This project takes place in the Emigration and City Creek Canyons, both of which face numerous ecological threats. These canyons also provide habitat for Mule Deer, Elk, and Moose, as seen in the wildlife tracker database (see attached maps). We propose a set of integrated watershed restoration activities addressing fuels mitigation, stream and riparian restoration, and collaboration with broader invasive species management efforts. Wildfires pose a significant threat to wildlife, infrastructure and public safety in both canyons. Emigration Canyon is considered to be at 'Extreme Risk' of wildfire due to the proximity of housing and wildlands, and steep slopes with large, continuous stands of Oak brush. City Creek is home to a significant municipal water supply, and an important source of wildlife habitat for the Wasatch front. An extreme wildfire in either canyon would be extremely detrimental to wildlife populations as well as the local economy. Tributaries to Emigration Creek are in need of restoration, in part due to low water levels. These issues can be addressed in some tributaries with BDAs. These structures slow the flow of water and encourage floodplain reconnection where streams are degraded and incised. City Creek faces an ecological threshold as the stream has begun downcutting, jeopardizing the riparian habitat and climate resilience of this watershed. Invasive species threaten both canyons as well. Partners at Salt Lake County's noxious weeds program have been mapping and working to mitigate Garlic Mustard and Yellow Starthistle along the Wasatch Front. There is an urgent need to address a large patch of Garlic Mustard in Emigration Canyon before it begins to spread. We request support to address this time-sensitive invasive species issue.

1. Restore stream habitat quality, water quantity, and water quality in degraded sections of Freeze Creek by building BDAs 2. Increase climate resilience of drinking water sources for communities, by building BDAs in City Creek. 3. Fuel reduction to reduce wildfire impacts to soils and water quality while benefiting wildlife and habitat 4. Address time-sensitive Garlic Mustard spread in Emigration Canyon 5. Increase riparian vegetation through stream restoration practices and native plantings in order to improve habitat for migratory birds (e.g., Yellow-billed Cuckoo) and native pollinators (e.g., Monarch butterfly)

Stream Restoration: Emigration creek and its tributaries face an ecological threshold of drying up for part of the year. As recently as 2020, DWR stocked Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in Emigration Canyon. In recent years, the ongoing drought has compounded habitat loss. Low-tech process-based structures, such as BDAs have been shown to buffer streamflow and reduce periods of streams drying. City Creek is facing a different ecological threshold, as the streambed has begun to erode, disconnecting the flowing stream from it's floodplain. If the floodplain dries out, this critical wildlife habitat will be lost, and the drinking water supply will be less resilient to climate change. Beavers have inhabited this watershed within the past 50 years, and their natural impoundments held water back and prevented erosion. Without these natural impoundments, the stream is on a trajectory to become incised much like Red Butte Creek. BDA structures, which mimic beaver activity, are an effective and cheap way to reverse this degradation before crossing an ecological threshold that would require much more expensive interventions. In both canyons, BDAs serve as natural fire breaks, promoting year-round green vegetation and wetted soils. Fuels management: Emigration Canyon faces an ecological threshold of extreme wildlife risk. Dense woody vegetation growing along roads, hillslopes, and stream corridors in this canyon poses a serious threat to this canyon. In addition to the potential loss of human life, a catastrophic fire would be extremely costly and set back ongoing ecological restoration efforts for decades. The overgrowth of low and mid-canopy woody vegetation in Emigration Canyon also inhibits growth of native herbaceous forage for wildlife including big game animals. Invasive species management : Noxious weeds, such as Garlic Mustard, pose a serious threat to ecological systems. Once an invasive plant population reaches a dominant population level, many other native plant species decline and the general native vegetative layer is degraded, sometimes significantly and irreparable. Garlic mustard is an allelopathic biennial plant which not only is self-pollinated, and spreads rapidly, but also changes the soil mycorrhizal relationships, inhibiting other plant species from growing near it. As one of Utah's few forested noxious weed species, it is a significant threat to riparian and forested communities if left unchecked. The secret canyon population exists on SLCDPU and UWCNF lands within a steep, difficult to access location near mountain seeps, and requires manual removal over approximately 8 acres by a large crew which the Invasive Species Management (ISM) grant is unable to accommodate.

