Sweetwater Creek Ecological Restoration LERRDs

The Nez Perce Tribe has partnered with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the Sweetwater Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project. This is a Section 203 project. The project will restore three sections of Sweetwater Creek, a tributary of Lapwai Creek, using a suite of restoration techniques including stream realignment and improvement, side channel construction, floodplain construction, large wood and boulder structures, streambank improvement and grading, levee and berm modifications, and riparian preservation and planting. This project has completed the feasibility study phase and is entering into the next phase of land appraisal and easements.



Project actions include Land, Leases, Rights of Way, Relocation (utility) and Disposal Areas (LERRDs) on 33.3 acres of Individual Tribal Allotments for restoration activities on Sweetwater 01, 05, and 07. To help ensure success of the restoration work, a 50-year lease will be placed on the properties of restored sections of stream, floodplain, and riparian areas. The leases will ensure that no development, building, or destruction of restoration activities occur.



The Nez Perce Tribe will relocate utilities and place a 50-year lease on properties that will undergo stream, floodplain, and riparian restoration to ensure that no development, building, or destruction of restoration activities occur, to benefit ESA-listed steelhead. Project actions include appraisals, 50-year leases on affected properties, and utilities relocation on the planned restoration area. No construction will be completed under this project contract.

This project will fund appraisals, leases, and utility relocations as a necessary first step towards the restoration of the Sweetwater Creek riparian area, floodplain, stream channel, and side channels on Nez Perce Tribal Allotment lands. This project phase will not complete any construction actions.

Sweetwater Creek, a major tributary to Lapwai Creek, suffers from long-term anthropogenic influence and modification. The existing stream channel has been simplified, straightened, and entrenched through much of the project stretch. This has led to a drastic decrease in floodplain activation, side channel formation, riparian vegetation, large woody material, and essential fish habitat for ESA listed Steelhead.

The Lapwai Creek Watershed has experienced eight out of ten of its highest flows within the last fifteen years. These effects, coupled with lack of cover habitat and velocity refugia have put increased strain on juvenile salmonids within Sweetwater Creek. Multiple efforts have been made to restore sections of both Sweetwater Creek and Lapwai Creek with some success, and this project looks to build on that foundation and further expand Essential Fish Habitat for ESA listed Steelhead.