Johnson Creek is home to small populations of coho, chinook salmon, steelhead, lamprey and a host of other fish and wildlife. For an urban watershed it has a surprising amount of intact habitat for fish and wildlife. Floodplain connectivity and instream habitat have been limited and significantly simplified over the past century, but the creek is resilient and responds very well to habitat restoration and enhancement. This project will add large wood structures to approximately 700 linear feet of Johnson Creek 3/4 miles downstream from its largest tributary, Kelley Creek, a cold water tributary providing refuge for juvenile salmon, steelhead and lamprey. The reach has a full riparian canopy and mostly intact floodplain. Instream habitat diversity is lacking though, and we will install large woody debris structures to create pools and capture spawning gravel during high flow events.
