A completed instream restoration project, showing an engineered log jam that has been installed in an effective and natural way

The Restoration Team focuses on understanding how site-specific and watershed-wide restoration actions affect watershed processes, stream productivity, the formation and maintenance of habitat and the growth and survival of salmonids. The Team's general goal is to identify how stream and salmonid productivity is influenced by site-specific and watershed-scale habitat restoration efforts.

The research will be directly linked with the life cycle model being developed by the Fish and Habitat Relationships Team and the work done by the Ecosystem Processes and Human Disturbance Team. This approach will allow the evaluation of the effects of different restoration activities on stream productivity and salmonid response, identification of which types of restoration actions are effective and where restoration will have the greatest long-term benefits in salmon production.

Near-term research objectives include the following:

1. Small stream restoration: effects of wood and boulder placement on primary productivity and fish in small streams.
2. Restoration of large rivers: Influence of engineered logjams in large rivers on primary productivity and fish response.
3. Floodplain restoration: comparison of natural to constructed floodplain channels.
4. Dam removal: effects of changing sediment supply on habitat formation and biological response.

Watershed Home