long-term plan to create a walking path across the borough that connects Caflisch and Devereaux parks on the borough’s east side to the ball field property off First Avenue on the borough’s west side.

That long-term plan includes a trail around the Little League ball field complex, including along the half-mile stretch of French Creek that is currently being improved.