Corralling river will undo 50 years of neglect

	Alistair Taylor/The Mirror Wayward river: Biologist Ian Redden surveys a channel and sparsely-vegetated gravel bar of the Elk River in Strathcona Park. Redden has designed a project to corral the river back into a single channel in order to restore it to its historical course.

By Alistair TaylorMirror Staff
Wisps of cloud cling to the round-top mountains. Grey, overcast clouds diminish the light causing bright, yellow leaves to stand out on the mountainsides in stark contrast to the dark green fir needles.
At the foot of these mountains, the Elk River ricochets from bank to bank braiding a network of channels on a gravel flood plain that empties into Upper Campbell Lake in Strathcona Provincial Park.
On an old channel, bare of all but a few clumps of willow bushes, a small group of people plant willows, dogwood and cottonwood trees in hopes of undoing years of neglect along the Elk River.
"It's been about 50 years with very little improvement," said biologist Ian Redden.
Redden is heading up a project funded by BC Hydro to return the meandering Elk River to the single channel stream it used to be and replant the forest that used to carpet its banks.
The Elk River flows into Upper Campbell Lake from mountains to the west. It was a favourite stream of legendary Campbell River fly fisher and authour Roderick Haig-Brown. But a series of events changed the pristine nature of the river and caused it to break free of its single, stable river channel and begin to scour the valley bottom from side to side leaving its banks, in places, bare of vegetation and forcing the river into a braided, winding, wandering course.
The result in the lower 13 kilometres of the Elk River is an unvegetated channel four to seven times wider than it was originally.
According to a series of reports between 1973 and 1999, the cause of these changes were:

• A landslide into Landslide Lake in 1946 (the headwaters of the Elk River) introducing significant sediment into the upper channel.

• Extensive valley bottom logging in the 1940s.

• Diversion of upper Crest Creek and a portion of the Heber River into the Elk River drainage in 1957 (increasing the drainage area of the Elk River by approximately 25 per cent).

• Construction of the Upper Campbell Reservoir resulting in the formation of a delta at the outlet of the Elk River.

• Channel relocations or diversions associated with the construction of both the Gold River Highway and the Elk Valley Timber Road.

Hydraulic analyses suggest that the pre-1957 Elk River was on the upper limit of slope and discharge for a single thread channel anyway. The combined effects of increasing flow and sediment, reducing bank vegetation and locally increasing channel slope has caused the river to cross the threshold between single and multiple thread channels, which explains why there has been so little channel recovery over the last 50 years.
In a recent report prepared for BC Hydro, the lower Elk River has been identified as the top priority for restoration works of all the diversion creeks in the Campbell River watershed. The system contains resident rainbow and cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden char. Rainbow, cutthroat and Dolly Varden from Upper Campbell and Buttle lakes also use the river for spawning and to access smaller tributaries for spawning.
BC Hydro is funding a project to begin restoration of the river through its Bridge Coastal Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program. Work began Sept. 20 and is slated to wrap up this week. The focus of the project is to wrestle the river back into a single channel and allow pools, stable log jams and other important fish habitat features to develop and establish themselves. Meanwhile, on the banks, trees would re-establish themselves and stablize the river channel.
The method of doing this is relatively simple, although somewhat labour intensive. That's why the small group of volunteers and contractors were out on the old channel last week planting willows, dogwoods and cottonwoods. They collect the trees from the adjacent forests and cut them into one-metre lengths. An excavator is rolled out onto the gravel channel and pulls back a shovel full of gravel. A planter then stuffs two or three stakes into the gap and the excavator allows the gravel to fall back into place leaving a few inches of stalk sticking out.
This technique is called live gravel bar staking. The plants established by this technique trap small organic debris carried by flood flows. This, in turn, creates a flow disruption, allowing gravel and silt to settle. As the sediment on the gravel bar builds up, it reaches a point where the river will no longer flood over the plantings and will be forced to go around them.
Hundreds of plantings in an area will divert the river in a certain direction and that's how the river is corralled and encouraged to run in a single channel. Meanwhile, more and more natural species establish themselves and the forest re-establishes itself.
It's a simple system, Redden said, and it gradually encourages the river to stop meandering across the valley bottom.
"We don't want to drastically change it all at once," he said.
The Elk River has a high profile.
"Everybody knows it, it's right by the highway," Redden said.
When BC Hydro put out a call for proposals, Redden suggested the Elk River. It was one of those ideas where everybody slaps their forehead and says, "of course."
"It was one of those projects we were all looking at and saying, 'geez, somebody should do something about it,'" Redden said.
Redden works for Nanaimo-based Streamline Environmental Consulting Ltd. which put in the proposal to BC Hydro.
The project is receiving a lot of support from the community. School groups, Gold River streamkeepers and the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation have all provided crews to do the work.
The project is seen as a critical first step to restoring the biological productivity of the Elk River. Before any fish and wildlife enhancement can be done on the river, the channel has to be stabilized. Any other habitat enhancement would be wiped out by the wandering river so this project is seen as the beginning of a multi-year process of restoration.