Wood structures are seen along the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Will Noffke loads dirt into a truck while working on the Little Naches Restoration Project along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Rebecca Wassell, right, with the Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, and Gary Touretta, of the U.S. Forest Service, walk around the Little Naches River, while restoration work nears completion, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Wood structures are seen in the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

A view of the Little Naches riverbed, which will eventually be filled with water after the completion of the restoration project, off Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Workers near completion of the Little Naches River Restoration Project along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

View of the Little Naches River, as the restoration project nears completion, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Wood structures are seen along the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Wood structures are seen along the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

CLIFFDELL — A busy two months transformed a problematic one-mile reach of the Little Naches River into what biologists hope will become a fertile spawning ground for salmon and steelhead.

Mid-Columbia Fisheries and the U.S. Forest Service partnered on an extensive project to eliminate levees, raise the sunken riverbed and add wood to create a more natural habitat in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest’s most popular recreation area.

Naches Ranger District fisheries biologist Gary Torretta said the largest in-stream project on his district should help undo nearly 50 years of degradation caused by misguided efforts to help fish and decrease flood risks.

“Just a lot of things that compounded on it and us fishery folks at the Naches District have always referred to this as the dead zone reach,” Torretta said. “So now we’re hoping to bring life back to it from an aquatic standpoint.”

Will Noffke loads dirt into a truck while working on the Little Naches Restoration Project along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Bothell-based Tetra Tech served as a consultant to design the project, and Tigard, Ore.-based contractor BCI Inc. expects to finish its work within the next two weeks. That will allow the parking lot off of road Forest Road 1904 to reopen.

Mid-Columbia program director Rebecca Wassell said only a small portion of one levy will remain to help ensure the flood risk to Forest Road 1900 doesn’t increase.

Rebecca Wassell, right, with the Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, and Gary Touretta, of the U.S. Forest Service, walk around the Little Naches River, while restoration work nears completion, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Nearly 1,300 feet of levee was taken down and put into the river, creating a gravel bed more conducive to spawning and raising the river’s floor by as much as four to five feet in some areas. BCI foreman Daniel Cohrs said the rounded alluvial sand mix just under the cut zone of the levee should help create a good streambed for fish and prevent water from flowing beneath the surface.

Wood structures are seen in the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Large pieces of wood, 651 to be exact, were placed into the river with guidance from engineers and specific objectives, such as slowing down flows to maintain water deep enough for adult salmon to swim upstream and creating a more dynamic system. Unlike past Yakima Basin projects that picked up wood from elsewhere and deposited it into streams using helicopters, Wassell said all of the wood for this restoration came from nearby thinning projects, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I think we have forest stands that need thinning all over our public lands and we have rivers that need work,” Wassell said. “So, yes, I want to definitely replicate that wherever we can.”

A view of the Little Naches riverbed, which will eventually be filled with water after the completion of the restoration project, off Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

The project also reconnected a pair of side channels along one bank, which Torretta said should create potential coldwater refuges for fish during nearly every flood season. Some individual scour pools established by the wood could also provide good cover for spawning salmon and steelhead.

Construction required temporarily preventing water from reaching certain areas of the riverbed, so Mid-Columbia and Forest Service workers performed five different water rescues. Torretta said they moved lots of steelhead, rainbow trout, juvenile chinook and hundreds of sculpins, along with one bull trout, to sections of the river above and below the project.

Workers near completion of the Little Naches River Restoration Project along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Cohrs has encountered little opposition to the efforts of his team, which included up to six workers from throughout the region who began living in the area in June. They worked 12-hour days Monday through Saturday, occasionally going out to the site on Sunday, and Cohrs said he’s looking forward to eventually coming back to see how the river adapts.

“Sometimes floods move wood around and sometimes they look pretty similar,” Cohrs said. “But it’s all good for fish.”

View of the Little Naches River, as the restoration project nears completion, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Those benefits drew support for the project from a wide range of stakeholders, including the Yakama-Klickitat Fisheries Project. Torretta said the tribal group performed a cultural survey for the restoration efforts and Wassell said they helped advocate for funding after identifying the work as a priority.

The Department of Ecology provided the biggest funding source for the project through a $1.175 million streamflow restoration grant. Money for the project also came from the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan and the Forest Service’s Central Washington Initiative.

Wood structures are seen along the Little Naches River, as part of the restoration project in an effort to improve habitat for fish, along Forest Service Road 1900 outside Naches, Wash., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Low summer flows left much of the riverbed dry on Monday, allowing for a clear view of all the wood and streambed materials recently added by contractors. Wassell said things should look considerably different later this year as the previously constricted river spreads out to take advantage of its expanded floodplain.

“I think one of the things that’s helpful for me when we stand here in August is to think that we would be really, really, really wet if we were standing here in November or April,” Wassell said. “This entire area will be active with water everywhere and the alignment that we have built here is just the building blocks for the river, and then the river has the stream power it needs to be able to move the pieces around and form complex habitat for fish.”

Reach Luke Thompson at luthompson@yakimaherald.com.

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