Rogue Basin Assessment

RDG has been doing river restoration and fish passage projects throughout the Rogue Basin for over a decade.  With this experience, The Freshwater Trust (TFT) and Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) hired us to spearhead a strategic assessment and plan for placing large wood throughout the basin to meet Biological Opinion requirements required by the Bureau of Reclamation. 

We performed an extensive remote sensing effort of the entire basin to identify candidate sites that would be ideal for large wood habitat restoration projects.  After identifying over 100 sites, we strategically used our field efforts to first validate the sites and then further evaluate the candidate sites for habitat restoration.  Public outreach meetings were held to solicit input from landowners and the public to ensure all concerns were addressed.  The result of our analysis provided multiple sites for large wood structures to meet limiting factors and meet restoration objectives.

We have worked closely with TFT and BOR to design and construct over 100 large wood structures in Little Butte Creek, Neil Creek, and Bear Creek.  Monitoring of these sites has demonstrated that they are meeting the intended purposes and providing refugia, large scale roughness, and cover for both juvenile and adult steelhead and salmon species.