Waw’áalamnima Large Wood Placement

The Nez Perce Tribe (NPT), in partnership with the Nez Perce – Clearwater National Forest (NP-CNF) and Trout Unlimited, completed the Waw’áalamnima Large Wood Placement project to restore and enhance instream habitat complexity and floodplain connectivity by adding nine large woody structures along an approximately three mile stretch of Waw’aa’lamnime Creek, adjacent to Forest Road 108, on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. Structures were designed to allow natural stream channel dynamics to continue. These structures were placed at locations where previous log weirs were installed, but no longer function optimally. Two sites were dropped from the original planned eleven sites after consideration and discussion between all the parties. The two sites dropped were considered to be too close to the road, should stream response be greater than expected.

The project treated high priority B-Run Steelhead habitat in Waw’áalamnima Creek, which is tributary to the Lochsa River in the Clearwater Subbasin. Recovery plans for Snake River Steelhead, Bull trout, and Spring Chinook (not ESA-listed in the Lochsa) identify lack of woody material, low quality pools, and decreased stream-floodplain connectivity as factors limiting salmonid abundance and productivity (NOAA 2016, NOAA 2008, USFWS 2002).

The project was completed for approximately half of the anticipated cost. This was due to an agreement reached between the Nez Perce – Clearwater National Forest and Trout Unlimited that allowed Trout Unlimited to let and administer the contract for the large wood placement. The winning contractor was able to complete the project in less time than proposed, and at a considerably lower cost than any of our estimates. As a result, the total cost of the project, and the accompanying match provided by Bonneville Power Administration, was less than half the original project estimate. The U.S. Forest Service provided non-match funding.

The wood structures to be installed are more complex than the existing log weirs installed in the early 1980s. The new structures will stabilize banks, restore natural pool and riffle formation, and increase exposure and deposition of spawning gravels.