This project is an on-going effort to improve salmon spawning and rearing habitat. The Little Hoko River is the largest tributary to the Hoko River Between 1994 and 1998, the Little Hoko received extensive habitat restoration which included; cattle exclusion, planting of 20,000 native trees and shrubs, restructuring of channel habitats using 2,500 pieces of LWD, floodplain road abandonment, and off-channel habitat development. This project was one of the largest habitat restoration projects conducted on the Olympic Peninsula at that time. Monitoring has shown that the project has been partially successful in restoring channel and riparian habitat features, however much of the wood that was utilized were smaller cut logs that have been buried by channel aggradation or degraded over time. In this proposal we propose to add additional large wood as complex logjams using a helicopter. All wood will be large coniferous trees with root wads attached and wood will be placed in aggregations to maximize channel effects. Adding additional large wood in Little Hoko will create additional habitat complexity, providing sheltering areas for spawning adults and rearing fingerlings. It will also reduce scour and assist in gravel bed creation and maintenance. Continuing the process of bed aggradation will assist with floodplain connectivity that was lost through incision caused by historic land uses.

Project will also include invasive species control and riparian revegetation elements.