DESCRIPTION
The Asotin County Conservation District is sponsoring this restoration project to add more wood to sections of Charley Creek, North Fork Asotin Creek, and South Fork Asotin Creek. These creeks are in the Asotin Creek watershed approximately 10 km south of Clarkston, WA and are part of an Intensively Monitored Watershed project (IMW). The goal of the IMW is to test if adding large woody debris can increase abundance and productivity of wild juvenile steelhead. The goal of the proposed project is to implement the adaptive management plan of the IMW and add more wood to sections of stream that have been previously restored in order to increase the density of wood and create more habitat complexity and floodplain connection. The project will use monitoring data from the IMW to identify areas where wood density is low and/or where habitat change is limited and target those areas to add more wood. The total area is 14 km long and we anticipate adding several hundred pieces of wood to each stream using the low-tech process-based restoration method develop in this IMW using post-assisted log structures (PALS). The project should result in higher wood density and improved rearing and spawning conditions for wild summer run steelhead and improve the ability of the IMW to test conclusively if large wood additions can increase steelhead productivity in small wadeable streams.
The Asotin Creek Intensively Monitored Watershed project (Asotin IMW) has been running since 2008 with the goal to test the effectiveness of low-tech process-based restoration structures at improving riverscape health and summer steelhead productivity. The project is coordinated by the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board and funded by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Restoration on the Charley Creek site was completed in both 2020 and 2021, resulting in .93 miles of new treatment area that included 37 new structures, 2 existing structures enhanced, and 10 trees felled into the stream.
South Fork Asotin Creek was also treated in both 2020 and 2021, resulting in 2.18 miles of new treatment area that included 66 new structures, enhancement of 132 existing structures and 14 trees felled.
There was a delay securing permits and a cultural survey to work in the North Fork, which limited restoration work to one work window. Efforts on the North Fork took place in 2021 and resulted in 1.24 miles of new treatment area. There were 17 new structures and enhancement of 22 existing structures. 14 trees were also fell.