Restoration projects kept us frantically busy this last Fall. The work on Leggett Creek (a few miles NW of Redway) was especially challenging. This watershed is a classic example of abuse and recovery. The early cutting of old growth redwood and Douglas fir caused numerous landslides in the inner gorge, resulting in enormous accumulations of stumps and logging slash. These world-class logjams were largely removed with heavy equipment during the misguided period of ?stream cleaning?. The result was a series of flat gravel-bed reaches with few pools and little shade canopy. In the early 80?s, the C.C.C.?s planted alders, which are now more than 30 feet tall.
Over the last 15 years the ERSRP has completed four stream habitat improvement projects in which about 150 log scour structures were built (yes, we put back many logs that had been pulled out earlier). While the habitat was vastly improved, there remained the problem that the two remaining downstream log jams usually blocked upstream passage of spawning fish ? good habitat with few fish. These large jams have been the subject of much head scratching and half hearted clearing efforts for at least 20 years. High cliffs made direct heavy equipment access impossible so we decided that the only way to modify the jams was to use the winch line of a bulldozer parked on the top of the cliff. It was exciting work moving and repositioning logs to make a series of jump pools over the jams. A couple of times the excitement was almost too much, when Dave Woods backed his Cat to the edge, 200 feet above us, to get a look at what we were doing. When we checked the sites after the first series of winter storms, both jams were easily passable by any adult salmonid. This may be the year when Leggett Creek gets packed with Coho and steelhead.
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