2016 Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund: Lower South Fork Grays Restoration Project

Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Acquisition

Instream Habitat Riparian Habitat
Project IDLwr SF Grays
Recovery DomainsLower Columbia River
Start Date01/02/2017
End Date12/31/2019
Year2016
StatusCompleted
Last Edited01/25/2024
 
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Description    


The Cowlitz Indian Tribe enhanced spawning and rearing habitat for winter steelhead and coho by installing engineered log jams throughout 0.6 miles of the lower South Fork Grays River and 900 of Blaney Creek in Pacific County. The logjams will allow stable island formation, provide local cover, foster mature flood plain forest, and encourage sediment sorting and deposition. Riparian re-planting efforts completed in early 2019 will provide long term shade and wood supply for the reach. This project combined two highly ranked projects from 2010 Grays River Habitat Restoration Technical Report published by the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board. The report authors note that this project provides substantial on-site benefits to habitat, while simultaneously addressing high levels of sediment delivery to downstream Grays River reaches critical to steelhead, coho, chum, and fall Chinook. This is the implementation phase of a design project funded by the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB) in 2013. The Tribe used this grant to match a SRFB grant (RCO #16-1534) for project implementation, and has pro-rated project metrics between the two funding sources to prevent double-counting in the PCSRF database. Tribe, RCO, and PCSRF staff have discussed and agreed to divide metrics between funding pathways to prevent redundancy; RCO will report approximately half of the restoration metrics to PCSRF while the Tribe will report the remaining half. For example, while the total stream length treated (C.0.b) for the project is 0.77 miles, the PCSRF database for award NA16NMF4380335 reflects half of that number: 0.385 miles, rounded to the nearest hundredth of a mile: 0.39.

Project Benefit    


The Lower South Fork Grays Restoration Project includes actions that will alter physical habitat conditions to form a resilient, forested floodplain island network, increase side channel habitat, improve instream habitat diversity, increase wood loading, increase pool area and residual depth, and increase the quantity and quality of spawning habitat throughout the project reach. The project will also encourage sediment deposition and retention on site, alleviating pervasive sediment impacts to productive reaches lower in the Grays River watershed. We expect these changes to drive biological outcomes including increased spawning success and improved juvenile survival rates for listed salmon and steelhead populations.

Accomplishments

Metric Completed Originally
Proposed
Instream Habitat
  Stream Miles Treated .39 .39
Riparian Habitat
  Stream Miles Treated .77 .77
  Acres Treated 18.0 18.0

Funding Details

SourceFunds
PCSRF$500,000
Report Total:$500,000


Project Map



Worksites

Lower South Fork Grays    


  • Worksite Identifier: Lower South Fork Grays
  • Start Date:
  • End Date:
Area Description

No Area Description data was found for this worksite.

Location Information

  • Basin: Lower Columbia (170800)
  • Subbasin: Lower Columbia (17080006)
  • Watershed: Grays River (1708000603)
  • Subwatershed:
  • State: Washington
  • Recovery Domain: Lower Columbia River
  • Latitude: 46.390803254988896
  • Longitude: -123.47116470336616

ESU

  • Lower Columbia River Chinook Salmon ESU
  • Southwest Washington Steelhead DPS
  • Lower Columbia River Coho Salmon ESU

Map

Photos

Metrics

Metrics
  • C.0 Salmonid Habitat Restoration and AcquisitionY (Y/N)
    •      . . C.0.a Habitat restoration and acquisition funding 500,000.00
    •      . . C.0.b Length of stream treated/protected .39
    •      . . C.0.c
      Project identified in a Plan or Watershed Assessment
    •      . . C.0.d.1 Project Monitoring (LOV)
    •      . . C.0.d.2 Monitoring Location (LOV)
    •      . . C.4 Instream Habitat ProjectY (Y/N)
      •      . . . . C.4.a Instream Habitat Funding 400,000.00
      •      . . . . C.4.b Total length of instream habitat treated .39
      •      . . . . C.4.d.1 Channel structure placementY (Y/N)
        •      . . . . . . C.4.d.2 Material used for channel structure (LOV)
        •      . . . . . . C.4.d.3 Miles of stream treated through channel structure placement .39
        •      . . . . . . C.4.d.4 Acres of streambed treated through channel structure placement .3
        •      . . . . . . C.4.d.5 Pools expected to be created through channel structure placement 10
        •      . . . . . . C.4.d.7 Number of structures placed in channel 27
      •      . . C.5 Riparian Habitat ProjectY (Y/N)
        •      . . . . C.5.a Riparian Habitat Funding 100,000.00
        •      . . . . C.5.b.1 Total riparian miles streambank treated .77
        •      . . . . C.5.b.2 Total Riparian Acres Treated 18.0
        •      . . . . C.5.c.1 Riparian plantingY (Y/N)
          •      . . . . . . C.5.c.2
            Species of plants planted in riparian
            Picea sitchensis, Tsuga heterophylla, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Salix sitchensis, Salix lasiandra, Rubus spectabilis, Cornus sericea, Oemleria cerasiformis.
          •      . . . . . . C.5.c.3 Acres planted in riparian 18.0
          •      . . . . . . C.5.c.4 Miles of streambank treated with riparian planting .77