Utah State and Salt Lake County Resource Management Plans have identified the preservation and enhancement of rivers and floodplains as important objectives to consider when planning projects. Additionally, wetlands and riparian areas have been identified as key resources to provide both environmental and economic benefits to Utah communities. Recreation has also been called out as essential to Utah's ecological and economic vitality into the future. This project addresses these RMP objectives and also will help to bring the community together around this rare resource, the Jordan River and the North Salt Lake Watershed Improvement Project. Emigration Township Council is implementing a watershed action plan in 2022-2024. This plan will describe future activities for water quality improvement. In 2015, Utah Department of Environmental Quality issued a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Emigration Creek, identifying Escherichia coli (E. coli) as pollutants and parameters of concern. UDEQ has set a goal of reducing the current loading of 2.18E12 #/day by 1.22E12 #/day (56%) to meet the Total maximum load as a daily average of less than 9.61E11 #/day. Maximum water quality target of 668 MPN/100 ml and geometric mean 206 MPN/100 ml. BDA implementation activities undertaken during FY23, and associated monitoring will help inform the role off low-tech process-based restoration in other tributaries to Emigration Creek. Utah's Wildlife Action plan: While beaver reintroduction is not part of the proposed project, BDAs mimic many of the functions of beaver and provide similar habitat benefits. One goal of Utah's Wildlife Action Plan (2015-2025) is to increase the extent of native riparian vegetation by restoring beavers on the landscape, using the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT). The BRAT tool, in addition to historic beaver activity, marks City Creek as an ideal place for BDAs. Degraded riparian vegetation in tributaries to Emigration Canyon, while likely too small to host beavers, also benefit from BDAs. Utah's Catastrophic Fire Reduction Strategy seeks to promote 1) resilient landscapes, 2) fire adapted communities, and 3) strong and effective local wildfire response. FFSL has identified Emigration Canyon as at extreme risk for catastrophic fire. The fuel thinning and BDA build activities associated with this project during FY23 address the first two goals within Emigration Canyon. Fuels mitigation activities proposed by FFSL will increase landscape resilience, as will the natural fire breaks provided by BDAs. FFSL also plans to work closely with the community to increase community fire adaptation by improving access for EMS and evacuation routes. Salt Lake City is in the process of updating it's watershed management plan. The BDA projects in City Creek and Emigration, and subsequent monitoring will help inform the role of low-tech process based restoration in this plan, as partners at Salt Lake City Public Utilities develop it in the coming year.

BDAs and natural beaver activity serve as affordable fire mitigation strategies, especially when paired with landscape-scale action. Emigration Canyon is the only community rated a "10 - Extreme Risk" on the Communities At Risk (CARs) list in Salt Lake County. Forestry, Fire & State Lands has submitted grant applications for FY23 for fuel mitigation in Emigration Canyon for both State Fire Assistance (SFA) and Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) funds. These funding proposals are for targeted thinning in high wildfire risk areas, removal of excess woody ground vegetation, removal of fuels along creeks, removal of hazard trees, defensible space around structures, roadway thinning for improved EMS response and evacuation and ingress/egress. The funding will improve watershed health by allowing desirable, native grasses to succeed and retain soils, reducing erosion into Emigration Creek.

