Upper Big Creek Floodplain Restoration Project

This NCWA restoration project addresses negative impacts from this retired haul-route that constricts Big Creek's width, confining it to a much narrower floodplain and limiting spawning and rearing habitat for native salmonids. This reach of Big Creek is home to Chinook, coho, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and, potentially, chum and lamprey.

Project actions include the installation of 16 large wood structures to improve spawning and rearing habitat, promote floodplain connectivity, activate side channels, legacy streambed, and increase off-channel refugia. Retiring and recontouring sections of road that are in the stream floodplain, including removal of sections of road fill. The removal of two bridges and abutments, and the removal of existing cross drains to restore natural drainage.

The Upper Big Creek Floodplain Restoration Project helps to compliment NCWA's larger restoration campaign; Return of the Redds (RREDDs).

RREDDs is an exciting new collaboration between the North Coast Watershed Association, local landowners, the forest products industry, nonprofits, state and federal agencies all united around a common goal: To revitalize the once abundant Big Creek and Youngs Bay watersheds and chum salmon populations.

This project fits into NCWA's RREDDs goals by helping to restore habitat structure by adding large woody debris, increasing off-channel wetlands, protecting riparian areas and helping to improve watershed and ecological processes into the future.

Why Chum? Because chum are some of the hardest workers of the salmon family and their aggressive spawning behavior can actually help repair lower watershed health. Historically, they returned here by the thousands and, after creating their “redds” and spawning, their carcasses fed everything from eagles and bears to the very chinook, coho and trout that define our great community.

The RREDDs map below illustrates our two project areas, Youngs Bay and Big Creek, which include the Big, Gnat, Little, and Bear Creeks and the Lewis and Clark, Skipanon, Youngs, Wallooskee, and Klaskanine Rivers. The map displays barriers to chum and other salmonids NCWA seeks to fix, restoration projects and the extent of chum salmon's spawing and rearing habitat within our two watersheds.