Renewal on the Little Wind: A Salmon Habitat Restoration Project on the Little Wind River, WA

Little Wind River Habitat Restoration Project

The Little Wind River is a major tributary to the Wind River, flowing in at approximately river mile 1. Underwood Conservation District sponsored a multi-year restoration project, nearly a decade in the making, working to rehabilitate nearly one mile of the Little Wind impacted by historic logging and associated management, which had greatly simplified both riparian and in-stream habitat. Habitat enhancement work on the Little Wind River has a significant value for steelhead and other anadromous fish in the Wind River system.

The Little Wind River Habitat Restoration Project was completed over 4 phases and included design, engineering, and construction for engineered log jams, pools, riffles and spawning glides as in-stream habitat elements, plus side channel reconnection and activation of backwater refugia, passage improvement at the confluence of the Little Wind River and the Wind River, and post-construction site re-vegetation.

Accomplishments for the most recent and final phase, completed during Summer 2019, included the helicopter placement of 78 full logs with rootwads and 25 slash bundles placed in the 0.45 mile Phase 4 project reach, creating twelve substantial log jams. Jams were placed atop pre-felled streambank alders and sealed with loose bundles of logging slash.

Funding for the Little Wind River Habitat Restoration Project has been provided by Bonneville Power Administration, the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, via the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, and Community Salmon Fund.