Fiddle Creek Floodplain Restoration Technical Assistance

The project area is located downstream of the confluence with Billy Moore Creek where Big Canyon meets the valley floor of mainstem Fiddle Creek. The site is situated between the Districts Fiddle and Billy Moore Creeks Riparian Enhancement, implemented in 2017-18, and the District’s Fiddle Creek Stream Enhancement, implemented in 2010-11. Effects from legacy and ongoing land use impacts have diminished this portion of the watersheds ability to provide high quality habitat for Oregon Coast (OC) Coho and several additional endemic species. This technical assistance project will support a suite of contract services required to generate implementation-ready designs for a 5-acre process-based floodplain restoration project. Conceptually, the design will transform an incised and isolated terrace of floodplain (Stage 3, as depicted in the Cluer and Thornes Stream Evolution Model) into a dynamic depositional plain exhibiting diverse aquatic, wetland, and riparian habitats (Stage 8, as depicted in the Cluer and Thornes Stream Evolution Model). Partners to date include the District, the landowners Brian and Larissa Scott, and the USFS Enterprise Team.

This technical assistance will result in a restoration project that will benefit salmon and steelhead by directly addressing each of the major stresses and habitat related limiting factors for OC Coho identified within the primary local (Coastal Lakes SAP, SCP 2022), state (Oregons Coastal Coho Assessment, ODFW 2005), and federal (Federal Recovery Plan for Oregon Coast Coho, NOAA 2016) recovery plans. The project will result in a complex depositional valley that provides habitats to both terrestrial and aquatic species by restoring native plant communities that would have naturally been expected to exist on a hydrologically functioning depositional valley. Juvenile fish including ESA listed coho salmon that were spawned on SNF lands upstream of the project area will find a complexity of habitats to serve as prime rearing habitats throughout the year.