Seattle City Light - Large Wood Stream Restoration

     Sullivan Creek in North Pend Oreille County Washington is historically sediment   deficient  due to the installation of Mill Pond Dam in the early 1900’s. The dam has since been removed but creek  velocities and lack of natural features in the creek are not conducive to fish habitat. Therefore, an innovative design of using timbers and other natural materials are installed in the creek to fast-track an ecosystem that is conducive to fish   reproduction that nature would ultimately have made.  The timbers used in the structures are very specific in terms of species, dbh, length, and many require a rootwad. With that, the harvest area for this project that was selected was roughly 11 miles from the    project location in Sullivan Creek. The area chosen was on difficult terrain (often >30%) and required two miles of road clearing to access. On top of access issues, selectively harvesting the specific trees in dense forest land all the while minimizing foot print as much as possible required very precise planning and execution.    Versatile used a combination of an excavator, skidder, dozer, and hand work to harvest and deck the    specific trees. Trees were hauled to the lower site by a long log stake truck and trailer. Slash generated during the harvest operations was scattered per USFS spec and used in decommissioning the access road. Once the operations were complete,   a USFS seed mix was spread in the disturbed areas.