There were really only two questions to be asked:

1) Could the Mianus Chapter of Trout Unlimited finish a river restoration project before Irene slammed into Connecticut?

2) Would the structure hold up in what was expected to be record rainfall?

On both counts, the answer was decidedly "yes".

On Saturday, August 27, members of the Mianus Chapter rushed through 3 hours of intensive labor installing a conifer revetment along the banks of the Norwalk River - a small stream in Wilton, Connecticut with wildly spawning brown trout. Hurricane Irene was bearing down and the clock was ticking.

The conifer revetment works like a giant sediment trap, with the pine trees' branches and needles capturing silt and removing it from the water - at the same time causing the river bank to be widened and the stream channel to narrow.

As the work wrapped up shortly before noon, the rains started and quickly grew heavy.

Though less than expected, the 6+ inches of rain that fell brought the Norwalk River from a low 10cfs in flow up to nearly 3,500cfs before the weekend was out. The conifer revetment - and indeed the entire area - was under 5 feet of water.

Two days later, the river receded enoguh and the telltale glimpses of pine boughs could be seen.

A quick survey and a sense of satisfaction - not only did the conifer revetment hold up to Irene's battering, the restoration structure performed better than expected.

The extremely high water caked layer upon layer of sediment onto and into the tree branches, burying some trees and leaving most buried up to their trunks. Despite the high flows, the riverbank did not erode - in fact it grew!

The conifers captured enough silt from the stream to raise the bank height at least one foot and extend the bank another three feet out into the stream channel.

Thanks to some quick and dirty work, the Mianus Chapter's work paid off and some improved habitat for trout and other aquatic insects was created thanks to - or in spite of - Hurricane Irene.