DESCRIPTION
The Twisp River Mile 3 Fish Habitat Enhancement Project includes construction of three bank buried engineered log structures designed to improve fish habitat and stabilize an eroding bank. This project is mutually beneficial to the landowner and fish as it will use large wood to curtail property loss while introducing some habitat complexity in the reach. Recent geomorphic and habitat assessment work completed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Yakama Nation, indicate that restoration of large wood habitat and riparian forests in the Lower Twisp River is needed to improve habitat conditions for native spring Chinook salmon and steelhead runs. Large wood creates instream cover habitat for juvenile fish and drives geomorphic processes critical to the creation and maintenance of other important aquatic habitat types such as side channels and pools. Due to historic and recent human impacts, the Lower Twisp River lacks much of the beneficial habitat conditions associated with a natural functioning large wood recruitment and retention cycle.