Klickitat River Watershed 2021 Field-Based Workshop: Intro to Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes
October 12 & 13, 2021 in Tepee Creek, WA
Description
This field-based workshop will take place on Tepee Creek in the Klickitat River watershed and is intended to introduce conservationists to ‘low-tech’ process-based (LTPBR) approaches for restoring streams and their associated riparian areas (riverscapes) to benefit fish, wildlife, and Tribal lands. Participants will learn principles guiding low-tech process-based restoration and become familiar with simple, hand-built tools, including Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) and Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS), intended to mimic and promote specific ecosystem processes. Participants will gain basic skills in the planning, design, and implementation phases of project development.
Because the course will be taught in the field, it will be helpful to refer to some documents. We will have hard copies of the Design Manual and the Pocket Guide, available for workshop participants at no cost. An online lecture series can be viewed either as videos or pdf documents. We encourage workshop participants to review some of the lecture material before the workshop. We will update the website with pictures and other information after the workshop.
Where to Meet
Tuesday (10/12): 9:00 AM Yakama Nation: Tepee Creek IXL (46.1841640, -121.0260258)
Wednesday (10/13): 8:30 AM @ Tepee LTPBR Meadow Site (46.1384681, -121.0696050)
See the agenda for specific locations of where we will be meeting and stopping each day. The following links provide workshop meeting and stopping locations in .kmz and google map formats.
embed map
How to Sign Up
To sign up, please contact Adrianne Grimm (agrimm@ykfp.org) or Jeanette Burkhardt (jeanette@ykfp.org).
What to Bring
- Closed toe footwear, clothes you can get dirty in
- Wading boots or waders
- Water, lunch
- PPE (sun protection, ear protection, work gloves, eye protection, hard hat)
- Some PPE will also be available on-site for work on day 2
COVID-19 Precautions
During the workshop, please follow state, local, and employer guidelines for social distancing and wearing masks.
What Will Be Provided
- LTPBR Manual and Pocket Guide
- Restoration Tools (shovels, buckets, post pounder) and extra safety gear
- Snacks
- PPE if needed
Agenda
- <a href=”></a> Print Agenda
Day 1: Tuesday, October 12
Meeting Location
Stop 1
TBD
Stop 2–
Day 2: Wednesday, October 13
Meeting Location:
TBD
Course Materials
Workshop Textbooks
For the workshops, we will rely on the new Design Manual and the Pocket Guide, which are both available free digitally. A hard copy of both will be provided to you in person at the workshop.
Workshop Lectures
Thanks to the generous support of the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Working Lands for Wildlife, and a grant through Pheasants Forever to Utah State University’s Restoration Consortium and Joe Wheaton’s ET-AL lab are able to deliver a free virtual workshops to NRCS conservationists and their partners. This series was envisioned by Jeremy Maestas (NRCS) and is possible thanks to partner matches by various local organizations in each state and matching funds from Utah State University. This grew out of the successful 2016 Enhancing Mesic Habitat Resilience in Sagebrush Ecosystems Workshop at Utah State University and the 2018 and 2019 workshop series.
The latest iteration of these is a lecture series designed to be presented virtually over five days. The link below provides access to all the lectures on each aspect of low-tech PBR (e.g., planning and assessment, design, implementation) in video and pdf format. These resources will provide more detailed information and links to scientific literature than can be delivered in field-based format.
Additional Resources
Tepee Creek LTPBR Design
The following map outlines the locations of LTPBR structures on Tepee Creek. A full restoration design report can be found here.
Yakama Nation – Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool
The Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) is a capacity model developed to assess the upper limits of riverscapes ability to support beaver dam-building activities. Both existing and historic capacity are estimated using readily available spatial datasets to evaluate five key lines of evidence: 1) a perennial water source, 2) availability of dam building materials, 3) ability to build a dam at baseflow, 4) likelihood of dams to withstand a typical flood, and 5) likelihood that stream gradient would limit or completely eliminate dam building by beaver. BRAT was ran for all the perennial rivers and streams within the Yakama Nation Reservation, which includes portions of the Lower Yakima, and Klickitat watersheds. The analysis also included the Rock Creek, White Salmon, Little White Salmon, and Wind River watersheds. Click on the below link to access the data.
Instruction Team
