DESCRIPTION
To change in confinement near RS 25 Near term actions to prevent further channel incision and increase channel complexity should focus on wood placement to replace the functions previously provided by large trees recruited to the channel. Concurrent efforts should be made to work with willing landowners to enhance habitat, negotiate conservation easements, and/or acquire property in the stream corridor to enable removal of floodplain constraints such as bank protection and houses from floodplain and replant the riparian forest which has been cleared along much of the left bank.
Habitat forming processes are impaired in the lower reaches of Kitsap Creek by lack of floodplain connectivity due to channel incision, lack of large wood, and armored bank protection. Residential development encroaches into the stream corridor with some houses located on the former floodplain surface (converted to terrace by incision) less than 20 ft from the streambank (Figure 55).
Riparian conditions are impaired throughout the area of residential development, mainly along the left (west) bank. The restoration strategy in these reaches is constrained by the existing land use pattern. The stream channel lacks wood and has few pools.
