Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
leadership of local Forest Service personnel and the ability to leverage financial re-
sources with partners.
Harris River
The Harris River watershed on Prince of Wales Island was once one of the most pro-
ductive streams on the island for salmon and trout. The watershed and its tributaries,
including Fubar Creek, suffered from heavy timber harvest to support the pulp mills.
In the Fubar watershed, the entire riparian floodplain forest was logged and more
than four miles of road were built in the 1950s. The loss of riparian forest, coupled
with increased sediment from roads, broadened the stream and made it shallower. In
1993, eleven landslides released significant amounts of sediment into the headwaters,
burying natural structures important for fish habitat. The stream also abandoned the
original channel, flowing into side channels that did not have proper culverts for fish
passage. An analysis by The Nature Conservancy, in combination with U.S. Forest
Service analyses, identified the entire Harris River watershed as having high biologi-
cal value and likely to respond to restoration treatments.
By leveraging private funding, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the U.S.
Forest Service to implement a multiyear restoration project in the Fubar tributary (fig.
9.3). The project restored roads to reduce sediment release and improve fish passage,
reconstructed several thousand feet of upstream channel to return flow to the main
stem, removed culverts, and added large logs and engineered log jams to increase
stream complexity. As a result of these efforts, spawning salmon have returned to the
FIGURE 9.3.
U.S. Forest Service hydrologists monitoring water depth at Kennel Creek, Ton-
gass National Forest. (Photo courtesy of Bob Christensen)
