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The Lower Red River Meadow Restoration Project in north central Idaho is a multi-phase ecosystem enhancement effort that began in 1994. The project is sponsored by Idaho County Soil and Water Conservation District and funded by Bonneville Power Administration. Natural physical and biological processes and functions were restored to stabilize the stream and meadow and reestablish high quality fish and wildlife habitat. In 1997, a long-term, effectiveness monitoring program was initiated to measure, evaluate, and document the success of restoration techniques. A majority of the channel’s structural, hydrologic, and habitat features are evolving as expected and preliminarily meeting performance criteria. Subsequent monitoring will continue to track the recovery of this wet meadow ecosystem, to identify the most effective restoration techniques, and to transfer information to other natural resource managers and stewards. More information about the Lower Red River Meadow Restoration Project is available at these websites:
http://www.redriver.uidaho.edu/
http://www.redriver.uidaho.edu/facts/RRFACTS_092001.pdf
The Big Flat Meadow Restoration Project was designed to restore a section of Cottonwood Creek, a small stream in Northeastern Plumas County. Cottonwood Creek once kept Big Flat meadow watered as it flowed from the East side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to join the Feather River. Over the last 60 years, a combination of livestock grazing, fire, and timber harvesting led to channel erosion, with the channel cutting down from its former meadow height into a gullied channel, 15 feet deep in some places. As the creek eroded down through the meadow soil, it lowered the water table, allowing undesirable dry-site vegetation such as sagebrush to replace grasses and sedges which need more moisture. To re-water Big Flat meadow, the Feather River Coordinated Resource Management Group designed a project which combines an innovative technique of stream and meadow restoration with changes in the grazing system of the Forest Service's grazing allotment. Feather River CRM members designed a monitoring plan to test the effectiveness of the project at restoring the Big Flat Meadow. Information was collected on stream and meadow characteristics in 1994 and 1995 to have a baseline against which to test the project’s future success. More information about the Big Flat Meadow Restoration Project is available at these websites:
http://www.feather-river-crm.org/factsheets/fact6.htm
http://www.feather-river-crm.org/pdf/ieca.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/Section319III/CA.htm#2
The Bear Creek Meadow Restoration Project, near Dana, California, is a component of the California Trout Conservation Plan’s Upper Fall River Watershed Restoration Project. Several actions have been proposed in order to address sedimentation problems in the Upper Fall River, including restoring and protecting high priority stream and meadow systems in the Bear Creek Watershed, and implementing Bear Creek Meadow restoration between Spaulding Bridge and the Fall River Confluence. Project implementation was completed during the summer of 1999, and included channel and floodplain reconstruction, excavation of ponds, gravel augmentation, meadow revegetation, and bank and grade stabilization. More information about the Bear Creek Meadow Restoration Project is available at these websites:
http://www.caltrout.org/consact/consplan/PG24.PDF
http://www.cas.usf.edu/geology/people/faculty/rains/research.html
http://www.streamwise.com/ProjectInvolvement/Bear.asp
The Stevens County Restoration Project, in northeastern Washington State, is a success story of the Washington Wetlands Reserve Program. A partnership was formed with NRCS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kalispel Tribe of Indians, and the landowner to restore the wet meadow, which had been drained and converted to agricultural use. Restoration efforts in the meadow involved relocating streams, plugging various drainage ditches, and deleveling the relatively flat topography of the site. More information about the Stevens County Restoration Project is available at this website:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/wrp/states/success_wa_stevens.html
References Cited
Cowardin, L.M., V. Carter, F.C. Golet, and E.T. LaRoe, 1979. Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitat of the United States, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
Gosselink, J. G., and R. E. Turner. 1978. The role of hydrology in fresh water wetland systems. Pages 63-67 In R. E. Good, D. F. Whigham, and R. L. Simpson, eds. Freshwater wetlands, ecological processes and management potential. Academic Press, New York.
Micheli, E. R. and J. W. Kirchner. 2002. Effects of Wet Meadow Riparian Vegetation on Streambank Erosion: Measurements of Vegetated Bank Strength and Consequences for Failure Mechanics. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 27, 687–697 (2002).
Ratliff, R. D. 1985. Meadows in the Sierra Nevada of California: state of knowledge. U.S. Dep. Agric., For. Serv. (Berkeley, Calif.), Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-84.
Ratliff, R.D. 2003. Wet Meadow. California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System, California Dept. of Fish and Game. 4 pages. Available online: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/whdab/cwhr/pdfs/WTM.pdf
Wet Meadow Re-watering
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