EWEB completes helicopter installation of salmon habitat features
EWEB successfully completed major habitat improvement work on the upper McKenzie River as part of the 2016 settlement agreement for relicensing the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project.
The Lower Carmen Bypass Reach Habitat Enhancement Project added 2000 tons of gravel and twenty bundles of brushy treetops by helicopter, and ten large trees pulled into the river by a cable yarder.
Threatened Chinook salmon and bull trout need gravels to build their spawning nests, called redds. Branchy trees in the water provide cover where young fish can hide from predators. Gravels and trees also add complexity to the river, creating pools for fish to rest in and rapids to oxygenate eggs.
This part of the Upper McKenzie has very little gravel, as the reach is below Tamolitch Falls, where the McKenzie emerges from below a layer of volcanic rock.
“It's a very young stream just upstream of here. We have lava flows as recently as 3000 years. And so there's just not a lot of naturally occurring gravel. So part of what we're doing is creating that habitat,” said EWEB Fisheries Biologist Andy Talabere.
As the river reforms at the famously cold Blue Pool, this section of the McKenzie is the highest and coldest habitat salmon will have as they face a warming future.
“This reach is particularly important as we head into more and more climate change. As we’re looking at the potential for fish to continue to move further upstream, to be in colder and colder habitat, it's definitely a resiliency piece to make this more of a climate refuge for fish than it already is,” Talabere said.
The complex project required multiple specialties. EWEB hired Inter-Fluve to analyze the riverscape and design the habitat enhancements. Eugene-based Wildish was the Construction Manager and General Contractor overseeing ecological construction firm Biohabitats. Since there are no roads along this section of Wild and Scenic River, it was necessary to bring in Columbia Helicopters to place the gravels and treetops. Blue Ridge Timber Cutting pulled the large trees into the reach.
“There really is quite an artistic touch to this. And I think our biologists on our team, as well as our design engineers, they have a real heavy hand in shaping the artistry that is habitat restoration,” said EWEB Engineering Associate Val Chang, who oversaw the project.
“There's a biologic fit to it that I think our team handles really well. You really come out here and see how the river is behaving and you make adjustments in the river accordingly.”
The pilot showed off his artistry, too, intricately placing a 6,000-pound gravel bucket into specific riffles of the river, then lowering a brace arm on the bucket to release and tip the gravel, all while avoiding branches on the way down and back up.
“I'm proud to be a part of this restoration project. It's been, a great learning experience for me and, so far, very smooth operation – very safe,” Wildish Superintendent Aaron Hamrick said.
The project required weekday closures to the Blue Pool Trailhead to protect recreators from potential hazards due to overhead and heavy machinery work. The trail is one of the most popular hiking destinations in the area and parallels the river where the work occurred. Now that the heavy machinery work is completed, the trail will be open as usual.
“We've worked in partnership with the Forest Service, to set up a closure order for a portion of the area where we see a lot of recreation,” Chang said. “So I really appreciate the collaboration with all the agencies that have worked together on this – this has been really quite a heavy lift.”
