Upper Clear Creek Habitat
Upper Clear Creek Habitat
Pierce County
This habitat improvement project on approximately 41 acres of land in the Clear Creek drainage on the southwest side of the Puyallup River valley involves a variety of habitat improvements. Improvements include stream restoration, wetland re-establishment, wetland rehabilitation, wetland enhancement, and buffer enhancement. The project involves restoring riverine wetland and floodplain functions throughout the site by realigning Clear Creek through wetlands. The types of habitat features included in the design were:
– Realigned main Clear Creek channel through floodplain with adjacent low-elevation bench habitats, microdepressions, and alcoves
– Secondary floodplain channels including a side channel, overflow channel, and pond outlet channels
– Ponds
– Hummocks
– Standing snags
– Several types of large wood structures distributed throughout channels, ponds, and the floodplain
– Alcoves and large wood structures adjacent to the right bank of the existing Clear Creek channel, and
– Re-vegetation of wetland and upland buffer plant communities
BDA provided professional design services including forested wetland design, channel re-orientation design, salmon spawning areas design, hydrology data collection and reporting, survey support, permit support and environmental documentation, bidding support, construction support, project management support and quarterly monitoring.