Snow Creek Uncas Preserve Restoration

The proposed project will result in Final Designs, project permitting, and construction of a salmon habitat restoration project on 0.5 miles of Snow Creeks mainstem. The project will result in wood supplementation and ELJ construction to increase pool frequency, trap bed material and fine sediment, raise water table, create side channels and increase volume of hyporheic flow and surface water exchange. Portions of the existing inset floodplain will be widened, with side channels excavated in suitable areas, to promote off channel habitat, floodplain connection, and further promote sediment retention. The project will provide benefits to ESA-listed Puget Sound Steelhead and Hood Canal Summer Chum, and Puget Sound Coho.

Within 3 years of funding, NOSC developed final designs and restore approximately 0.5 miles of degraded Hood Canal Summer Chum salmon spawning and rearing habitat through ELJ construction that addressed incision, sorted and maintained gravels within the reach and reengaged the inset floodplain where it existed through the site. Where the inset floodplain was not developed, excavation of inset floodplains and excavation of side channels ensured the system now has a meaningful connection to its floodplain.