East Fork Potlatch: Bob’s PALs II

The Clearwater Soil and Water Conservation District (Clearwater SWCD), in partnership with Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) and the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI), proposes to continue to restore and enhance instream habitat complexity and floodplain connectivity by constructing hand-built Post Assisted Log Structures (PALS) and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) in the East Fork of the Potlatch River from the Latah -Clearwater County line to the bridge just above the confluence with Bobs Creek, and including the lower 0.2 miles of Bobs Creek. In 2024, Clearwater SWCD worked with PCEI and others, to construct approximately 30 PALS and BDAs on 0.5 miles of this 1.0-mile project area. The work proposed in this application would treat an additional 0.5 miles of high priority steelhead habitat within the same project area. The project would be

implemented in 2 phases: Year 1 would consist of environmental planning and design; in Year 2, CSWCD would work with PCEI and volunteers to build the instream PALS/BDAs using hand labor. Monitoring would occur in year 2 and subsequent years.



Other engineered structures in metrics refer to Post Assisted Log Structures (PALS) and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs).

The Potlatch River has been identified as a high priority watershed for steelhead restoration and the East Fork Potlatch subwatershed has been identified as a Tier 1 stream for implementation of Restoration Projects in the Potlatch River Watershed Management Plan

2019 Amendment (Latah SWCD draft, Latah SWCD 2007, NMFS 2017). The 2019 Plan Amendment identifies instream habitat complexity and low winter water temperatures as limiting factors for steelhead production in the mainstem of the East Fork Potlatch. Adding

woody structure, such as PALS and BDAs, to streams increases stream channel complexity, creates refugia and hiding cover, improves pool habitat, adds sediment heterogeneity and reconnects channel to the floodplain. Activation of floodplains decreases summer temperature and increases winter temperatures by storing groundwater. Notably, the structures will establish stable sites for beaver, already present in the area, to maintain natural dams. The structures will create at least 30 pools and promote floodplain

connectivity along approximately 0.5 miles of stream.