East Fork Scott River Restoration Project

East Fork Scott River Restoration Project

The Project encompasses roughly 675 acres of Scott River Valley including portions of East Fork Scott River, Big Mill Creek and Noyes Valley Creek. California Trout is proposing to conduct habitat enhancement and restoration in the Preserve, with a goal to enhance and restore aquatic habitat, reconnect historic floodplains, improve groundwater recharge and flow management, and provide education opportunities. Full implementation of the project is funding- and partner- dependent but would (1) enhance habitat complexity and reconnect historic floodplains on all 6.7 miles of aquatic habitat on the Preserve along the East Fork Scott River, Big Mill Creek, and Noyes Valley Creek, (2) replace the undersized, perched culvert conveying Big Mill Creek under Highway 3 with a channel spanning bridge, (3) construct a new stream simulation channel to restore volitional fish passage to 1.4 miles of pristine over-summer rearing habitat that has been blocked for decades, (4) install riparian fencing and Beaver Dam Analogs (BDA) along 4 miles of Noyes Valley Creek - one of the largest tributaries to the East Fork Scott River - to increase groundwater recharge, release cold-water during summer baseflow conditions, and encourage recolonization of beaver, and (5) promote inclusion of tribal and underserved communities through education, outreach, and partnership. The project is intended to enhance quality and quantity of in-stream spawning and rearing habitat by installing large wood structures, create off-channel pools and alcoves to create juvenile rearing habitat and high flow refugia, increase riparian cover and instream structure to address temperature issues, restore sediment transport natural processes, allow volitional fish passage for all life stages at all times of the year, reconnect floodplain along the East Fork Scott River and significant tributaries: Big Mill Creek and Noyes Valley Creek, aggrade channel bed by installing channel spanning wood structures, and increase groundwater infiltration by installing post-assisted log structures (PALS) and BDAs in the upper reach of Noyes Valley Creek.

Siskiyou

Countywide, Northern California

Siskiyou