The overall project goal is to restore natural channel functions and processes that provide increased capacity to spawn and rear ESA listed Salmon and Steelhead while protecting and maintaining the utility and economic viability of working ranches.  The project objectives are to protect habitat, enhance floodplain connectivity, in-stream structural diversity and complexity, and riparian habitat conditions assisting Salmon/Steelhead recovery.  Project activities reduce excessive bank erosion, heavy sediment loads, and high summer water temperatures, while creating and or enhancing complex fish habitat, especially large wood structures, and increasing riparian vegetation. Consequently, these limiting factors for Spring/Summer Chinook, Steelhead, and Bull trout in the Upper Grande Ronde/Catherine Creek Subbasin will be addressed.
  
The project area is located within Reach UGS10A (Summer Steelhead) and Reach CCC3 (Spring-Summer Chinook) (Northeast Oregon Snake River Recovery Plan, Draft (NOAA, March 2012) and BiOp Expert Panel Draft Reach Delineations (BPA/BOR, April 2012). Geographically, these reaches encompass Middle Catherine Creek from the confluence of Pyles Creek upstream to the North and South Forks of Catherine Creek.  The Project Area is also located within Reach 4 of the Bureau of Reclamation Tributary Assessment (BOR, February 2012) and has been identified as one of the highest priority reaches for restoration actions.  BOR and ODFW assessments found Catherine Creek within this project area to include stream bank instability, high channel width/depth ratios, poor riparian vegetation, lack of side channel habitat and floodplain connectivity, and poor in-channel diversity and complexity within individual reaches. Additionally, the project reach is affected by winter icing, high summer water temperatures, and low summer base flow.

Phase IV - Habitat enhancement efforts will take place over 3 connecting properties and  include:

•   Installation of 55 LWM structures, 220 LF of edge roughness, 335 ft of brush mattress,  49 single logs with rootwad, 7 channel spanning logs,  67 two-log floodplain roughness structures, and166 floodplain/side channel tree tops with branches.

•  Activation of 4200 LF of new main channel with 15 riffles, 1380 LF of side channel, 1425 LF of alcoves and spring channels, and 9200 LF wetland swales/beaver complexes to provide juvenile Salmonid refuge and connection to an adjacent spring supplying colder water during low flow season. Project will also activate 142 main channel wood structure components installed during Phase III.  

•   Construction of 795 LF of new side channel.

•   Boulder placement to induce ice break-up during winter months, increase channel complexity, and provide increased resiliency to wood structures.

•   Installation of 1 hardened livestock crossing.

•   Using a combination of live stakes, plugs, and containerized plants all disturbed areas during construction will be re-seeded using native seed mixes and plants.  520 LF of Live stake trenches will be installed in channel to re-establish native plant communities on constructed gravel bars.100 large willow/cottonwood poles will also be installed with heavy machinery into rip-rap banks.    


The completed project area will further sustain steelhead, Chinook and bull trout, as well as other species.  Specific project benefits include:

•   Potential increased summer base flow conditions and decreased summer high water temperatures.

•   Increased winter temperatures with increased hyporheic connectivity and improved riparian and floodplain conditions.

•   Improved/restored floodplain connectivity and natural channel morphology with stable channel form.

•   Increased juvenile refugia with creation of side channel/swale complexes.