North Fork Indian Creek Fish Passage Enhancement

The North Fork Indian Creek fish passage enhancement project is located in the Upper Indian Creek basin, HUC 171002060501, in the Lake Creek sub-watershed. Indian Creek flows from its headwaters through forested Federal land before entering a mix of rural residential and agricultural properties in its lower reaches. The stream enters Lake Creek near the town of Indiola, where it continues is downstream path to the Siuslaw River and flows through towns such as Swisshome, Tide, Mapleton and Florence. Multiple restoration documents have cited the potential for OC Coho salmonid production in the Siuslaw basin but recongizes that its carrying capacity is being limited by a variety of anthropogenic factors including decreased fish passage through road-stream crossings on many tributary streams. Blocking fish passage at road-stream crossings lowers the carrying capacity of the basin by blocking access to high quality spawning and rearing habitat. The work proposed in the project would address two (2) high priority crossings in the Upper Indian Creek 6th field HUC on unnamed tributaries to North Fork Indian Creek. The new crossings would be designed to meet ARBO II standards and be sized at 1.5x the active channel and also utilize downstream grade-control structures to promote gravel aggradation and floodplain connectivity. This project will also plant the riparian area and place large wood instream in each tributary.
Project Partners include the Siuslaw Watershed Council (SWC), United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Wild Salmon Center (WSC). The Siuslaw Watershed Council and US Forest Service will cooperatively raise funds and manage the technical details of the project and provide construction oversight. The SWC will be responsible for all project procurement and bid/contract documents. The US Forest Service will permit the program under ARBO II and the Indian Creek Landscape Management Plan. The Wild Salmon Center is funding the AOP designs and also provides techni

The project will benefit ESA listed Oregon Coast Coho Salmon and Oregon Coast DPS Steelhead by improving passage at two (2) undersized and failing stream crossings on FS Road 2216, also known as Mann Creek road. The improved passage will allow adult and juvenile salmonids, as well as other aquatic organisms, unimpeded access to 1.0 miles of high quality spawning and rearing habitat that is currently completely blocked due to the perched nature of the two culverts. Additionally, instream complexity and lateral connectivity to the flood plain will be improved through the installation of large wood as grade control structures on the unnamed tributaries between Mann Creek rd and North Fork Indian Creek. Overall, the project will directly address two key Siuslaw Coho Partnership recovery strategys (Strategic Action Plan for Coho Salmon Recovery- The Siuslaw River) Strategies to Conserve Critical Coho Habitat in the Siuslaw Watershed: strategy 1 Installing large wood, strategy 5 Upgrade Infrastructure as well as indirectly promoting floodplain reconnection (Strategy 3). The proposed stream crossing structures and channels will be designed to effectively transport sediment and mimic a natural stream simulation.