Geisel Meadow is located on Falling Spring at the downstream end of the heritage angling section of Falling Spring. Despite several habitat improvement projects in the early 1990's, the 1,200 foot reach of stream still lacked quality in-stream trout habitat. The reach was hindered by a very high width depth ratio. Large deflectors installed by well-meaning volunteers failed to decrease the overall width or create a defined meander pattern.

Working with the Falling Spring Greenway, Inc. Ecotone developed a grant proposal for eventual submission to Pennsylvania's Growing Greener Program for funding. The grant also included design and construction for the headwaters reach as well as the Chambersburg restoration project. Ecotone developed a design which decreased the overall width of the channel, increased overall depth, and created a more defined meander pattern. Along the outer runs and pools, lunker structures were proposed to provide overhead cover adjacent to feeding lanes. A series of boulders were strategically designed to provide diverse velocity isovels for high quality feeding lanes. A series of boulder clusters and pinch points were installed to direct flows into the lunker structures and create diverse in-stream habitat.

The project was constructed in the summer of 2006. A total of 900 linear feet of channel was restored to the Falling Spring in Geisel Meadow. Successes from the project were evident only days after construction was completed. Over the course of the past three years, annual monitoring surveys have indicated the design width and depth of the channel has been maintained. Resident trout have been utilizing the bankside lunker structures. Angling surveys indicate the reach fishes much more productively the prior to the project. Now thats the kind of outcome we like!