DESCRIPTION
Mid-Columbia Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group will assist the Naches Ranger District with priority road decommissioning work. This project proposes to decommission 4.72 miles of National Forest road in the Nile Creek and Lower Rattlesnake Creek subwatersheds in the Naches River sub-basin. The road closings have all been analyzed through NEPA and ESA in concert with larger forest health projects. Forest roads alter the hydrology of stream systems, resulting in increased peak flows. The roads are often a source of chronic sediment input and can inhibit large wood transport at stream crossings. Cumulatively, forest roads degrade the headwaters of salmonid-bearing watersheds, resulting in direct downstream effects to salmon, steelhead, and resident trout habitat. This project will benefit federally-threatened steelhead and bull trout.
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group supported the US Forest Service Naches Ranger District with priority road decommissioning work. They decommissioned portions of 6 National Forest roads, totaling 4.71 miles (as measured in the field) in the Nile Creek and Lower Rattlesnake Creek subwatersheds in the Naches River sub-basin. As part of the road decommissing process, they removed a perched culvert that blocked fish passage to 3 miles of Orr Creek. The road closings were analyzed through NEPA and ESA in concert with larger forest health projects.
Forest roads alter the hydrology of stream systems, resulting in increased peak flows. The roads are often a source of chronic sediment input and can inhibit large wood transport at stream crossings. Cumulatively, forest roads degrade the headwaters of salmonid-bearing watersheds, resulting in direct downstream effects to salmon, steelhead, and resident trout habitat. This project will benefit federally-threatened steelhead and bull trout. Westslope cutthroat trout have already been observed in the restored stream channel where a perched culvert once sat.
