Lower Two-Mile Meadow 30% Restoration Design

The Latah Soil and Water Conservation District in partnership with the USDA Forest Service will develop a 30% engineered restoration design for in-stream and riparian restoration actions on the East Fork Potlatch River (EFPR) at lower Two-Mile Meadow. The project is located in the EFPR subwatershed, a Tier I (highest priority) subwatershed for implementing habitat restoration projects in the Potlatch River watershed.



The overall goal of the project is to help promote self-sustaining stream processes to address limiting factors and improve spawning and rearing habitat for ESA-listed wild steelhead. Objectives include enhancing floodplain connectivity over 15 acres and increasing in-stream habitat complexity along 0.6 miles of the EFPR. This project will extend and complement previous restoration work supported by PCSRF (Project ID 13 16 CW) and partners in upper Two-Mile Meadow.



Outcomes include 30% process-based restoration design focused on actions that address factors limiting steelhead production. Limiting factors in the EFPR subwatershed include habitat complexity and high summer/low winter water temperatures.

When implemented, this project will help address limiting factors to steelhead and improve habitat capacity, growth, and survival by enhancing the quality and quantity of in-stream spawning and rearing habitat, floodplain connectivity, and riparian function through actions that may include (but are not limited to) the removal of abandoned railroad berms, revegetation of riparian and floodplain areas, and placement of large wood and beaver dam analogs. Expected benefits of these actions include: increased sediment sorting, pool formation, cover, and access to high flow refugia to improve habitat complexity; reduction of sediment inputs; increased shading, groundwater recharge, hyporheic exchange, and riparian function to ameliorate temperature extremes and improve survival during critical time periods.