May 11, 2010
Leggett Creek is a treasure that got really hammered during the post-World War II logging boom. Now it's well on the way back to providing some critically needed prime habitat for steelhead trout and coho salmon. Flowing into the South Fork of the Eel River just north of Redway in Southern Humboldt County, Leggett Creek has some interesting restoration challenges.
During the logging boom virtually all the old-growth redwood and Douglas-fir was cut, even on very steep inner gorge slopes. It was the usual story of skid trails and slash everywhere. Some of the slash and busted-up redwood trees were pushed over the edge into the canyon below. In addition, lower Leggett Creek had some inner gorge slides that deposited many mammoth redwood stumps in the creek. These stumps formed the foundation for some of the enormous log jams that accumulated during the floods of 1955 and 1964. Gravel and sediment accumulated behind these jams, sometimes to a depth of up to 30 feet. The fish were gone. There followed a 30-year period of log-jam removal by the landowners, salvage crews, and the CCC (California Conservation Corps).
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We still had our permit to work in the channel so we decided to try at least opening up fish passage around the stumps. The landowner was able to get his D3 Cat down a steep skid trail to a bench just upstream of the jam. He did some really fine work pulling the accumulation of logs off the stumps. There was also a big volume of small woody debris that needed to be cleared away to ensure fish passage. It looked like our spirit of volunteerism was about to be seriously tested. Fortunately the CAL FIRE people at the Eel River Conservation Camp offered the use of one of their crews. They spent a week cleaning out the smaller wood and burning it. A great job!
We now had fish passage through the Stump Jam, but another problem just downstream loomed into prominence. During the last few years a landslide on the east bank deposited multiple redwood stumps into an especially narrow, "pinch point" section of the canyon. In several places the 20-foot-wide sandstone channel was narrowed by the stumps to less than 6 feet (see photo). The only reason that this narrowed section hadn't formed another log-jam barrier was that the Stump Jam just upstream was collecting all the loose woody material. Our efforts to clear the Stump Jam were about to cause another problem.
Fortunately the landowner had a D8 Cat on the east side of Leggett Creek. He positioned the Cat at the top of a steep slope above the stumps, and we managed to winch eleven stumps up the slope using a 1 1/8-inch cable and choker. Pretty exciting work! The Eel River Conservation Camp crew was again a major help dragging the cable down the slope and helping set the choker.
It may seem that we have returned to the rip and tear "stream cleaning" period of a few decades ago. Unfortunately in Leggett Creek we have a situation where we have a narrow canyon with a lot of really big wood that tends to form major barriers to fish passage. Big wood requires big tools to move it. Lack of wood is NOT a problem in this watershed.
An excess of $300,000 has been spent on Leggett Creek so far. Is it worth it? Several miles of prime steelhead and coho habitat with abundant water says it is. With vision and restraint back in the 1950s, Leggett Creek could have become a jewel along the Avenue of the Giants redwood park system.
We have plans this coming summer to chainsaw the three key stumps in the Stump Jam into pieces small enough to be pulled up the skid trail with the D3 (the D8 can't cross a flatcar bridge to reach the west bank where the access point is).
Stay tuned.
More Information About
Eel River Salmon Restoration Project
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2010