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| Resurrection Creek |
Kenai Peninsula, Alaska |
Primary Project Type: Instream Restoration
Secondary Type: |
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Photograph showing the tailings piles on the ground. Individual piles are up to... |
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Primary Problem: Mining
Secondary Problem: |
| Main Restoration Action(s): Channel reconstruction, Floodplain reconnection |
| Native Fish Focus: Chinook salmon, Chum, Pink salmon |
Is this project part of a watershed scale restoration? No
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| Project Dates: May 2005 to July 2006 |
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Initial Monitoring: 2002, 2003, 2004
Restoration Implementation: May-July 2005 and May-July 2006
Follow-up Monitoring: Continuing through 2008 at least |
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Lead Agency:
U.S. Forest Service, Chugach National Forest
T.E.A.M.S Enterprise, U.S. Forest Service
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| Project Location:
The project area is located in the Western Kenai Mountains at the northern end of the Kenai Peninsula in the Chugach National Forest. Resurrection Creek begins in the Kenai Mountains at an elevation of over 1,539 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level. The stream flows northward into the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. The town of Hope, Alaska lies adjacent to the mouth of the stream on Turnagain Arm. Resurrection Creek Watershed has an area of 103,230 acres (161 square miles). The project area begins at river kilometer 8.3 (upstream from tidewater) and extends upstream to river kilometer 9.7. Visit the photo gallery for aerial view maps.
For a map of the project area, click here.
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| Project Description:
Resurrection Creek was home to one of Alaska’s earliest gold rushes nearly a century ago. Hydraulic and shovel mining within the watershed reduced the quality and quantity of fish and wildlife habitat within the watershed. The most severe impacts from mining were located in the lower 6.2 river miles. The lower reaches within this area were identified as critical spawning and rearing habitat for coho, chum, pink and chinook salmon. Mine tailings piles up to 25 feet high confined and straightened the stream. Over time the channel became entrenched, creating a single channel with a nearly continuous riffle and poor spawning substrate. The mine tailings occupied approximately 54 percent of the historic floodplain and were composed of coarse sediment, which prevented natural recovery of riparian vegetation composition and structure. Mining operations severely reduced in-channel large woody debris, an important component of salmonid habitat. Without active restoration measures, fish and wildlife habitat would have limited biological production within the project area – conceivably for centuries. |
| Project Goals: The restoration goals for Resurrection Creek were to restore and reconnect the historic floodplain, stream channels, and riparian areas to recover the natural range of aquatic and riparian habitat. Reference conditions from similar but unmined upstream reaches were used to develop a restored channel design. Restoration goals included increasing the channel length and diversity of habitat, increasing side channels and side channel flow, increasing in-channel large woody debris, increasing spawning gravel, and restoring riparian area species composition and density. |
| Project Methods:
The U.S. Forest Service Wind River Restoration Team based out of Carson, WA surveyed and analyzed stream channel conditions in Resurrection Creek to assist the Chugach National Forest with the development of a stream channel restoration strategy, rehabilitation alternatives, and recommendations. This cooperative trans-regional effort was part of the Forest Service’s restoration strategy to utilize available skills and efficiently address water quality and fish and wildlife habitat issues in key sub-basins. Restoration design and implementation templates for Resurrection Creek included channel geometry equations, stream flow patterns, and relic and disturbed analog reaches for reference reaches of stream. Restoration actions included mechanically manipulating mine tailings to recover floodplain width and elevations; reconstructing meander pattern, channel profile, pools and spawning habitat; developing multiple relief channels and off-channel ponds within the floodplain; extracting beetle killed spruce trees in high risk fire hazard areas to utilize as a source of in-stream and terrestrial woody material; augmenting soils in reclaimed riparian areas to provide soil/landform and drainage conditions which can support native plant communities; thinning existing overstocked riparian sapling spruce and cottonwood stands; allowing natural revegetation where seed source and site conditions were favorable; and using native plant species in revegetation projects when natural revegetation conditions were not favorable.
Click here for more information on project methods.
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Approximately 120,000 cubic yards of mine tailings were redistributed in order t... |
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When the channel was completed, stream flows were diverted into the meander, and... |
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| Monitoring Data and Collection
Methods: Extensive monitoring has been conducted on the project reach of Resurrection Creek. Monitoring has included data collection pertaining to mercury in fish, mercury in sediment and water, riparian vegetation, fish, channel morphology, and macroinvertebrates and slimes.
For more information on project monitoring on Resurrection Creek, click here.
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Was this project effective
and how was this determined? With channel restoration nearly complete for about 75 percent of the length of the project reach, many of the morphologic objectives of the project have been accomplished or nearly accomplished in the reach restored in 2005.- Entrenchment ratios have increased from about 1 to greater than 5.
- The average water surface slope was decreased from 1.7 percent to 1.4 percent.
- Sinuosity was increased from 1.1 to 1.3.
- Channel length was increased by about 700 feet (19 percent increase).
- Large, habitat-forming pools were constructed on the outside of each bend, for a pool frequency of 15 pools per mile.
- Side channels were constructed at nearly every meander.
- Although the amount of instream wood was not quantified, large log jams at each meander bend provide geomorphic benefits as well as abundant cover for fish.
- Spawning gravel at the pool tails was increased substantially from pre-project conditions. The aerial extent of glide bedforms, where spawning gravel can potentially accumulate, has increased to about 22,500 square feet (2500 square yards), but the amount of spawning gravel was not measured.
- Although the majority of the fish were pink salmon, all five species of Pacific salmon were seen in the restored reach (pink, coho, Chinook, chum and sockeye). Most of the fish were seen in the largest, deepest pools and the most well-defined glides in the project reach.
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One restoration goal was to restore fish habitat by increasing pools, side chann... |
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An 8/11/05 aerial photograph of one segment of newly reconstructed stream channe... |
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| Confounding Effects/Additional
Information: |
| Project
Specs (all specs are estimates): |
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Man Hours:
U.S. Forest Service project supervision and oversight for 2005 construction – 1400 hours. For 2006 add 1100 hours.
Subcontracted Costs:
Contract cost for 2005 - $570,000. Contract cost for 2006 - $475,000 (estimated).
Overall Estimated Cost:
Overall estimated cost - $1.4 million (add an additional $300,000 for the National Environmental Policy Act).
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| For more information on this project
contact: |
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Dave Blanchet, Chugach National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, Email: dblanchet@fs.fed.us
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| This information
was collected by: Kristin Keith |
| Project last updated on: 10/27/2006 |
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