Removing Brandy Springs Dam Offers Safety and New Park Amenities

Editor’s note: The following blog post was written by Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy of American Rivers, the national nonprofit leading the Brandy Springs Park dam removal and stream restoration project. For details about the upcoming community workshop and how you can share your input, visit our event page or fill out the online input form if you cannot attend.

Removing Brandy Springs Dam Offers Improved Safety and New Park Amenities

By Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy, American Rivers

Brandy Springs Park is beautiful local place to play, relax, and enjoy fresh air. The park once included Brandy Springs Pond, created when the US Army Corps of Engineers built the dam in the 1940’s for flood control. The pond became a well-loved place but was a drain on the resources of the park due to the cost of dredging sediment from the pond every few years. Now that the dam no longer holds back water, many people understandably mourn the loss of the pond. It was the source of so many wonderful memories. Many people in Mercer cannot remember the stream without the dam and it feels like a loss that the pond is no longer there to enjoy.

Meadow Run Dam removal, Ohiopyle State Park, Fayette County.  First dam removal in a PA State Park, 2010. After the dam was removed, we added a fishing platform that was very popular.

Owning a dam comes with responsibility, chief among them the legal liability for any injuries at the site. Owning a breached dam also carries the liability for injuries, and this is a big worry on the minds of the Park Board. That is why new chain link fence has been installed to limit access to the dam and the former pond, yet from the well-worn path around the fence closest to the dam, it is obvious that these safety measures are not keeping people away from the stream.

Rather than leaving the broken dam in place and trying to exclude people from the stream, it makes more sense to remove the dam and restore the stream as a new way to encounter nature in Brandy Springs Park. With the assistance of Mercer County Conservation District and American Rivers, the Brandy Springs Park Board can eliminate the current hazard caused by the breached dam and the high stream bank next to it, while creating a restored stream, a re-naturalized wetland, and areas for observing wildlife. Native trees and shrubs can stabilize the streambanks, reduce potential flood risks by slowing the stream’s flow after heavy rains, and attract wildlife. A boardwalk could allow people the ability to walk through the wetlands and observe songbirds and insects without getting muddy. Nesting boxes could provide places for songbirds to raise their young. A pollinator garden could add color, fragrance, natural texture, and beauty to the park. Strategically placed flowering trees could block the view of park maintenance structures. Best of all, these improvements wouldn’t require the Park Board to invest any funds. American Rivers will partner with the Mercer County Conservation District and the Park Board to raise the funding needed to provide these outdoor benefits to the community as a part of the dam removal project.

Bendigo State Park dam removal. This was a CCC-era cut-stone masonry dam that was built to provide a swimming pool in the East Branch Clarion River. Once the dam was out, the old diving platform was retrofitted for ADA-accessible fishing.

The ideas described above are suggestions to help people start imagining the possibilities for Brandy Springs Park. American Rivers, Mercer County Conservation District, and the Park Board are asking everyone who has visited the park to bring your ideas for a restored stream and wetland to a special meeting on October 9th from 5-7. We will meet for a free-to-all casual supper and an imagination session to gather ideas for how the stream and wetland restoration could become a place that people enjoy for solitude and discovery. We are especially excited to hear ideas from people of all ages, from children to senior citizens and everyone in between.

Want to get involved? Join us for the Brandy Springs Park Stream Restoration Workshop on October 2nd 5-7. RSVP here. If you can’t attend, share your ideas through our online input form.

Trough Creek Dam removal. Another CCC-era cut-stone masonry dam that was built to create a Depression-Era swimming pool on Trough Creek. The pool was never usable after damage incurred in Hurricane Agnes in 1972. There was an expansive network of stonemasonry walls associated with this dam that were preserved for historical interpretation, as well as a small section of the dam.

About Dam Removal: Pennsylvania is the national dam removal leader, with over 400 dams removed to eliminate liability, restore habitat for aquatic wildlife, increase recreation access, improve public safety, and in some cases reduce flood risk. Below are some before and after photos of dam removal projects to help you visualize how dam removal improves the river and benefits the community; most of these are in community or state parks

Patton Dam removal, Patton Borough, Cambria County. This project involved the removal of a dam and the restoration of a wetland, so while not a park, it does show a wetland evolution. This community chose not to go forward with a wetland boardwalk, benches, and birdwatching stations, though we did install habitat improvements and nesting boxes as part of the wetland restoration.

Additional Projects include:

Alameda Park Dam removal, Alameda Borough, Butler County. The hunt is on for photos of this project, completed in 2008. This park is comparable to Brandy Springs Park, which is why I’d like to show this one if we can find good photos.