Yuba River Canyon Restoration Project

Funded by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) through its Anadromous Fish Restoration Program, this restoration effort supports recovery of these important fish, and the decade-long interdisciplinary “plan-design-permit-build” project reflects a deep commitment to river restoration, partnerships, and stewardship.

The restoration project excavated and sorted the aggraded floodplain sediment to increase floodplain inundation and juvenile salmon habitat, and built up three in-channel riffles for spawning and pools for holding. Construction of a temporary river crossing, which was later integrated into a spawning riffle, provided access to the site during construction.

Because heavy equipment had no previous access to the site, subsurface conditions in excavation areas were unknown until construction began. Without pre-determined particle-size distributions for design, project engineers and geomorphologists collaborated with the contractor to excavate test pits and adaptively optimize restoration designs in real-time during the eight-week in-water construction period. Field engineering and design adjustments resolved construction bottlenecks and limited construction delays.

Construction was completed in August 2018 and post-project monitoring will continue until 2021.