What’s being done to improve conditions for the salmon?

The intensity and relative proportion of stream restoration efforts in the Tucannon are unprecedented in the Pacific Northwest.  What makes habitat project implementation in the Tucannon so unique is the relative scale and amount large wood being placed on private, state, and federal lands.  With no navigable waters in the Tucannon, channel spanning wood structures are being used to return natural processes through aggradation of the streambed to restore floodplain connectivity for salmon and steelhead.  Often pools are the measure of success, but in the Tucannon before pool creation can happen, the bed itself must aggrade before there is enough gravel to naturally form a pool.  Therefore, large wood is used to slow velocities in the channel to deposit gravel for the restoration of natural processes.  Already over 13.2 miles of floodplain project implementation, which includes approximately 40 large wood jams per mile have been completed in the 56 mile focus area in the Tucannon.  By 2019, 46% of the mainstem Tucannon River will have experienced restoration.