Water quality: A key objective of this proposal is to avoid large fires, which would damage water quality for decades. BDAs and fuels mitigation help to create fire breaks and mitigate the risk of a large catastrophic fire. BDAs structures also reduce total suspended sediment loads by slowing down water and capturing sediments behind the small structures. By promoting floodplain reconnection, these structures reduce nutrient loads from tributaries. By slowing flow velocities and increasing soil-water interaction, BDAs promote biotic uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus by microorganisms and plants along the riparian zone. Studies have shown that streams with in-tact riparian corridors remove more nitrogen than degraded, incised streams. Water quantity: BDAs improve in-stream flows in several ways. By slowing streamflow velocity during storms and snowmelt, BDAs accumulate sediment and promote physical reconnection between the flowing channel and floodplain vegetation and soils. The reconnected floodplain provides natural water storage capacity within the channel. These new storage opportunities promote year-round flow in previously intermittent streams. Increased connectivity between stream water and floodplain soils lead to expansion of hydric vegetation. Proposed fuels reduction work will improve water quantity by changing the vegetation class through thinning woody vegetation on slopes and riparian zones. Ongoing invasive weed management practices by project partners further improve water quantity by removing unwanted vegetation that affects the water regime alongside Freeze Creek.

NEPA is not needed for the fuels or stream restoration work on this project. All proposed project locations are on state, county, or private land. We will acquire a stream alteration permit (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued Programmatic General Permit 10 PGP-10) for the BDA work. Sageland collaborative will work with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Cultural Resources Program Specialist to review the stream restoration sites and confirm that the BDAs comply with Utah Code Section 9-8-404 and the Federal Section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act. We do not foresee the need for any Municipal-level approvals for our work in Yellow Fork, and have acquired site access permission from Patrick Leary at Salt Lake County Open Space. In compliance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, we plan BDA building activities such that we do not disturb nesting songbirds by working in the stream during nesting season. Access and site authorization work in City Creek Canyon will be coordinated under a forest-wide categorical exclusion from the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. We will notify and coordinate with UWCNF prior to implementation. Authorization and permits will be obtained in coordination with SLC Public Utilities as needed.

Stream Restoration: We will build approximately 60 BDAs in Freeze Creek and 60 BDAs in City Creek. In Freeze Creek, Sageland Collaborative will hire a contractor to install fence posts spanning the stream channel using a hydraulic post pounder. Sageland Collaborative will then host volunteer events to fill in the space between posts using local materials such as rocks, downed wood, and sod to create small impoundments. Fuels management: United Fire Authority to thin and chip vegetation along roads, streams, and on steep slopes to improve native vegetation success and reduce erosion through soil stabilization. Invasive species: Sageland Collaborative will contract conservation corps contractors to manually pull Garlic Mustard from the rugged and difficult to access Secret Canyon area. We will coordinate with partners at DWR And Salt Lake County's Noxious Weed program to supervise contractors.

Stream restoration: Sageland Collaborative will carry out habitat monitoring in both canyons before and one year following BDA installation. We will follow the Rapid Stream Riparian Assessment protocol (Stacy et al. 2013) which covers 25 metrics evaluating water quality, aquatic habitat quality, riparian vegetation, and hydro-geomorphology. Each of these metrics, plus an overall score will be included in the final project report. SLCDPU will supply total coliform and e.coli monitoring data from relevant sampling locations within CIty Creek Canyon. Invasive plant species monitoring (Garlic mustard): Salt Lake County Noxious Weeds and Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities Watershed crews map weed populations using ArcGIS collectors. Data is also uploaded as point values to Eddmaps. Before and after photo points are utilized when possible, to show visual changes in the landscape after manual control methods have occurred. Fuels mitigation: Typically, fuels reduction treatment areas are monitored annually for at least 3 years following implementation. FFSL and partners will communicate with landowners about property maintenance during that time and extend the life of those practices, adding to their continued value and risk reduction.

