Upper Peshastin Stream and Road Restoration

We propose a process-based restoration project in the upper Peshastin watershed, including conceptual designs for stream and road restoration treatments. Peshastin Creek is an important stream for wild steelhead, often with the highest wild steelhead escapement of any Wenatchee watershed tributary. This project will design treatments for all roads, across all land ownership, in the upper Peshastin Creek watershed. This project will also develop conceptual designs for a total of 3.6 miles of N. Shaser Creek, M. Shaser Creek, Peshastin Creek, and Scotty Creek. This design effort would address the severe degradation to steelhead, Chinook salmon, and bull trout spawning and rearing habitat caused by logging, roads, and suction dredge mining (which was recently prohibited). Designs would promote streambed aggradation, substrate heterogeneity, geomorphic complexity, floodplain connectivity, increased cover, and wood retention along 3.6 miles of stream. Designs will include reviewing existing road and stream habitat data, field surveys, modeling, alternatives analysis, and development of conceptual designs. Recognizing inherent complexity, this project will prioritize outreach and engagement with all stakeholders. This project will incorporate public and private road uses and needs in proposed road treatments. Following SRFB panel feedback, we have changed this project to only design stream treatments in reaches without active mining claims. 

The goal of this project is to design process-based stream and road restoration across a large geographic area in the upper Peshastin watershed, restoring degraded spawning and rearing habitat available to steelhead, bull trout, and Chinook salmon. We intend to restore the processes to sustain floodplain connectivity, geomorphic complexity, and instream cover to benefit juvenile and adult salmonids through all seasons of the year.