Cub Creek Restoration Phase II

The Cub Creek Restoration Phase II Project is in Cub Creek, which is a tributary to the Clackamas River located in the Upper Basin in Clackamas County approximately forty miles upstream of the North Fork Reservoir. Cub Creek has been recognized as a high priority watershed with several essential projects identified to improve degraded stream conditions and impacts from the 2020 Lionshead Fire. This project builds upon previous work conducted by project partners by addressing key factors limiting salmonid-production identified in the Lower Columbia River Conservation and Recovery Plan; factors include the lack of habitat connectivity and complexity, lack of instream large wood, and low numbers of riparian conifers and native vegetation. Proposed work includes: 1) riparian and upland planting, 2) filling of incised channels to a Stage 0 channel condition, and 3) addition of large wood to add roughness to the floodplain and meet the USDA Forest Service standard. Project objectives include the creation of complex pools, gravel retention and aggradation, high and low flow fish refugia, and reconnection of side-channel and floodplain habitats. Native trees and shrubs will stabilize eroding banks, and native grass seed mix will be spread across riparian zones along the stream. Project actions will occur over a 10-acre area along the first stream mile of lower Cub Creek, which was severely burned with 99% tree mortality during the 2020 Lionshead Fire. Project partners include Trout Unlimited, USDA Forest Service, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Cub Creek Restoration Project is a multi-year project aimed at addressing the poor stream conditions in the Cub Creek subwatershed and adjacent section of the mainstem Clackamas River through the addition of large wood, removal/fill of alluvium to reconnect the floodplain and restore channels to a Stage 0 condition, and rehabilitation of burned riparian areas (Sheets 3-7). These actions are intended to improve critical habitat the supports the production of ESA-listed Coho salmon, Spring Chinook salmon, and Winter Steelhead in the subwatershed, and may benefit resident State Sensitive Coastal Cutthroat trout, Rainbow trout, and a nearby experimental population of Bull trout.