Restoration Planning
Client: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This “Working Lands” project balances habitat improvement with improving or maintaining existing agricultural uses in a 300-acre sheep and cattle ranch on the tidal floodplain along the Coquille River in coastal Oregon. Conversion to pastureland at the site began in the early 1900s with the clearing of native forest, construction of levees and linear drainage ditches, and installation of tidegates, which were in disrepair and prevented active tidal flows and fish access to critical vegetated floodplain habitat. Waterways was contracted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Coquille Watershed Association to support USFWS, ODFW, and the Coquille Watershed Association to design, permit, and implement the project. The project area is privately owned by a local family and will continue to function as a ranching operation following project completion. The project involves excavating new tidal channels, filling drainage ditches, installing large wood, re-establishing fish access to the floodplain, and building two large concrete box culverts with muted tidal regulator (MTR) controlled tide gates to allow managed tidal flows.
Client: Oregon Parks and Recreation
Waterways Consulting recently completed a restoration plan for Jackson Creek and Netarts Creek for the OPRD at Cape Lookout State Park. The focus of the effort was to evaluate the hydrology, geomorphology, and habitat conditions of Jackson Creek, the principle stream that flows through Cape Lookout. Approximately 60 years ago, a portion of Jackson Creek was diverted to Netarts Bay to increase freshwater flows into Netarts Bay with the hope of improving the commercial oyster beds. Impacts associated with the diversion and associated flow split were addressed in the restoration plan as well as opportunities for enhancement of the Jackson Creek mainstem downstream of the diversion site.
Client: Coastal Watershed Council
The primary objective of this project was to develop a watershed assessment and enhancement plan for the Aptos Creek Watershed with a focus on restoration and enhancement of salmonids spawning and rearing habitat. Aptos Creek is a small coastal drainage located in southern Santa Cruz County. A variety of land uses occur within the watershed including urban, rural residential, orchards, timber harvests, and recreation. A large portion of land is protected within the Forest of Nisene Marks, which is part of the California State Park System.
Client: Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District
The primary objective of this project was to develop a planning document to restore and enhance aquatic habitat conditions for Steelhead trout in the Morro Bay watershed. Specific tasks included oversight and review of field data collection by Resource Conservation District programs, organization and review of existing and historical data, field reconnaissance of potential limiting factors, interaction with agency staff and members of the public, and development of the Restoration Planning document. Recommendations and restoration priorities were developed based on the results of the limiting factors analysis and input from agencies and the public. This project was funded by the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, California Department of Fish and Game, and the California Coastal Conservancy.
Client: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via HDR, Inc.
Dairy Creek is located approximately 12 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon on Sauvie Island. Dairy Creek is a highly modified channel connecting the Columbia River at river mile (RM) 98.5 to Sturgeon Lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with local partners, West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District (WMSWCD) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) are interested in evaluating restoration opportunities for Dairy Creek (Sauvie Island) via the Section 1135 of the 2000 Water Resources Development Act. The original intent of the Dairy Creek Restoration Feasibility Study (Study) was to evaluate alternatives to re-establish Dairy Creek as a flushing channel for Sturgeon Lake.
Client: Scappoose Bay Watershed Council
Milton Creek was identified as a high priority tributary to Scappoose Bay and the lower Columbia River Estuary. Multiple species of salmon utilize the system including coho, Chinook, and chum as well as steelhead and sea-run cutthroat trout. A rapid biological assessment, conducted in 2012 identified several reaches in the headwaters of Milton Creek as anchor habitats for coho and steelhead.
In 2013, the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council contracted with Waterways Consulting to assist in a planning process to enhance instream habitat by introducing large wood to over three miles of channel that occurred between the two segments of identified anchor habitat. The entire reach is owned and managed by the City of St. Helens who were active partners in the planning and design process and have committed to donating large wood to the project.
Client: North Fork John Day Watershed Council
Fox Creek has been identified as an important spawning and rearing tributary to the North Fork of the John Day River in Eastern Oregon. Impacts to the stream and watershed include fish passage barriers associated with passive diversion structures, water withdrawals during the critical low flow summer season, lack of adequate fish screening at water diversion sites, and severe channel incision that was causing reductions in water quality associated with bank erosion and loss of a continuous riparian canopy, loss of functional floodplain habitat, and conversion of productive hay fields to marginal rangeland as water tables declined. These changes were having a noticeable impact on the economic viability of the land and the sustainability of natural ecological processes.
