Habitat Restoration

Project Description: The cold-water temperatures and high stream flow of the Upper West Fork provide some of the best spawning and rearing habitat for spring Chinook, coho, and summer steelhead in the Hood River Watershed. Historic logging practices, including splash damming and removal of large riparian conifers, however, left insufficient amounts of large instream wood and reduced stream-to-floodplain connectivity. This in turn reduced habitat quantity and complexity, including poor spawning substrate composition, low pool frequency, and a lack of refuge from high velocities. The Watershed Group, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, is implementing a series of instream habitat enhancement projects in the Upper West Fork to improve and expand salmonid spawning and rearing habitat.

Current Updates: In the summer of 2019, the West Fork at Jones Creek project was implemented. This project restored fish habitat along 0.6 miles of the upper West Fork between the confluences with Jones Creek and Ladd Creek. Approximately 350 pieces of large wood were placed in the stream and floodplain to improve and expand salmonid spawning and rearing habitat. The Watershed Group assisted the Forest Service and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs to implement this project with funding from OWEB, CTWS, and the Forest Service.

As of the summer of 2020, project designs are being completed for Phase 3 of instream habitat restoration on a 0.5 mile reach of the West Fork near the Red Hill Creek Confluence. Phase 3 will be implemented in the summer of 2021 and will increase the number of pools, size and number of spawning gravel patches, channel complexity, and the overall amount of stream habitat through the re-connection of side channels.

Phase 3 Project Investment: ~$250,000 (OWEB, CTWS, USFS)

Phase 3 Project Timeline: Summer 2021 – Implementation