This project crosses several jurisdictional boundaries, including private lands, SLCDPU property, and Salt Lake County property. Partners from each entity have been contacted and provided permission to access and work on their property. Written permission will be obtained ahead of time for each implementation described in this proposal. USFS was contacted for expanded work beyond these jurisdictions, however their ongoing projects in adjacent watershed areas (i.e. Millcreek, Parley's Canyon) are already supported by different WRI grants. Sageland Collaborative will carry out stream restoration projects (BDAs) in Freeze Creek and City Creek. RiverRestoration Inc initially reached out to Sageland Collaborative while working closely with the Emigration Metro Township Council and homeowners in Emigration Canyon to identify watershed restoration opportunities. A group of homeowners in the Emigration Oaks Fork neighborhood has granted access permission to carry out this work. SLCDPU identified sections of City Creek that would benefit from BDA work. Sageland collaborative biologists visited both sites and deemed them good candidates for BDAs. We reached out to additional partners at UDWR, FFSL, Salt Lake County open lands, US Forest Service, for input and coordination on other projects happening in City Creek, Emigration Canyon and adjacent jurisdictions. SLCDPU supports BDA work in City Creek, granting site access, field support, staffing for installation and funding for BDA materials. Partners at both SLCDPU and Salt Lake County are actively working to mitigate invasive Garlic Mustard and Yellow Starthistle in both Freeze Creek, Killyons, City Creek and areas nearby in Parleys Canyon. The Salt Lake County Noxious Weeds program will be the lead point of contact for Garlic Mustard removal and a significant effort on invasive species is being done under the UDAF ISM grant program. Biologists with CRO UDWR are supportive of installation of BDAs in both watersheds where compatible with other watershed priorities. UDWR has periodically stocked native Bonneville cutthroat trout into adjacent portions of Emigration Creek. Suboptimal water quality and quantity parameters in Freeze Creek and Emigration have limited additional repatriation/supplementation efforts. Efforts to stabilize the base flows in Freeze Creek and other streams across Emigration Canyon will help improve conditions for cutthroat trout. UDWR, in cooperation with other partners, will evaluate habitat conditions post restoration to determine if/when further stocking is warranted. The Salt Lake County Watershed program is also working on improvement of water quality in Emigration Creek and has conducted many studies over the last 2 decades to identify opportunities to improve the watershed and water quality conditions. Those studies are not detailed here, but can be provided if anyone wants to get the details. The studies have indicated that improvement of watershed health and holding water up higher in the canyon [with BDAs] has a high potential to improve conditions in the creek. This is truly a watershed wide effort. Partners at FFSL are in support of this project as it contributes to ongoing efforts to mitigate fuel problems in Emigration, while creating natural fire breaks in the form of robust riparian corridors using process based restoration and BDAs. FFSL will contract United Fire Authority for thinning activities in Emigration Canyon. The USFS CoMFRT team and FFSL performed a community-wide risk study in 2021 on social perspectives that will dictate wildfire mitigation strategies going forward and drive community participation.

Emigration Canyon has 680 homes and nearly 2,000 full-time residents. Emigration Metropolitan Township Council is pulling together a plan for watershed actions in the next 2-5 years with Salt Lake County Watershed and other agencies. In subsequent years, partners on this project plan to expand the geographic scope of stream restoration and fuels mitigation efforts across Emigration and City Creek canyons. During FY23, the Emigration Improvement District will develop a watershed management plan that will guide activities. Installation of low-tech stream restoration structures (BDAs) this year, and the subsequent monitoring data will help inform the role of Low-tech process-based restoration in that plan. The same can be said for Salt Lake City's watershed management plan, slated for completion in FY23. There is interest in expanding stream restoration and fuels mitigation work in the Emigration Oaks neighborhood, and Kilyon's Canyon. Expanded fuel mitigation work in Emigration & City Creek Canyons: In 2021, UFA implemented a 3-acre shaded fuel break in Emigration Oaks with 50% landowner cost-share. Pending additional funding, the current project would support larger scale fuel reduction projects in Emigration. In subsequent years, FFSL and SLCPU will develop a plan for comprehensive fuels management in City Creek canyon, including fuel reduction, training scenarios, prescribed burns, chipping and thinning along the road, and erosion control. Aquatics - Efforts to stabilize the hydrograph in Freeze Creek will help improve conditions for Bonneville cutthroat trout. UDWR, in cooperation with other partners, will evaluate habitat conditions post restoration to determine if/when further stocking is warranted. Utah's Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan: This project addresses Habitat Objective 1 (Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing crucial habitats and mitigating losses due to natural or human impacts) as well as Habitat Objective 2 (improve quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 24). Shrub thinning activities planned for FY23 will preserve habitat by reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire (objective 1). BDA structures in Freeze Creek and City Creek will increase the availability of surface water throughout the year, as well as high water-content vegetation improving forage for Mule Deer, which protects and improves crucial range (Objective 1) and increased quality and quantity of vegetation (Objective 2). The proposed garlic mustard pulling activities will improve habitat by removing undesirable species (Objective 1) and making space for improved vegetation for mule deer (Objective 2).

