Stream Restoration Design for Willapa Bay Fisheries Enhancement Group

Statistics

• Client: Willapa Bay Fisheries Enhancement Group
• Location: Western Washington
• Dates: 2002-2008
• Services: Stream restoration design and construction and performance monitoring

Description

The Watershed Company has completed design and construction oversight on $1.7 million worth of stream restoration projects for the Willapa Bay Fisheries Enhancement Group, funded through the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board and other sources. Projects ranged from South Bend's Mill Pond Creek, an in-town, high-profile stream we relocated into a meandering stream channel from a channelized ditch, to the relatively intact Trap Creek, in which we utilized strategic placement of gravel and large woody debris, high-lead logging techniques, channel restoration, and culvert replacement to enhance and create fish habitat.

Since 2003, The Watershed Company has worked with WBFEG to restore Oxbow Creek, which had eroded to siltstone bedrock with a series of drops. The creek’s potential as fish habitat was limited by culverts that impeded fish passage and a lack of spawning gravel and large woody debris. Project design utilized in-stream log structures to provide overhead cover within pools and to trap gravel at exposed bedrock riffles. Implementation included placing log structures using high-lead logging techniques and installing box culverts under two road crossings. Three years of post-construction monitoring showed continuous moderate accumulation of gravels and additional woody debris, improved fish passage and steady increases in habitat diversity.