Restoration of the Encampment River

The Encampment River Riparian Restoration Project, which is helping to benefit fish, prevent land erosion and promote future growth, work is still moving forward.

The idea for the project came about more than two years ago, after Christina Barrineau, Wyoming Game and Fish Aquatic Habitat Biologist, and Jeff Streeter, Trout Unlimited Project Manager, noticed an unstable, degraded portion of the Encampment River just downstream from Riverside that was unsuitable for fish habitat. The two then embarked on a joint project between WGFD and Trout Unlimited to restore that part of the river, and hired Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. to create a design for the restoration project. Olson Excavating, of Laramie, is conducting the excavation.

Excavation work for the project began in 2011, and is intended to restore a degraded portion of the Encampment River, now on Brush Creek Ranch-owned land, by building more bank land along the river with the use of rocks, wood and dirt. The project will make the portion of the river narrower and straighter, bring the water table up, stabilize the banks, create deeper pools and replant vegetation to provide overhead cover for fish. Olson Excavating has also built rock structures for the river to provide better grade control and fish habitat enhancement.

According to a newsletter from the Wyoming council of Trout Unlimited, the restoration project objectives include repairing and stabilizing the portion of the trout stream that is accessible for wade-fishing to the general public downstream of the town of Riverside; improving stream bank stability by decreasing the channel width/depth ratio; improving the channel pattern; increasing fish spawning success; juvenile rearing and adult refuge habitat, especially during periods of low flow; decreasing adjacent land loss from excessive erosion; improving utilization and rest and rotation of grazing lands adjacent to the riverbed; and increasing habitat for mammals, birds and amphibians. The release also stated the ultimate goal is to utilize state-of-the-art technologies to decrease bank erosion and stabilize the river so that it more efficiently moves the bed load of sediments originating upstream through the Encampment Valley, all the way to Rainbow Canyon at the foot of the valley and thence to the North Platte River.

The project was recently presented and given an update by Barrineau and Streeter Aug. 28 at the Platte Valley Community Center. During the August presentation, Barrineau added the project would also benefit mule deer in the area.

“This project goal is to reestablish riparian vegetation abundance and diversity to increase the sustained mule deer,” Barrineau said. “Our objectives include creating a diverse age class of riparian vegetation including trees as well as shrubs; increase the herbaceous diversity and production; improve shrub density; and improve watershed hydrology. What we’re doing with the channel dimension will help raise the water table, and that should help improve riparian vegetation as well. This project is going to provide a demonstration for future restoration work.”

During a tour of the land last Thursday, Barrineau pointed out over-widened channels and unstable banks, which had nothing growing on them, along the riverside. She said the project would help bring back that missing growth and diversity along the banks.

“What we’ve got is an over-widened channel and really unstable banks, and as you can see, there is nothing, no trees or shrubs, growing along this bank,” Barrineau said during the tour. “Through bank erosion it had all been washed away over time, but hopefully by creating this bank stability, were going to bring back those cottonwoods and willows and bring in some other species as well. I want to be planting serviceberry and chokecherry out here along these banks, and I want to bring some diversity to what is lacking out here.”

Barrineau said narrowing the river also raises the water level, making it easier for the ground near the banks to get wet and see future growth.

“The work that we’re doing, we’re narrowing it up to help bring the water table back up, and we’ll have better floodplain connectivity here,” she said. “Before when the river was so over-widened, all the river was doing was banging around on these banks. It took a higher flow before it would ever get out here, and we want it to get out here because once it reaches the floodplain, it can dissipate its energy.”

At present, excavators are still on site filling in dirt, wood and rocks alongside the river. Barrineau said she hopes to have all the in-channel work finished sometime in the first week of October, but more work would still follow afterward.

“They’ve got a lot of work to do, and then we’ve got some touch-up things that we need to work on, like cleanup or tweaking a rock here or there throughout this entire reach,” she said. “Then we’ll be done with the in-stream construction stuff, but then it’s sort of a different phase when we talk about the riparian vegetation component. We’re going to work on some things this fall, like some willow cuttings, and we’ll focus on some other things in the spring. If you take out the vegetation component, it’s going to be maybe another year of us doing more work out here.”

Barrineau said more manual labor will be utilized once the excavators have completed their portion of the work.

“The trackhoes will hopefully be out of here that first week of October, but when we start thinking about riparian vegetation and what we’re doing there, that’s more human labor,” she said. “That’s when I need bodies cutting willows and doing the hard manual labor.”

The total river project length is about 3,500 linear feet, according to Barrineau, and 1,300 linear feet of that should be completed this year. Jackie Schultz, WGFD technician, explained the time and process excavators were using in creating the new land area during 2013.

“Right now we’re on Day 29 (Sept. 19) of construction for this year, just to give you an idea of how long this 1,300-foot section has taken us,” she said. “We only have one or two weeks, roughly, so about another 10 days. They take a section of what will be the new bank, fill it in with a bunch of wood that’s all scattered and kind of lying criss-crossed and mish-mashed, and re-pile with dirt. That will be the new stability with the water going up against it, and that’s what holds the bank in and keeps it from washing away.”

Schultz said the wood from the filled-in land is what will serve as safe haven for fish looking for a place to hide and rest from the river’s flow.

“Having a lot of wood there creates great fish habitat,” she said. “They can hide underneath that wood, and it just gives them cover. There are spots where you can kind of see little pieces of wood just barely sticking out, and fish will be right underneath there.”

 

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