Client: Tualatin River Watershed Council
Waterways staff prepared engineering designs and specifications to improve passage for steelhead and cutthroat trout on a headwater tributary to the Tualatin River in Washington County, OR. The site consisted of a seasonal flashboard dam. Downstream of the flashboard dam the channel had incised 3-feet creating a fish passage barrier under most flow conditions. The design consisted of a series of five rock weirs to build the bed up downstream of the structure and provide fish passage under all flow conditions by creating a backwater condition at the dam. Waterways assisted the Tualatin River Watershed Council (TRWC) with the permitting and construction supervision. The project was constructed in Summer 2008.
Client: Lower Columbia River Watershed Council
Waterways completed the planning, design and construction oversight for a floodplain enhancement project located within the Columbia River floodplain, just east of Clatskanie, Oregon in Columbia County. The project was a collaborative effort between the landowner, Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District, Lower Columbia River Watershed Council, Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership, and Bonneville Power Administration.
Client: Tualatin River Watershed Council (TRWC)
In March of 2003 the TRWC completed work on the Lower Gales Creek Habitat Enhancement Plan. Gales Creek is a major tributary to the Tualatin River in Washington County, Oregon. The Enhancement Plan identified potential restoration projects designed to improve habitat conditions for steelhead and other salmonids. To evaluate the feasibility of implementing potential channel, floodplain, and habitat enhancement projects, TRWC retained the services of Waterways staff to conduct a comprehensive geomorphic assessment of the planning reach and prioritize potential restoration options. The geomorphic assessment and project feasibility study was completed in 2005. Following completion of the study, Waterways has continued to work with the TRWC by preparing construction documents for site specific projects aimed at enhancing channel and floodplain function, improving in-stream and off-channel aquatic and wetland habitat, and restoring riparian areas. Waterways and TRWC has worked closely with landowners and other stakeholders to achieve the identified goals.
Client: Truckee River Watershed Council, U.S. Forest Service
Alpine meadow systems within the central Sierra Nevada have been greatly impacted by past land use practices. One important meadow system that is somewhat intact is Perazzo Meadows, located in the headwaters of the Little Truckee River Watershed. Waterways provided assistance to the Truckee River Watershed Council and the U.S. Forest Service in an evaluation and characterization of the Perazzo Meadow complex and the surrounding watershed. The assessment consisted of a geomorphically-based assessment of the meadow complex. The geomorphic and hydrologic characterization of the meadow system was necessary to provide a framework for planning and design of a comprehensive restoration effort to restore floodplain connectivity and meadow function. It has been well documented that “process based” restoration projects that consider the geomorphic and hydrologic setting of the watershed have a higher likelihood of being successful. Gaining an understanding of these processes allows for development of feasible restoration approaches that are founded in the physical processes which operate in these alpine meadow systems.
Client: Vail Resorts
Waterways staff was retained to prepare the Edgewood Watershed Assessment and Enhancement Plan (EWAEP) for the portion of the Edgewood Creek watershed managed by Heavenly Mountain Resort, located in the Lake Tahoe Basin, as part of the resorts 2005 Master Plan. The purpose of the EWAEP was to identify potential restoration projects in the Edgewood Creek watershed to improve Stream Environment Zone health and improve water quality. The final EWAEP was submitted in January 2006 and was followed by four restoration designs completed in 2006.
Client: Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District
This project is located along the mainstem of the Clatskanie River, where the river transitions from a riverine to a tidal system. Past land use impacts have led to a degraded riparian corridor dominated by reed canary grass, less frequent side channel connectivity, and a lack of pool scour in floodplain and secondary channels.
Client: HDR
Clean Water Service (CWS) is tasked with managing stormwater in portions of Washington County, OR that fall within the Urban Growth Boundary with the goal of protecting waterways and natural resources within stream and wetland corridors. When a new development is proposed, CWS works with the developer to meet regulatory requirements associated with increased runoff from impervious surfaces with the goal of maintaining discharges of stormwater to pre-development conditions. Traditionally, meeting these requirements consists of designing and constructing large, regional stormwater management facilities in upland areas adjacent to the new developments.