Water Resources Low-tech process based stream restoration, including BDAs, has many benefits for water resources. BDAs reduce suspended sediment loading as they slow water velocity and hold back sediment from moving downstream. BDAs can also improve water quality by reconnecting the stream with its floodplain, which promotes microbial pollutant removal processes and physical filtration of water through floodplain soils. BDAs promote water storage in shallow soils and groundwater, which leads to sustained year-round streamflow. Fisheries Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Aquatics team has stocked a modest amount of cutthroat below the Pinecrest area in the past. Due to poor water quantity (and some subsequent temperature issues) this area has been a low priority for stocking, however. If restoration efforts lead to increased habitat suitability, Utah DWR Aquatics would consider a more frequent/stable effort to supplement the population. BDAs create habitat complexity by pooling water and allowing for resting pools for juvenile fish. Big game BDAs promote expanded green vegetation along the stream channel, improving summer forage for mule deer and other big game animals. Removal of excess woody vegetation promotes growth of native herbaceous forage for mule deer. City Creek is a critical source habitat for big game animals across the Wasatch Front. Improving the floodplain connectivity in this section of City Creek will help sustain summer forage for these populations. Fire mitigation Fuels reduction work proposed in this project supports the goal of mitigating large, catastrophic fires in extremely vulnerable areas. Emigration Canyon is home to nearly 2,000 people, and a large unmitigated fire would be life threatening to people in this community, in addition to property loss and ecological damage. City Creek Canyon is a critical water source for Salt Lake City, and a large fire would negatively impact water quality for years. BDAs serve as natural fire breaks, by extending the time that water is held on the landscape and maintaining green vegetation throughout dry summer months. Recent studies have shown beaver dams and BDAs can reduce the severity of fires and provide refuge for wildlife. Recreation Located along the Wasatch Front, both City Creek and Emigration Canyons are heavily used by hikers, bird watchers, bikers and hunters.

07/01/2022

06/30/2023

2023

- Riparian Restoration: Beaver dam analog structures were built using hand tools. Volunteer & UDWR crews pounded 4' lengths of locally sourced untreated wood, sharpened on one end and into the stream bed to a depth of 18-24" and trimmed to the height of the ordinary high-water mark. Volunteers then filled in the space between fence posts with materials found on-site--rocks, mud, and willow branches until the water began to pool and spill over the top of each structure. - Riparian Habitat Monitoring: Before and after restoration activities were implemented, the condition of the stream was assessed using the Rapid Stream Riparian Assessment (RSRA) protocol (Stacey et al. 2006). The RSRA protocol was developed as a means to efficiently assess the condition of a stream. RSRA utilizes qualitative and quantitative data to generate a score for water quality, hydro-geomorphology, fish and aquatic habitat, riparian vegetation, and terrestrial wildlife habitat. The data is then converted to a score that ranges from "1", representing highly impacted and non-functional conditions, to "5", representing a healthy and completely functional system. Stacey, P.B, A.L. Jones, J.C. Catlin, D.A. Duff, L.E. Stevens, and C. Gourley. 2006. User's Guide for the Rapid Assessment of the Functional Condition of Stream Riparian Ecosystems in the American Southwest. - Fuel Reduction work: UT FFSL contracted Unified Fire Authority to clear cut and chip vegetation along roadways to reduce fire risk in Emigration Canyon. - Garlic mustard treatment: The drinking watershed location of GM patches in City Creek & Emigration necessitates hand-pulling. Crews from ACE & UCC carefully pulled garlic mustard by hand, transporting it in large trash bags to a centralized weigh station. Crews carefully decontaminated shoes and clothing before leaving the site each day.

