Imagine cleaning the Riley with a sweeper that worked under water.

The fork of the Rileys – where the Little Riley meets the Big Riley - was the location of a Sand Wand demonstration earlier this month. The demonstration worked like a sweeper.

The wand enables the clean up of sediment in streams. The village and Blanchard River Watershed Partnership (BRWP) conducted the demonstration.

Photos below show the wand in action.

The wand is a sediment removal system used in watersheds like the Blanchard River. It successfully removes silt and sediment that clogs the stream.

Once the sediment is removed it created an improved creek bottom habitat for fish, macro invertebrates and the wildlife that feeds on them.

The Sand Wand is a product of Streamside, a Findlay-based business. The wand works this way:

It is manually operated. The operator navigates the stream over a sediment impacted area.

The wand uses a combination of water jet and suction removal, offset from the streambed and within a hooded shroud, to selectively remove harmful fine sediments.

As surface fines are removed, the water jet increases to penetrate and remove  fines into the sub-surface gravels, to restore clean, native spawning habitat.

After restoration, the surface of the stream bed appears natural and restored. The core samples show full restoration of critical interstitial habitat.

A two-part pumping system is used to remove only the fine sediment particles, leaving the larger cobbles or gravels in place for aquatic benefit, all with minimal  impacts.