Client: Cascade Environmental Group
Waterways has teamed with Cascade Environmental Group to develop, implement, and monitor a restoration plan for approximately 30 acres of riparian and bottomland forest along the Willamette River in the city of Gladstone. The site encompasses a short, perennial tributary known as Rinearson Creek that is periodically backwatered from the Willamette River and provides rearing and off-channel refugia for a variety of species and life stages of salmon.
Client: American Rivers, Inc. & Placer County Resource Conservation District
Waterways was selected to develop and analyze alternatives for ecological restoration of the Hope Valley Meadow on the West Fork Carson River, with a primary goal of enhancing the full range of ecosystem services this highly visible and well-known meadow provides. The project area encompasses approximately 400 acres of the meadow within Upper Hope Valley, just east of Blue Lakes Road, Alpine County.
Client: RCD of Santa Cruz
A watershed assessment prepared for the East Branch of Soquel Creek identified limiting factors for steelhead and coho production which included high sediment loads, lack of pools, low summer base flows, and high water temperatures. In 2013, the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County contracted with Waterways to prepare a feasibility analysis and engineered designs for biomechanical bank stabilization of a large eroding cutbank and the creation of habitat enhancements along approximately 1,500 feet channel banks that were covered with unvegetated riprap, resulting in lack of habitat complexity or riparian cover.
Client: Sierra Nevada Alliance
The California Unified Watershed Assessment identified the Upper Carson River as a Category I priority watershed for water quality improvement. The Sierra Nevada Alliance, on behalf of the Alpine Watershed Group, responded by initiating the preparation of a Stream Corridor Condition Assessment for the Upper Carson River Watershed with funding from the California State Water Resources Control Board. The assessment included a fluvial geomorphic assessment, a survey of conditions in the riparian and floodplain zone, a list of prioritized restoration projects, and a recommended list of management measures. Waterways staff joined the assessment team as the project team hydrologists and geomorphologists and as the primary project team members evaluating riparian health and providing restoration project recommendations. The assessment included approximately 66 miles of stream channel within the West Fork Carson River, East Fork Carson River, Wolf Creek, and Markleeville/Hot Springs Creek.
Client: Benchmark Resources
The pond construction at Pilarcitos Quarry included two bentonite-lined ponds within the Nuff Creek watershed, each designed to improve habitat for red-legged frogs. Waterways provided planning services to site the ponds, performed topographic and construction surveying, prepared preliminary and final designs, provided permit support, and supervised the construction effort.
Client: Metro
Deep Creek is a moderately-sized tributary to the Clackamas River in Clackamas County, Oregon. The North Fork of Deep Creek is characterized by a naturally incised channel with adjacent river terraces. In 2009, Metro, a Portland area regional land use management agency, purchased the Mabel Johnson property as open space, encompassing approximately two miles of the mainstem of North Fork. Natural resource restoration at the property included removal of several home sites, removal of non-native vegetation, and restoration of riparian and upland plant communities. In 2012, Metro asked Waterways to participate in a restoration planning process to enhance instream habitat through the property with a focus on coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. In response, Waterways conducted a comprehensive evaluation of habitat and geomorphic conditions within the channel and prepared an assessment that identified a set of restoration actions.
Client: Ecological Concerns, Inc.
Waterways and ECI have teamed in a design-build capacity to assist the City of Santa Cruz with a multi-phase, multisite design and construction project to offset jurisdictional impacts to wetlands and waters associated with a retrofit of the dam infrastructure at Loch Lomond Reservoirs, a main source of water for the City. The mitigation effort includes three sites: 1) Canham Meadow: wet meadow restoration on a property managed by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County consisting of a gully that has incised through Canham Meadow, impacting wet meadow function and associated habitat, 2) Newell Creek Habitat Enhancement: includes installation of large wood structures on a portion of Newell Creek downstream of the Loch Lomond dam to enhance habitat for listed steelhead, and 3) Loch Lomond Shoreline Stabilization: consists of rehabilitating shoreline at Loch Lomond that is currently eroding.