A creek 45 miles northeast of Sitka is getting a makeover this summer. The U.S. Forest Service approved the Muri Creek Stream Restoration Project earlier this month.
Muri Creek is nestled next to a remote bay on Chichagof Island, about three-and-a-half miles from Tenakee Springs. Marty Becker is the watershed program coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service Sitka Ranger District. He said the stream project, which was approved earlier this month, will restore an area damaged by clear-cutting in the 1960’s.
“The flood plain and the stream banks and the old riparian stand were, you know, heavily managed back in the day, and it’s had trouble adjusting and healing over time,” Becker said.
Two back-to-back storms in 2020 increased erosion in the area, leaving a shallow stream bed that goes dry during periods of low flow and also floods rapidly, making it hard for healthy vegetation to grow.
“[The storms] really wreaked havoc on this stream,” he said. “It really blew out the banks even worse.”
Becker said a team will use heavy equipment to place about 150 young-growth trees and root wads along the stream banks and floodplains – something that would naturally occur through windfalls over time, “so that when there are floods, the water slows down on the floodplains and deposits sediments, and those flood plains can start rebuilding and vegetation can regrow.”
There’s another benefit to the project. The trees headed for Muri Creek will come from the woods near Corner Creek, where historical clear-cutting has left dense new-growth stands. Those new-growth trees block out light, limiting the growth of groundcover plants that Sitka blacktail deer rely on. The Forest Service is partnering with the Mule Deer Foundation to remove some of those trees, improving deer habitat while stocking up on material to restore Muri Creek.
“So we’re going to take trees from previously harvested, un-thinned stands that are dense canopies with little undergrowth,” Becker said. “And we’re going to thin those stands to improve deer habitat and use those thinned trees to then haul over to Muri Creek and put in that system to restore it.”
The project is classified as a categorical exclusion, meaning it is unlikely to have a significant effect on the human environment. The Forest Service said analysis showed “no adverse effect” to protected species or habitat, cultural sites, or archaeological artifacts.
Becker said the Forest Service has completed similar projects across the Tongass National Forest.
“We’ve done stream restoration with large wood using heavy equipment on almost every district, I believe, on the forest, so from Yakutat all the way down to Prince of Wales and Ketchikan,” Becker said.
The project was approved on January 8. Becker estimated that tree sourcing will start in May, and stream restoration will take place in June and early July.
