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Side Channel Habitat Restoration: Enhancing Salmonid Habitats and Biodiversity

This overview explores the benefits, risks, and considerations of side channel restoration, highlighting its critical role in providing spawning and rearing habitat for salmonids, supporting bird and amphibian populations, and promoting vegetation diversity. Factors such as geologic conditions, vegetation, groundwater, and water quality are discussed in selecting suitable restoration sites. Monitoring biological data is essential to determine success and guide maintenance efforts.

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Side Channel Habitat Restoration: Enhancing Salmonid Habitats and Biodiversity

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  1. Side Channel and Off Channel Habitat RestorationWashington Dept. Forestry, 2004, Side Channel Restoration Dylan Castle

  2. Overview • Description of Side Channels • Benefits of Side Channels • Risks of Restoration • Restoration Site Considerations • Goal of restoration • Selecting a good site

  3. Side Channels • Small watered remnants of river meanders • Abandoned River Channels • Oxbow Lakes • Lower Ends of Terrace Tributaries

  4. Types of Side Channels • Overflow Channels • Relic river channels • Directly connected during times high flow • Very dynamic due to influx of debris • Helps clean and re-distribute spawning material

  5. Types of Side Channels • Perc Channels • Relic river or floodplain channels • Primarily supplied from hyporheic zone • Winter and summer refuge for juvenile fish • Spawning habitat for fish and amphibians • Foraging habitat for many birds and mammals

  6. Types of Side Channels • Floodplain Ponds • Natural or constructed ponds • Ponds, oxbows, gravel pits or mill ponds

  7. Side Channel Benefits • Critical habitat for salmonids • Protection from storms and predators • Spawning areas for chum and coho • Rearing habitat for fry

  8. Benefit Other Wildlife • Rearing of many amphibians • Reproductive habitat for many bird species • Many organisms feed on salmon carcasses • Vegetation diversity

  9. Benefits Cont. • Average length (inches) of coho and chinook, respectively • Unfertilized river: 30.38 and 41.25 • Unfertilized Pond: 46.38 and 56.61 • Fertilized Pond: 49.60 and 66.52 • 61% length increase for coho and 62% for chinook

  10. Site Restorations • Side Channels are naturally occurring • Habitat loss mostly from restriction or constraints • Restorations need to be self-sustaining • Easiest restorations are removing restrictions

  11. Site Restorations • Selecting a good site is critical • Geologic Conditions • River channels • Vegetation • Groundwater • Elevation • Annual Flows • Water Quality

  12. Site Restorations • Data Needs • Current Fish Use - Flow Rates • Topography - Water Levels/Quality • Establishing Baseline

  13. Site Restorations Risks; Habitat • Increase Turbidity • Vegetation and Wildlife Displacement • Soil Displacement • Bed or Bank Scour • Avulsion • High velocity flows can displace woody material

  14. Site Restorations Risks; Wildlife • Fish stranded in restored channels. • Little water turnover • No vegetative cover Most risks are easily manageable and most are only temporary.

  15. Monitoring • Monitoring biological data is critical to determining success • Fish Counts • Adults, not smolt • Development of Vegetation • Photographs • Maintenance should be minimal

  16. Conclusion • Side channels: small watered remnants of river meanders • Provide spawning and rearing habitat for salmonids • Habitat for birds and amphibians • Allows diversification of vegetation • Many factors to consider when determining possible site • Vegetation, water quality and flow, current use, groundwater

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