Upper Nehalem Anchor Habitat Enhancement

Upper Nehalem Watershed Council (UNWC) working in partnership with ODFW, ODF, and Columbia County Parks are proposing to strategically improve anadromous fish habitat and natural stream functions within high priority aquatic anchor habitats identified within four productive Coho salmon bearing tributaries of the Upper Nehalem River Basin. Each of the stream reaches are below ODFW habitat benchmarks for Large Wood Debris (LWD) that typify optimal habitat utilized by salmonids. Partners will construct fish habitat structures ( LWD and Beaver Dam Analogs - BDAs) over the course of the stream channel to help meet and/or exceed the ODFW habitat benchmarks. Riparian planting will be installed, including species to provide beaver forage.

Strategic placement of Large Woody Debris (LWD) and Beaver Dam Analogue (BDA) structures within the proposed salmon anchor habitats will enhance natural stream functions, watershed processes, and provide quality habitat long-term for its recipient species. The proposed project and its projected benefits for salmonids (Coho specifically in this case) relies heavily on the “anchor habitat strategy”, which seeks to identify, protect, and restore the stream reaches within a watershed that is most capable of supporting Coho across the full spectrum of their freshwater residency, including egg incubation, rearing, refuge, smolting, and spawning. The habitat enhancements presented in this proposal help to conserve these anchor habitats (and other critical areas) by installing LWD/BDAs and entice dam building beavers to re-colonize historic legacy areas. Combined, these actions will help promote in-stream habitat complexity and floodplain interaction in and around the identified anchor habitats; enhancing riparian function; wetlands, and other forms of off-channel refuges.