Riverlog 2012 - Lower Elwha River Restoration

Got to spend the day on the Lower Elwha River doing some fieldwork for an upcoming restoration project with the Lower Klallam Tribe. The tribe is wanting to install ~16 engineered logjams (ELJs) to dissipate stream energy, increase the connectivity between the floodplain and channel, and increase complexity within the channel. As if a bonus were needed to be excited about the project, we also got a chance to review how past ELJs were performing since the tribe has been doing the work since 1999.

PS - Its amazing to see the response of the dam removals in the lower river even in these initial stages. Within many places in the project reach 2-4in of fine sand and sediment have been deposited and as soon as these areas are colonized by riparian vegetation we'll start to see conditions dramatically improve.