Flood destruction - wow.

[NJAngler]

I visited a well known public stream in NEPA last week and found the flood damage to be nothing short of astonishing. 1000lb boulders shoved out of the way like paperweights; 90' trees washed away like toothpicks; stream bottom cut into lowering the stream bed feet not inches and the stream itself diverted in all kinds of new directions. The power of water is awesome. What a mess! Many trees(mostly hemlocks) are barely standing and look as if a stiff breeze would knock them down. Not sure going there on a windy day would be very smart. That said, some dandy new pools were created and some existing ones were deepened. The trout were still there in decent numbers but it was like fishing a brand new stream as nearly every familiar hole was gone.

Common sight: bank erosion caused by uprooted trees/heavy rain. Not sure if its fixable. My guess is these banks will keep losing trees. The water is year round cold but the loss of so many trees and leaf canopy cannot be good. Time will tell.

In the pic below, the stream used to flow to the left. now its cut a path thru the forest like a shortcut leaving the old bed dry.

Here the left banked has been cut into about 30' or so dropping trees like flies.

Tree front right is next to go tumbling down.

Huge birch on the left was taken down and pushed downstream about a 50' or so.

 

[bikerfish]

As humans, we like to think of things as having a kind of permanence, floods are just a little message that the world is continuously changing.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

ya its pretty darn amazing what those floods did to some of the local streams here.

 

[jabink84]

I was just out on my local stream yesterday.....i got sropped off and fished a mile stretch i always do. there were two holes that were there this summer. there was also about 20 that werent there. the fish are still there and the stream is in good shape. its just amazing how much an increased flow can change.