DESCRIPTION
The Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, with project partners, is submitting this grant application to complete a preliminary design for the Beaver Reach Stream Restoration Design. This project will be located on the Wind River mainstem on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This project will combine one project, Beaver North, with a portion of another project, Beaver Campground, that were identified as one of the top priorities for stream restoration within the Wind River watershed during the LCFRB-led Wind River Work Group effort. These stream reaches of the Wind River were highlighted by the Work Group as being of significant importance for all life-stages of ESA-listed Lower Columbia River (LCR) steelhead trout and Critical Habitat for LCR steelhead, as well as being one of the top priorities for restoration within this watershed. The Beaver Reach Stream Restoration Design will potentially be comprised of the following: opening up and reactivating relict side-channels, constructing large wood structures within these side-channels and the Wind River mainstem, obliterating an abandoned road, removing riprap, invasive weed treatment and tree planting zone, removing some large gabions and a portion of an earthen levee, using large wood structures to protect a major Forest road (in place of some of the gabions and levee), and removing some campground infrastructure within the floodplain (i.e. 2 campground toilets, an access road, small culverts).
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group partnered with the USDA Forest Service to complete a preliminary design (Manual 18, D-2) for restoration on the Wind River at the Beaver Reach. This project is located on the Wind River mainstem on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This design project combines two of the highest priority projects that were identified in the SRFB-funded Wind River Habitat Strategy: Beaver North and Beaver Campground. These projects were prioritized by the Wind River Work Group (as part of the LCFRB-led process) because they would address limiting factors and benefit all life-stages of ESA-listed Lower Columbia River (LCR) steelhead trout and Critical Habitat for LCR steelhead. The Beaver Reach Stream Restoration Design evaluated and began planning for the following actions: opening up and reactivating relict side-channels, constructing large wood structures within these side-channels and the Wind River mainstem, removing riprap, and removing concrete slabs and a portion of an earthen levee.
