Process-based riverscape restoration
​Whychus Creek, Oregon

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Process-Based Riverscape Restoration in Whychus Creek, Oregon

This project is a low-tech process-based (LTPBR) restoration design for a 0.7 - mile section of Whychus Creek, a tributary to the upper Deschutes river in Jefferson and Deschutes Counties. The restoration design for the Willow Springs Preserve was developed following low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) principles (see Wheaton et al. 2019). LTPBR utilizes simple, cost-effective, hand-built structures that mimic beaver dams (i.e., beaver dam analogs, BDAs) and wood accumulations (i.e., post-assisted log structures, PALS), structural elements that occur in abundance within functioning stream systems. These structural elements are strategically introduced to the river system using a design intended to amplify natural hydrologic, geomorphic, and biological processes that accelerate the recovery trajectory of degraded streams. Unlike more traditional practices that rely on engineering plans and heavy construction equipment (e.g., excavators) to impose channel and floodplain restoration designs, LTPBR ultimately defers design decisions to the characteristics and limitations set by individual riverscapes. Reducing design and implementation costs and allowing natural stream processes to do much of the restoration “work” minimizes economic and ecological risks associated with stream restoration implementation. Ultimately, the restoration design is intended to invoke a more resilient riverscape capable of maintaining a diverse and self-sustaining set of fluvial and riparian processes that benefit an abundance of aquatic and terrestrial fish and wildlife species.

PROJECT Pictures & Videos

Click on the pictures below for captions.

Pilot projects are useful to test structure designs, function, and refine implementation and construction approaches within a new project setting.

Example of structural starvation withing Whychus Creek at the upstream (south) end of the Willow Springs Preserve. Lack of structural elements with hydraulic purchase inhibits floodplain connectivity, essential arresting the stream channel into a simplified and degraded state. The former floodplain surface (right) is dominated by upland vegetation, reflecting its relative inaccessibility to surface & groundwater.

Overhead view of a pilot complex of Post Assisted Log Structures (PALS). In this case, the structures are oriented toward an already eroding bank to enhance rates of erosion and bar formation.

Geomorphic composition of the valley bottom with as-built conditions and medium- and long-term expectations after implementing the restoration design.

Phase 1: implementation

Amazing fly-over of the phase 1 LTPBR treatment at Willow Springs completed in late July of 2022. This project exemplifies LTPBR restoration practices, and really shows what can be accomplished by a well trained restoration crew. This first treatment represents > 2000 posts, > 1000 pieces of LWD, and > 100 low-tech structures. Built by hand without damaging existing fragile riparian areas, in-channel habitat, and vegetation.

project details:

LOCATION

Whychus Creek, Oregon

PROJECT TYPE

Restoration Design, Implementation

LTBPR Explorer Project Link

Whychus Creek Process-Based Restoration Pilot

acknowledgements:

CLIENTS/PARTNERS

Prepared for:
Upper Deschutes Watershed Council ,  The Deschutes Lands Trust

​Prepared by:
Nick Weber & Joseph Wheaton, Anabranch Solutions ; Karen Allen, Aequinox ; Maisie Richards, Interfluve

RELATED publications:

Willow Springs Restoration Design Report

Weber N, Wheaton JM. and Allen K. 2020. Willow Springs Restoration Design: Process-Based Riverscape Restoration in Whychus Creek, Oregon. Prepared by: Anabranch Solutions and Aequinox. Prepared for: Upper Deschutes Watershed Council. Bend, Oregon. 
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31921.20323

Willow Springs Implementation As-Built Report

Wathen, Gus. Willow Springs Low-Tech
Process-Based Restoration – Phase I
Implementation As-Built Report. Prepared
for the Deschutes Land Trust by Anabranch Solutions, LLC. Providence, UT. 44 Pages.

​Willow Springs Restoration Fact Sheet