This project uses a Stage Zero stream restoration approach to restore the lower half-mile of Willow Creek. Stage Zero stream restoration reconnects a stream to its natural floodplain, creating healthy wetlands and diverse stream channels that improve water storage, wildlife habitat, water quality, and resilience to floods and droughts. By reconnecting the creek to its floodplain, the project will spread water, sediment, and nutrients across the valley, reducing the erosive force of high flows while enhancing riparian vegetation, recharging groundwater, and improving aquatic habitat. The restoration also includes approximately one mile of Church Creek, a Willow Creek tributary, within the newly designated Willow Creek Reservoir State Wildlife Area.
Willow Creek below Willow Creek Reservoir experiences highly variable flows, ranging from prolonged low-water periods to powerful peak runoff events. These fluctuations create challenging conditions for stream restoration. During high-flow years, existing beaver dams are frequently damaged or washed out, only to be rebuilt during lower-flow years. Over time, this cycle has contributed to severe channel incision, disconnecting the stream from its floodplain and limiting the long-term benefits of beaver activity.
The original restoration design relied on low-tech, process-based restoration using Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS) to encourage beaver to build and maintain dams that would reconnect the floodplain. However, additional analysis showed that this approach carried a high risk of failure during extreme runoff events. If the structures were compromised, the channel would remain incised, floodplain connectivity would be lost, and habitat improvements would be temporary.
To create a more resilient and lasting restoration, the project team adopted a Stage Zero restoration approach. Rather than stabilizing the existing incised channel, the project will restore natural valley-bottom processes by filling the lower half-mile of the channel and constructing a fish-passable riffle ramp to establish a stable downstream grade. Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS) and natural beaver activity will then help distribute water across the valley floor, reconnecting the floodplain and supporting a complex network of wetlands and side channels.
The project also includes extensive revegetation with willow stakes, willow transplants, and native riparian vegetation to improve habitat, stabilize soils, and increase floodplain roughness. Hydraulic modeling indicates this approach will reduce flow velocities during peak runoff, making beaver dams more resilient to high-flow events and allowing the restored floodplain to function as intended.
By restoring natural processes rather than relying on repeated structural repairs, this project will create more durable aquatic and riparian habitat, improve water quality and groundwater recharge, reduce erosion, and build a healthier, more resilient watershed for decades to come.
The final design, led by Stillwater Sciences, is expected to be completed in August 2026. Learning By Doing will then secure the remaining funding needed to implement the project, with construction anticipated to begin in late summer or early fall 2027. Following implementation, the project will be monitored for several years to evaluate its performance and document improvements to stream function, floodplain connectivity, and aquatic and riparian habitat.