DESCRIPTION
This action will remove artificial constraints to channel migration and reconnect floodplain areas. Property in the stream corridor should be dedicated for maintenance of habitat-forming processes by working with willing landowners and negotiation of conservation easement and/or land acquisition. Fill materials to be removed include the levee on the Kitsap Golf & Country Club property and the infrastructure associated with the housing development along Shadden Lane NW. Instream habitat conditions will be addressed through strategic wood placements that will increase abundance of pool habitats, provide cover, increase channel complexity, and increase hydraulic roughness. Recent development along Shadden Lane NW will pose significant challenges to restoration of riparian processes and instream habitat conditions through this segment because infrastructure has been placed directly on top of the pre-incision floodplain surface. As such, negotiation and coordination with property owners will be required. Future wood recruitment and restoration of channel migration processes may require future modification to the pedestrian bridge on the Kitsap Golf & Country Club property.
The stream channel has incised due to loss of in-channel wood and has disconnected adjacent floodplain areas. Channel incision has artificially lowered water surface elevations of flood discharges and enabled development of the historic floodplain for residential land use. The property along the right bank upstream of Erlands Point Road was cleared for construction of a new road (Shadden Lane NW) in 2006 and apartment buildings were constructed in 2007. This development is not compatible with restoration of reach-scale processes in Chico Creek and is an example of the type of development that should be prevented by protecting undeveloped parcels within the stream corridor. Artificial fill has been placed in the floodplain at the upstream end to create a levee directing flow into the pedestrian crossing at the Kitsap Golf & Country Club. The floodplain encroachments have isolated potential off-channel habitat, restricted habitat-forming processes such as channel migration and wood recruitment, and will require ongoing maintenance to protect infrastructure from channel migration and flood hazards. Instream habitat conditions are impaired by lack of channel complexity and artificially low wood abundance.
