Aquatic Restoration
Stewardship and Aquatic Restoration
A stewardship sale is a special type of sale classification that can only be used if there is demonstrated collaborative support. Stewardship sales allow the USFS to include restoration projects into a timber sale contract, and all the receipts from the timber sale stay on the NF. The profits from a stewardship sale are then invested into a non-harvest related restoration project that must be identified at the front-end of the sale planning process.
Clear Creek Road Conditions Before Restoration
The 2060 & 2065 roads are heavily used for recreational access. Large pot holes have developed in the lower (northern portion) of the road. Material continues to be eroded by vehicle traffic. Road ditches have filled in many places, lost capacity and now allow water to flow over the road and erode the surfacing. Road surface has scour channels in numerous places. Ditch drainage flows directly into creeks in numerous places. Impeded road drainage makes road surfacing & sub-grade more likely to saturate and possibly fail. It weakens the road and increases erosion from vehicle traffic. Natural debris flows from Jumbo Mountain periodically divert and flow down portions of road rather than the established channel. Existing road surface aggregate is fine gravel subject to erosion when heavy rain caused surface flows occur or from snow melt.
Project Overview and Socioeconomic Impacts
The Collaborative’s goal was to install new large (probably 2.5"), durable, rock surfacing on the road to reduce erosion and to better infiltrate surface runoff. Ditches cleaned where necessary and configured such that road drainage does not flow into creeks. New plastic culverts installed as necessary. Road dipped as necessary in places of historic (periodic) debris flows to reduce likelihood of flows diverting down road. (This helps maintain natural role and place of debris flows in adding complexity to streams from wood and rock inputs). General goal is to bring this National Forest Road up to standards. Overall goal is to minimize potential road system impacts on Clear Creek and restore natural water flows.
Clear Creek Road is heavily used by locals and others for recreation and a variety of activities such as hiking, rock climbing, berry picking, wildlife viewing and fishing are some of the major activities. 30 years of minimal maintenance had resulted in heavily pot-holed surfacing, undersized, failing culverts and inadequate ditches. Lack of ditch maintenance and grading resulted in water flowing down the road tracks, eroding material and carrying sediment into streams. Potholes were deep enough that material was constantly splashed out and more sediment went into streams. Fixing this road gave the surrounding community and recreation enthusiasts renewed access to all of the things they loved about the clear creek stretch of Mountain Loop.