East Canyon Creek has experienced dramatic alterations over time. During the 1900's much of the stream was heavily grazed and treated with herbicides to remove willows, which impacted ecological function. In addition, historical mining also impacted water quality by releasing large amounts of phosphorus through fine sedimentation. As the area has developed, additional phosphorus-laden fine sediment has been released into the watershed along with dramatic changes in the hydrograph associated with development. These include a flashy hydrography and severely reduced flows. Ultimately the sediments are stored in East Canyon Reservoir. In 2015 partners utilized volunteers to construct willows and several Beaver Dam Analogs on a spring creek located on the Mormon Flat Property. This project would develop a design and construct several of these structures, using a conservation corps and volunteers to provide a bulk of the labor.

This project seeks to use constructed beaver dams as a tool to: 1) Maintain or enhance floodplain connectivity to reduce the stream energy during flashy high water events 2) Store fine sediment in the upper watershed and prevent it from being deposited into East Canyon Reservoir 3) Improve low water fish habitat

The major threats in East Canyon Creek are low dissolved Oxygen and stream temperatures in East Canyon Creek during the summer. The causes of these water quality challenges are very complex, and predominantly caused by large scale development in the upper watershed. This project and a similar one on the Swaner Eco Center property would provide test case pilot projects for the use of beaver dam analog structures to restore ecological processes in areas of East Canyon Creek, where we believe we would see large improvements in Water Quality due to the positive impacts that Beaver Dams have on streams. These include increasing the groundwater/surface water interactions to improve the water temperature profiles during the summer as well as expansions of the riparian areas, which will reduce sediment passage downstream.

The East Canyon Creek and Reservoir TMDL list East Canyon Creek as being impaired for dissolved oxygen. Many factors contribute to this impairment and they include large scale historical riparian vegetation removal, uncharacteristically low flows during the summer, and extensive habitat and channel degradation. Although unable to address all of the issues, this project would kickstart the ecological process of beaver dam construction, which has been shown to have a wide range of benefits, particularly in degraded stream ecosystems. The 2014 Weber River Restoration Plan indicated that the impacts from land development and management were major challenges to habitat and water quality in the East Canyon Creek ecological system. This project compliments much of the past restoration work that has been completed in East Canyon Creek in the past and implements new strategies in new areas to restore floodplain connectivity.

Not directly applicable.

We expect to see the following water quality benefits: 1) Improved (colder) stream temperatures 2) Reduced fine sedimentation in riffles

This will be a noninvasive project. We will consult with the appropriate agencies to ensure that all clearances have been addressed. We will be completing a stream alteration permit for this project, and will consult with the USFWS and SHPO regarding project parameters.

We propose to develop a design plan during the summer of 2016 and implement in the late fall of 2016 using a combination of volunteers and contracted conservation corps individuals. Beaver Dam Analogs will be constructed based on design techniques using the ICRRR beaver restoration principles.

We propose to monitor this project aerially to assess pool formation, as well track the stream temperatures and sediment deposition and willow recruitment patterns.

UDAF Utah Division of Parks Swaner EcoCenter

We expect to utilize project monitoring information to determine the feasibility of expanding the project to larger scale areas within East Canyon Creek. Depending upon the rate at which the Beaver Dam Analogs are occupied by beavers, we will work with the East Canyon Creek watershed committee to use volunteers to continue maintenance of the beaver dams to ensure that they have the intended effect.

Although the specific project area is not currently grazed, we expect the project to improve riparian area productivity by enhancing the water table and serve as a local example of rangeland/riparian practices that can be beneficial to livestock with livestock management techniques.

07/01/2016

06/30/2017

2017

Planning for this project began in July 2016 with an initial survey. Our partner, Vail Resorts agreed to provide 100 volunteers for our volunteer day on 9/17/2016. With volunteers broken into several groups we installed the 6 BDA's on East Canyon Creek and improved two existing BDA's on Large Spring. During June of 2017, we installed a riparian fence to protect the spring and creek from trespass cattle. We utilized another volunteer group of approximately 65 volunteers to complete that phase of the project.

This project met all of our objectives of improving habitat diversity along this reach of East Canyon Creek. The 2017 high flow caused some portions of the BDA structures to move, but they functioned as expected by causing localized scour and deposition and by reconnecting the floodplain and inducing fine sediment deposition.

We will continue to track the BDA's and will install additional structures as needed if we are able to secure additional volunteer time. We will also work to maintain the fence to preclude trespass cattle from accessing the riparian area.