What's Up, Watershed? Enhance Water Quality by Repairing Your Local Stream Banks

My favorite thing about springtime is getting back outside after months of winter cold!  Early last month, I had the pleasure of getting out on a crisp morning to host a workshop in a local stream. Over the past year, I’ve been training to be a Master Watershed Steward with the Penn State Extension.  As part of our final project, my fellow trainees and I hosted a workshop in Delaware County on something called “live staking.”  In this post, I’ll teach you all about live staking and explain how YOU can help in repairing our state’s streams today!

Chris Bunn

Environmental Program Coordinator

 Pennsylvania Resources Council

Live staking is a method of repairing streams that involves planting live cuttings of native trees and shrubs into stream banks for the purpose of stabilizing soil and preventing erosion. 

But why would a stream need to be repaired in the first place?  Through human activities, our state’s native streamside vegetation including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants have been removed, replaced, or outcompeted by invasive plants in many places.  This leaves many stream banks without much native vegetation, meaning that there aren’t enough roots to hold the soil in place. 

Without a network of roots to hold stream banks together, intense stream flows during storm events can cause stream banks to erode away.  This erosion causes banks to become very steep, cutting off the stream’s access to its natural floodplain and worsening flash flooding downstream.  In addition, the soils and sediments from the stream bank are carried downstream, contributing to water pollution and habitat degradation. 

Though the issues facing our streams are large, live staking offers a free, easy, and satisfying solution!  

Live cuttings from certain species shrubs and trees — red-twig dogwood, pussy willow, and elderberry to name a few — have the remarkable ability to sprout roots when planted in wet soils.  This means that when planted in the right location, these stakes can create new plants within a matter of a few years! 

When planted in groups, these new plants create a network of roots that act as a net, holding soil in place and providing habitat value for native wildlife. 

Anyone can get involved in live staking, whether you have a stream on your property that needs repair or just want to help protect local waterways in your area.

To learn more about live staking, be sure to check out this how-to video created by the Penn State Extension.

To get involved with others who care about protecting local waterways, consider becoming a Master Watershed Steward.  And for more information on tools and techniques for making your community greener, be sure to check out [The "How Can You Help" GGC page] 

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Thanks so much for reading — we’ll see you next month here at “What’s Up, Watershed?”

Photos shown above (top to bottom):  Chris Bunn, Chris Bunn, Washington State Department of Transportation, Matt Lavin, Varina Crisfield.

Minor edits made 6/3/26 by Ryan Rabenold