Sharrock-Becker – Big Meadow Creek Design

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) will design habitat treatments on an 0.84-mile segment of Big Meadow Creek (BMC), a tributary of the West Fork Little Bear Creek (WFLBC) in the Potlatch River watershed. This will include in-stream restoration on two private properties and the replacement of an undersized culvert. The proposed project is upstream of a previously funded fish passage project (014 16 CW) located on BMC just upstream from its confluence with WFLBC, and upstream of the PCSRF projects Cooley #1 (010 21 CW) and Cooley #2 (019 22 SC) on the WFLBC. Current habitat conditions include a river segment that in moderately incised, contains primarily small substrate sizes, is surrounded primarily with agricultural fields, exhibits elevated summer water temperature, lacks pools and thermal refugia, contains little instream woody material or other lateral habitat, a disengaged floodplain, and limited overstory shading from riparian vegetation. Project objectives will be to develop design options that address the limiting factors and increase habitat capacity for juvenile steelhead, select the preferred option, and advance designs to 95%. Limiting factors will be addressed through reestablishing a functioning floodplain, reducing stream energy, increasing habitat complexity, and replacing an undersized culvert.

The NOAA recovery plan for Snake River Basin steelhead identified impaired fish passage, reduced stream complexity and channel structure, excess fine sediment, elevated summer water temperatures, diminished streamflow during critical periods, reduced floodplain connectivity and function, and degraded riparian conditions as the primary steelhead liming factors in this watershed. While previous projects on the West Fork of Little Bear Creek (PCSRF 010 11 CW; PCSRF 006 13 CW) and its main tributary (PCSRF 004 11 CW; 014 13 CW: 014 16 CW) have focused on addressing passage barriers, the Sharrock-Becker project will focus on increasing stream complexity, floodplain connectivity and function, and decreasing summer water temperature. When the design is implemented, this project will restore 0.84 miles of stream habitat. Restoring natural river processes and function will directly increase habitat capacity for juvenile steelhead. The impact of this project should be detectable as it is located in a tributary with some of the highest densities of steelhead in the Potlatch River Basin. Further, there is potential for similar treatments in the ~0.5 river miles immediately upstream, and ~3.55 river miles immediately downstream of the project, as this project will demonstrate the efficacy and low risk of this process- based approach to steelhead habitat improvements to interested landowners.