Coffee Creek and Finger Creek Aquatic Organism Passage

In-stream infrastructure is replaced to increase flood capacity and restore fish passage, habitat, and functional depth and flow to an important part of the Gales Creek watershed.

The Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District (TSWCD) and Clean Water Services have spent several years working with residents, design professionals, and regulatory agencies to complete important fish habitat projects in Gales Creek, Oregon.

Finger Creek and Coffee Creek are cold water tributaries of Gales Creek that provide essential fish habitat for ESA-listed coho salmon and steelhead. Despite their ecological significance, both creeks had been severely degraded by a century of agricultural and industrial activity, including undersized and failing culverts, a concrete splashboard dam, and an abandoned railway trestle from a historic logging camp. Working as the prime contractor for TSWCD, Biohabitats restored fish passage at three separate locations across the combined project area and reconstructed natural stream channel conditions through both reaches. Recognizing the efficiency of treating both drainages in a single construction effort, Biohabitats combined the Finger Creek and Coffee Creek projects into one integrated work site, completing all in-channel work across both creeks within a single in-water work period.

Recognizing that the combined scope would push the limits of a standard in-water work window, Biohabitats proactively approached the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to request an early start and successfully negotiated an extension that moved the in-water work window start date from July 15 to June 1. The additional working time allowed Biohabitats to fully complete this diversified and logistically demanding project without compression or compromise to the quality.

Biohabitats’ crew removed all three undersized culverts and replaced them with precast concrete modular abutment bridges, restoring fish passage at each crossing. The concrete splashboard dam was demolished and regraded, and the stream channel was realigned around the abandoned railway trestle to restore natural flow and passage conditions. Biohabitats built natural stream channel conditions through both creek reaches using an engineered streambed mix of native gravels and cobbles to establish appropriate channel geometry and substrate and installed large woody debris structures to create habitat complexity and begin reconnecting the creeks to their adjacent floodplains. To protect the access road that runs alongside the project site from ongoing erosion, Biohabitats installed a log toe and soil-encapsulated lift system, a bioengineering approach that stabilizes the road embankment using structural logs anchored at the toe of the slope, backfilled with native soils and live plant material to establish long-term vegetative reinforcement.

Biohabitats relocated residential water lines that crossed the project area and maintained direct, ongoing communication between the project team, agencies, utilities, and the neighbors regarding traffic control, construction sequencing, and temporary disturbances throughout the construction period. The project was completed on schedule and within budget, restoring fish passage and delivering measurable improvements to channel stability, flood conveyance, and in-stream habitat quality within the Gales Creek watershed.

TAGS

• Construction
• Ecological Restoration