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Post-fire Strawberry River restoration plan focuses on Slab Canyon and Slab Lake stabilization
Summary
Division and partners described Phase 3 restoration on Strawberry River after the 2018 Dollar Ridge fire and subsequent floods. Work includes stabilizing Slab Lake outlet with boulders and cross-vanes, river channel rebuilding, tamarisk control and monitoring to recover cutthroat trout and recreational values.
Garren Burchill and staff presented Phase 3 of Strawberry River restoration, a post-fire, multi-year program addressing flood-created channel changes, loss of fish and damaged access since the 2018 Dollar Ridge fire and the 2018 floods.
"We had a flood that impacted about half of that stretch of river and then another flood in August that essentially started at the parking lot below Soldier Creek Dam and heavily impacted the entire river bottom," Garren said, summarizing the scale of damage and fish mortality. Consultants contracted by the mitigation commission prepared watershed-restoration designs and Tyler Allred (Allred Restoration) produced 30% designs for stabilization of Slab Lake and other priority reaches.
Nut graf: The proposal aims to rebuild instream complexity, stabilize Slab Lake’s natural dam with boulder armoring and cross-vein controls, install low-tech process-based restoration features (post-assisted log structures and scour controls), continue tamarisk removal and coordinate monitoring and adaptive management to restore spawning and rearing habitat and public access.
Presenters showed gill-net and survey results from Slab Lake indicating large adult trout present in the lake; restoration proponents argued stabilizing the lake and the stream corridor would support future recruitment to the Strawberry River and downstream fisheries. A mitigation-commission fund provides substantial in-kind and matching dollars; DWR requested about $182,000 from WRI with significant in-kind contributions noted.
Ending: Presenters noted ongoing monthly coordination with mitigation commission and other partners; the councils discussed potential fire-rehab and mitigation funding avenues and monitoring plans to document post-restoration fish recruitment.
