Warm Springs River and Beaver Creek Large Wood Placement Project II

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The proposed large woody debris (LWD) additions will provide ESA-listed and culturally significant salmonid species with critical spawning, rearing, and adult holding habitat. LWD has shown to be vital for generating habitat complexity, providing thermal and hydraulic refugia, pool creation, the accumulation and sorting of suitable spawning gravels, and providing protection from predators. Previous fisheries surveys conducted in the Warm Springs River (2006 - 2010) found that juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead/redband trout utilized LWD structures with respective average densities of 4.2 and 1.1 individuals per square meter (fish/m2) of LWD habitat. Additionally, snorkel surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018 in a reach of the Warm Springs River that was treated with LWD placements in 2016, found the average abundance of Chinook salmon to be between 7 (2017) and 2.8 (2018) times greater compared to a reference, untreated reach. Thus, the proposed LWD treatments are expected to increase the productivity and viability of populations of ESA-listed and culturally significant salmonid species in the Warm Springs River and Beaver Creek.