Restoration Projects Statewide Order Draft Program Environmental Impact Report

The Project is expected to provide habitat complexity, provide refuge for fish during high flows, improve hydrologic and hydraulic diversity and complexity, and enhance sediment sorting processes that are critical for all life stages of salmonids and other aquatic species in the Klamath River system. This will be done via restoration activities that include floodplain reconnection, channel enhancement, large wood and gravel installation, along with side channel and alcove creation. The Project is designed to lower flow velocities in several areas of the site, capture sediment to benefit anadromous fish and riparian vegetation, restore floodplain connectivity, and create thermal diversity to benefit aquatic species. The Project will nearly double the current area of slow water for juvenile salmonid rearing. The Project will also remove debris and restore areas of Humbug Creek that were affected by the 2022 McKinney Fire. The Project intends to restore and enhance 10.8 acres and 6,682 linear feet of terrestrial and aquatic habitat. Project components (collectively, Covered Activities) include: 1. Reconnecting the floodplain to increase viable juvenile rearing habitat. 2. Removing McKinney Fire floods-caused debris, fine sediments and refuse in the Humbug Creek confluence area and on the McConnell Bar elevated floodplain where materials from the fire were deposited. 3. Realigning the Humbug Creek channel from below the bridge to the confluence, and install habitat features in the creek. 4. Creation of channel features to reconnect historic channels in the greater floodplain of the Klamath River to enhance sinuosity and channel length, and to promote habitat complexity. These activities include: a. Creation of a meander b. Creation of a 50/50 split flow channel c. Opening and reconnecting disconnected side channel d. Creation of a pool (backwater alcove). 5. Removing an upstream embankment (likely a historical mining remnant) to eliminate an unnatural constriction and slow the flow velocity. 6. Diverting flows temporarily from the work areas to prevent excess turbidity. 7. Installing features such as gravel and large wood (structured log jams) to improve spawning and rearing conditions. 8. Revegetation via seeding of native forbs and grasses and planting salvaged willow plants.