METRO River Island North Restoration Barton, Oregon

Restoration rebuilds floodplain and enhances and creates backwater habitat for native and endangered fish, birds, amphibians, and mammals.

to enhance and create habitat waters. The logjams increase for endangered Chinook the complexity and roughness (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) of the floodplain and Goose and coho (Oncorhynchus Creek channel, allowing them kisutch)salmon, steelhead to slow floodwaters and cap- (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and west- ture nutrients and sediments. ern painted turtles (Chrysemys The log installations also picta bellii), the Biohabitats provide shelter for a long list construction team, including of fish, birds, amphibians, and clockwise from top: The renewed Goose Creek confluence; The team quickly K&E Excavating of Salem, mammals. removes biota from work area; Log installations provide shelter for many species OR, installed 1,200 logs and moved 200,000 cubic yards Ultimately, the summer in- ocated on the change course and bypass its of cobble and soil around the stallation will be followed in Clackamas River, this confluence with Goose Creek. L site. Vibratory pile drivers the winter by planting more project was the second stage Salmon that once spawned were used to install hun- than 100,000 native trees of a large-scale restoration there could no longer enter dreds of 40-foot snags into and shrubs along the north of River Island, a 240-acre the creek as sediment filled the ground. Then, logs with bank of the Clackamas, in the natural area that includes the area. Just beyond the and without rootwads were floodplain, and along Goose wetlands, oak savanna, and floodplain was a large wetland interwoven into the driven Creek. Once established, the upland and riparian forests. that included several ponds snags and each assembly was plants will help prevent ero- Decades of gravel mining and left from the mining opera- fortified with steel hardware sion, provide food and shelter a major flood in 1996 changed tion. The wetland provided connections. Finally, the for animals, and provide the course of the river in this year-round habitat for turtles, structures were backfilled shade to cool waters. Overall, area and damaged habitat for salamanders, and frogs, with cobble. 40 acres of floodplain multiple species, including and seasonal habitat for habitat and over 3,000 feet of endangered salmon. salmonids. The restoration rebuilds the tributary stream channel were

floodplain and enhances and reconstructed and restored. A major component of Biohabitats began by leading creates backwater habitat the project was reconnect- the dewatering and fish rescue that young salmon rely on SERVICES ing Goose Creek to the effort, primarily leveraging for refuge from fast-moving Permitting Clackamas River. A 1996 gravity flow to remove water Construction Management flood caused the river to and fish from the site. Then, conservation planning ecological restoration regenerative design

Physiographic Province Western Cascades Bioregion Cascadia 800.220.0919 Watershed www.biohabitats.com Clackamas River