How Mature Trees and Logjams Create Complexity and Habitat | Stream Table Demonstration

Let’s have a look at how healthy rivers develop  habitat for both juvenile and spawning salmon! When you think of a river, you probably don’t imagine a bunch of logs and woody debris in it – but that’s actually exactly what these rivers need! 

A stream table is a shallow tank on an angle with water running through different sized grains of sand which we can set up various demonstrations in to show these fluvial processes at work.

Back in the day, before logging, many of our rivers contained large woody debris and downed old growth logs that added obstacles and surface roughness that slowed down the water.  This created a slower, winding river with pools, eddies, and all sorts of habitat for fish. 
 
Yet when people started to develop and log these areas, much of this wood from the river was removed to protect infrastructure such as roads and bridges.  Without that wood to slow the flow of water, the river picks up speed and straightens out, destroying all the cool waters and deep pools that salmon love. 
 
So to help restore these rivers, we can add downed wood and trees back into the river.  Right away we can see them start to work by slowing the water velocity, and scouring out pools and eddies that create prime habitat for salmon to thrive in. 

Come check out and play with the stream table yourself at our shop & office space in Ucluelet, BC!

Learn more about what we do at ReddFish.org
__________________________________________________________________________
Redd Fish humbly acknowledges the ancestral territories of the Nuučaanuł Nations, who have owned and managed their territories since time immemorial. We gratefully operate in partnership with the Hiškʷiiʔatḥ Nation, ʕaaḥuusʔatḥ Nation, ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ Nation, tukʷaaʔatḥ Nation Government, and the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government.