Upper Pataha Creek PALS Restoration

In 2020, the Pomeroy Conservation District received funding to implement stream restoration in Pataha Creek. Pataha Creek is a large tributary to the Tucannon River in southeast Washington. The project area is in the upper portion of the watershed and spans approximately 1.1 miles in project reaches 3, 4, and 5. The watershed supports a population of steelhead that is limited by degraded spawning and rearing habitat conditions due to historic landscape-level impacts including wildfire, logging, grazing, large floods, and the removal of large wood and beaver. These factors have created a simplified and incised stream channel with a lack of pools, poorly sorted sediment, limited habitat complexity, reduced floodplain connectivity, a decrease in riparian function, and high stream temperatures.

The goal of restoration in Pataha Creek is to promote self-sustaining improvements in spawning and rearing habitat for Snake River steelhead through the installation of large woody debris jams and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs), and promote the natural establishment of beaver. A total of 13 beaver dam analogues and 59 post assisted log structures were constructed. Project funding was also used to install exclusion fence on 800 feet of riparian areas along private land, and plant riparian species along sections of the project area to help recovery cottonwood, willow, and other native shrubs.Post-restoration habitat data suggests there has been an increase in jams and dams in the project area and increases in pools and bars.

The goal of restoration in Pataha Creek is to promote self-sustaining improvements in spawning and rearing habitat for Snake River steelhead through the installation of large woody debris jams and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs), and promote the natural establishment of beaver.