Warm water temperatures are detrimental, and can be fatal to juvenile salmon. Little Lobster Creek in the Alsea Basin is known to reach unsuitable temperatures. A lack of fallen logs in the stream from the days of homesteading lead to a loss of salmon spawing gravel, since high flows washed the subrtrate away without something in the creek to hold it there. MCWC worked with volunteers and partners to create long term solutions to these problems.

Cedar being planted in grazing exclosure in the riparian area

MCWC and partners (including a team of volunteers) reestablished native conifers in the riparian area for long term shade and wood recruitment to the stream, and placed a significant amount of large wood within the channel to trap migrating substrate in the spawning grounds. The Siuslaw Collaborative Watershed Restoration Program and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board funded the implementation of this work and the project management, and a large match was also secured from the BLM through donating wood used in the project.