This habitat improvement project is designed to mitigate the legacy effects of dredge mining operations in the Scott River on access to high quality rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids and to restore natural river processes. Immediate benefits to juvenile coho salmon include access to critical off-channel winter and summer rearing habitat that connects to an area dominated by hyporheic flow and enhanced with the addition of instream structures. The reconnection and enhancement of off-channel habitat within the historic floodplain will also provide long term benefits by supporting channel processes such as deposition, channel migration, flooding, and wood recruitment that have been altered from land use activities.
The placement of large woody debris within the project reach will also influence aquatic habitat and stream geomorphic processes. Root wads will provide juvenile fish habitat complexity, cover from predators, and high velocity refuge. ELJs in the mainstem will work to increase pool formation, retain and sort streambed substrate and sediment, and work to recruit additional wood, all which help to maintain sediment transport equilibrium and provide gravel deposits favorable for spawning.
