We don’t publish restoration updates as a narrative victory lap — we publish the numbers, because the numbers are what a restoration project either earns or doesn’t. Here’s what this spring’s monitoring season at Two Forks Riparian Corridor actually showed.
The culvert replacement that reopened 3.4 miles of upstream habitat happened in 2021, a year before we protected the land outright. This spring’s joint survey with the state fish and wildlife agency counted 34 steelhead redds (spawning nests) in the newly accessible reach — up from 21 last spring and 9 the year the reach first reopened. That’s not a straight line of improvement year to year, which is normal for a species with high natural variability, but the four-season trend is unambiguous: fish are using habitat that was completely inaccessible to them for six decades.
Streambank stabilization is the less dramatic but equally necessary half of the project. We planted roughly 1,400 willow and alder cuttings along both forks between 2022 and 2024. This spring’s survival survey found 78% establishment — lower than the 85%+ we’d like, and we’ve adjusted planting depth and irrigation timing for next winter’s planting based on which sections underperformed (south-facing banks with less afternoon shade had the worst survival, which tracks with what we’d expect).
Water temperature logging, the third leg of our monitoring here, showed a summer maximum of 64.2°F at the confluence this year — within the range steelhead can tolerate, but close enough to their upper stress threshold (around 70°F for extended exposure) that continued streamside canopy establishment matters directly, not just aesthetically. We’ll publish the same three numbers — redd counts, planting survival, and peak water temperature — every year this restoration continues, whether or not the trend line is flattering.
