South Sisters Instream Habitat Restoration

This project placed logs and boulders across sites spanning 6 miles of South Sister Creek. Across the project reach, sites were placed in areas to maximize habitat complexity while jump-starting natural stream functions which support salmonid spawning and rearing potential. The problem which this project addressed was the lack of large wood or stream complexity within the project area. These simplified stream reaches provide poor habitat for native aquatic species, including anadromous salmonids, lamprey, and trout. By providing increased habitat quality and area, this project will help improve aquatic species production and resiliency within the Smith River Basin.

Instream log and boulder structures restore natural processes which have been long absent or diminished in streams throughout the Smith River Basin. These placements serve to trap substrates, increase habitat complexity, create rearing pools, and improve floodplain connectivity. Prior to the previously discussed anthropogenic disturbances, large wood and log jams were plentiful throughout the basin’s streams. Native aquatic species inhabiting these complex streams evolved long before large-scale human habitat alteration. The simplification of these formerly diverse stream systems has significantly reduced the capacity for species abundance of native fish. The restoration of preexisting ecological processes will build essential multi-life-stage habitat for ESA threatened Oregon Coast Coho, chinook, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and other native species.