North Fork Elk River Channel Instream Habitat and Upslope Restoration Project

The Project will construct 16 large wood (LW) structures within 1.8mi of North Fork (NF) Elk River and decommission 1.46mi of Elk River Mainline Road at 26 separate road treatment features (ditch relief culverts, culverts, road decommission segments, road upgrade segments, rolling dip), preventing 7,500 cubic yards of sediment from entering waterways. The riparian road runs parallel to the NF Elk River instream project reach. Work will include abandoning and rehabilitating 8 culverted crossings as well as several ditch relief culverts. Work will include a road-to-trail conversion by removing paved sections of the road, removing associated fill soils, outsloping, and revegetating with native plants.

Implementation of project designs will directly benefit Coho Salmon by enhancing instream habitat and reducing sediment delivery to NF Elk River. Implementation of instream large wood is known to assist with sorting and storage of stream gravels, as well as pool formation associated with bed scour. Studies show that pool formation associated with large wood can increase the quality and quantity of instream habitats for salmonids, which has been positively linked to survival rates. Road decommissioning and the removal of culverted stream crossings will directly benefit Coho by improving hydrologic connection between upslope and instream salmonid habitat, filtering and reducing sediment before it enters the river.