Outcomes: 1 acre of off-channel/floodplain connected, 0.10 miles of off-channel stream created, 62 instream pools created, 0.46 miles of instream habitat treated, 0.10 miles of stream treated with spawning gravel placement, 1 acre of riparian planting
The project was the final of four stages, and completed the restoration of Hancock Springs, a tributary to the Methow River with substantial groundwater inputs. The project rebuilt 730 m of near-historical channel dimensions to fit the creek’s spatially-variable discharge so that a narrow, sinuous, pool-glide-riffle channel replaced the wide, shallow, homogeneous channel. New fill was added to rebuild the channel; sedges and rushes were grown from local seed and used in both wetland sod mats and plugs, lining the scour-prone margins of the new channel. Reed canary grass was eradicated during project restoration and more than 200 logs of various sizes were placed in the channel to create complexity, cover, and velocity heterogeneity. Wetland plantings have established well through their first full growing season, and steelhead were found spawning in a riffle created by the project in the spring immediately following construction.