- Riparian Restoration: We proposed building up to 120 Beaver Dam Analogs between City Creek & Freeze Creek/Emigration Canyon tributary. We designed and permitted projects to build 35 structures in City Creek and 80 structures in Freeze Creek. We completed 18 structures in City Creek (covering 0.11 stream miles & approx. 4 acres), paring down the site design with input from additional partners. The 70 structures in Freeze Creek are slated for completion by in-kind contributions from volunteer crews in October 2023. The Freeze Creek project was delayed and pared back in scope due to the need for a temporary water right, which was granted in mid-August 2023. This additional permitting hurdle led to a slight reduction in capacity to build the total number of BDAs originally proposed. the final implementation of those BDAs (not yet complete) will be paid for by external funding sources, and have not been mapped onto this project. - Riparian Habitat Monitoring: RSRA surveys were completed before & 1 year after City Creek BDAs were completed, and 1 year prior to Freeze Creek BDA project implementation. Our RSRA survey report for City Creek is in the 'Documents' section of our images/uploads section. the Freeze Creek report will be compiled once we have a post-restoration survey (after FY23), but the raw data is publicly available on citsci.org. - Fuels Reduction: This project assisted fire crews in protecting the pumphouses within the freeze creek drainage that control the water supply for Emigration Oaks. Providing 60ft of clearance along the pumphouse road will create a fire break that will allow crews to access Freeze Creek and have an area to implement fire suppression operations in the event of a wildfire. Fire Crews cleared 4.12 acres encompassing 60ft buffer on either side of the pump house road, just east of Freeze Creek & north of Pioneer fork Rd. Emigration Oaks Property Owner's association also contracted Apex forestry to hand-thin some of the dead aspen trees to reduce fire risk along the Freeze Creek riparian corridor between the two points where Pioneer Fork Rd crosses Freeze Creek (5.9 acres). - Garlic Mustard: Salt Lake City, UDWR, and Sageland Collaborative coordinated with Utah Conservation Corps to pull garlic mustard in Emigration Canyon (14K square feet, <1 acres) using WRI funds. Salt Lake County also received a matching grant for $93,750 from UDAF/Invasive Species Management Fund to address Garlic Mustard in City Creek & Emigration. This matching funding was used to treat an additional 19 acres for garlic mustard mechanically (hand-pulling), and 5 acres chemically.

- Beaver Dam Analogs: Sageland Collaborative & property owners (SLCDPU & Emigration Oaks POA) will continue to monitor both project sites and communicate about ongoing maintenance needs. Beavers are unlikely to populate Freeze Creek in the future. These hand-build structures may need maintenance periodically if desirable natural process (wood accumulation, sod production, sediment capture/storage) do not take hold. - Riparian Habitat Monitoring: To track the effects our restoration work has on the riparian ecosystem, we conduct annual RSRA surveys one year before and multiple years after construction of the beaver dam analogues in City Creek & Freeze Creek. - Fuels Reduction: Brushing regrowth bi-annually recommended, HOA & Water Improvement district will assist with maintaining the fire break road. FFSL continues to work with the Emigration Oaks community to address fire risk concerns, advise the community on best-practices in adherence with Utah's Catastrophic Fire Reduction Strategy. - Garlic Mustard: Project partners discovered large, previously un-mapped patches of GM upslope from the Emigration/Hidden Canyon pull area in June 2023. Partners are considering the appropriateness of continuing to hand-pull vs. spraying GM in future phases of this project.