Cottonwood Creek Instream Habitat RM 8

Cottonwood Creek is a 303(d) listed stream for temperature that provides critical spawning and rearing habitat to ESA-listed Mid-Columbia River summer steelhead. Elevated water temperatures and low flow significantly limit steelhead populations in Cottonwood Creek, a tributary to the North Fork John Day River (ODFW 2019), near the town of Monument, Oregon. The project will implement 4 miles of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR) along Cottonwood Creek starting at river-mile 8. LT-PBR structures will enhance large woody debris retention, attenuate flows, improve floodplain connectivity, aggregate sediment, and boost riparian hardwood productivity. These improvements will increase physical complexity within the channel, providing favorable conditions for steelhead. LTPBR structures, such as Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) and Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS), may also serve as a mechanism to restrict the upstream movement of nonnative smallmouth bass. The proposed project will hire a contractor to install LT-PBR structures along the 4-mile section of Cottonwood Creek. Match funding for the project will come from a variety of partners. Potential funding partners include: Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Other project components not included in this proposal are the costs for tree harvest, in-stream construction materials, riparian fencing, and survey related costs. This project will include Beaver Emphasis Area (BEA) beaver activity surveys on Cottonwood in partnership with ODFW. Finally, the project will include comprehensive conservation assessments for all willing landowners on Cottonwood Creek, leveraging the North Fork John Day Watershed Councils Stewardship Planning Framework. Collectively, these survey efforts will inform strategic, holistic, river to ridge-top restoration opportunities (near and long-term) to improve riverscape habitat conditions in Cottonwood Creek.



Worksite #1 Proposed Work:

This proposal only includes a single worksite: The Cottonwood Instream Habitat RM project will install approximately 4 miles of LTPBR instream habitat structures. Instream structures will consist of Beaver Dam Analogs, and Post Assisted Log Structures. PCSRF funds will be used to hire a contractor to install the LTPBR structures. The placement of in-channel structures will directly create off channel habitat (through back-watering, alteration of flow paths, etc.), and improve channel bed and substrate conditions (through recruitment/sorting of spawning gravel and fines). The project is being designed in combination with staff from Monument SWCD and Anderson Perry (engineering firm). Project permitting is being completed by Anderson Perry. Monument SWCD have designed and funded several other phases of LTPBR work along Cottonwood Creek. The RM 8 section represents a third project within the Cottonwood drainage aimed at this type of habitat restoration.

LTP-BR on Cottonwood Creek will increase physical complexity instream, increase floodplain connectivity, and create beaver habitat. These structures will increase physical complexity by maximizing hydraulic diversity such as creating upstream ponds at baseflow. LT-PBR structures will force areas of high and low flow velocity to alter patterns of erosion and deposition, promote sorting, and allow for large woody debris recruitment. The overall ecological impact of this project is a healthier riverscape with increased surface flow volume, duration, and extent. This will lead to an increase in juvenile steelhead rearing and migration habitat quantity and quality in Cottonwood Creek – a high restoration benefit area for steelhead recovery.



This project addresses Columbia Basin Partnership (CBP) natural production goals 1-A(a), 1-C(a), and 1-E(a). Protection and restoration of priority floodplain habitats are discussed in the CBP Phase II report as a component of addressing fish mortality factors due to habitat degradation in Columbia R. tributaries. This will contribute to the CBP goals to prevent declines of ESA stocks and provide measurable progress toward broad sense recovery throughout the basin.