Document Details

Title
Nimpkish River 2003 Yookwa Creek construction report
Author
Walsh, Bruce
Date
2004
Abstract
A partnership of Canadian Forest Products Limited (CanFor), 'Namgis First Nation and the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) are restoring the Nimpkish River Watershed (TFL 37) as directed by the Nimpkish Resource Management Boards? (NRMB) fish sustainability plan. The Forest Investment Account (FIA), administered by Price Waterhouse Coopers, funds the program that was started under the Watershed Restoration Program (WRP). This program includes road and slope stabilisation and rehabilitation, road deactivation, stream fertilisation, and stream channel and fish habitat restoration. This report describes the Yookwa Creek portion of the restoration work completed in Nimpkish River watershed during the 2003 instream construction window after several years of study. The Nimpkish Watershed Restoration Plan, 2002-2006 developed by ALBY Systems Ltd. (2001) ranked Reach Y1 of Yookwa Creek the highest priority reach for restoration in the Nimpkish Watershed. This ranking was based on: · Damage to fish habitats from channel widening as the result of fan and watershed harvesting, · Low present fish use when compared to historic use, · Prevention of future damage to high quality downstream fish habitat in the Sebalhall River and Nimpkish River as well as damage to the Nimpkish Island Ecological Reserve, · The potential for successful completion of instream works, During the winter of 2002 and spring of 2003 the Yookwa Technical Working Committee, as appointed by the NRMB, approved the restoration concept of working with the current channel configuration of Yookwa Creek on its fan while attempting to restore a more natural stream system of tributary channels. These occasionally wetted channels allow floods flow to travel to Vernon Lake along alternate paths to the main channel, reducing flow in the main channel. This condition encourages coarse sediment deposition on the fan surface, decreasing throughput to Sebalhall River, thus reducing impacts to downstream reaches. Five separate tasks or sites were prescribed for the Yookwa Creek Fan project. These are: · Site YK1BT1 ? Bar Top Stabilisation Structures (Type 1) · Site YK1LWD1 ? Bank Protection at 800m on the Left Bank (Type 1) · Site YK1LWD2 ? Bank Protection at 800m on the Right Bank (Type 1) · Site YK1DC1 ? Distributary Channel at 600m on the Right Bank (Type 3) · Site YK1DC2 ? Distributary Channel at 900m on the Right Bank (Type 3) 1 A distributary channel is a river branch that flows away from the main stream and does not rejoin it, common on alluvial fans. On Yookwa Creek fan, distributary channels flow across the fan into Vernon Lake or lower Sebalhall River without rejoining the main stream. The sites were identified as Type 1, Type 2, or Type 3 following the definitions outlined in the Habitat Restoration Prescription Guidebook (1998). · Type 1 projects are defined as structures that alter the channel plan and profile for less than five bankfull widths, produce a local effect on the streambed and banks. · Type 2 projects are defined as structures that alter the channel plan and profile over a reach length greater than five bankfull widths. These include structures that encroach into the channel more than 30% of the bankfull width or more than 50% of the bankfull depth. · Type 3 projects are defined as side or off-channel development. Prescriptions were completed in the summer and submitted for Section 9 Approval by the ?Namgis First Nation in June 2003 in the 2003 Level 2 Prescriptions for Yookwa Creek report (nhc and ALBY 2003). Construction was undertaken at two of the approved five sites in 2003. They are: · Site YK1DC1 ? Distributary Channel at 600m on the Right Bank (Type 3) · Site YK1DC2 ? Distributary Channel at 900m on the Right Bank (Type 3) The sites are named following a naming scheme developed by ALBY Systems Ltd. in 1996 where the first three alphanumeric characters denote the stream and reach (i.e. YK1 for Yookwa Creek reach 1). The last thr ...
Report Number
FIA2004MR060
 
Title
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2003 Yookwa Creek Construction Report
Yookwa 2003 Compendium

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