Austin Hot Springs Habitat Enhancement (LWD Transfer and Project Design)

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (Tribes) are partnering with the Clackamas River Basin Council (CRBC) to reclaim side channels and floodplains at the Austin Hot Springs Conservation Area. Located in the upper Clackamas, several miles below the Big Bottoms reach, Austin Hot Springs is a 150-acre property completely surrounded by Mt. Hood National Forest with USFS 46, a paved two-lane road, bisecting the property. In-stream and floodplain habitat has been degraded due to road building, back revetments and unauthorized camping and modification of the hot springs. CRBC in partnership with the Tribes propose to restore in-stream habitat along a 1-mile reach of river by adding large wood structures, grade the hot springs side channel to remove user created water control structures, create 2 new side channels, and reclaim ~7 acres of riparian area impacted by camping and parking and revegetate disturbed areas. The CRBC will be the recipients of the Tribes’ PCSRF funding and will solicit and hire subcontractors for the project.



Most of the work to occur under this effort is already included under PCSRF project 23-Warm-03 (Austin Hot Springs Conservation Enhancement). The funding for this project (18-Warm-04) was transferred from a previously terminated 2018 project, and will specifically fund the following additional work for the larger effort: (a) Project design related to the Oregon DEQ NPDES 1200C permit ($7,500); and (b) the transport of debris (“slash material”) from the Portland General Electric Faraday Dam forbay to the project site, where it will be used in the restoration effort ($18,000). Specifically, this slash material will be laid in the decompacted camping and parking areas to replace the organics that have been removed from the site over the years by campers fires (soil amendment), to place in the large wood structures to create more complex habitat, and as a mattress to cushion the ground when working near CMTs. The total upland area treated will be 7 acres, and the parking area decommissioned will be 350 ft long by 50 ft wide.



Please note that the metrics ascribed to this 2018 project account for the upland benefit of the placement of the slash material in the formal impacted area, while the metrics for the 2023 project account for the restoration work to occur in the riparian and instream zones.

Clackamas River basin ESA-listed fish species; Spring Chinook, Lower-Columbia River Coho and Lower Columbia River steelhead are negatively impacted by loss of habitat, impaired water quality and lack of access to historic spawning areas, such as side channels. This project will restore habitat elements believed to be most limiting to these populations of salmon and steelhead.



Lack of Large Wood: Limited pieces of large wood were noted by surveyors within the active channel area of the project reach. A lack of mature conifers within the riparian and upland areas limits future recruitment of large wood from those areas and it is likely there is little recruitment from upstream reaches given that the highway continues as you travel upstream of the project area. Large wood, especially key pieces are an important component of creating and maintaining physical habitat diversity for the ESA-listed fish. Significantly increasing the density of large wood in the project area would greatly enhance biological conditions for these fish. Large wood creates hydraulic roughness along the channel and, in turn, recruits gravels needed for spawning fish. Spawning fish depend on appropriately sized gravel and cobble that are not always found in a river devoid of the roughness provided by instream wood. Rearing salmonids also depend on in-stream and overhead cover for refuge from predators. Large wood provides refuge for juvenile salmonids, as well as a substrate where food resources tend to accumulate, in the form of macroinvertebrates.



Loss of Side and Off Channel habitats: This project will directly benefit the salmonids by greatly increasing the amount and quality of side and off channel habitats at the site. The hot springs side channel will be enhanced by removing the user created water control structures and addition of large wood. Two new side channels will be excavated into low flood plains between the river and FS46 creating ~2,000 linear feet of side channel habitat. Two existing off channel areas will be loaded with large wood which is currently lacking in the reach.