Salt River Watershed Restoration Design
Project Summary
Integral staff provided restoration design and planning services for 7.7 miles of the Salt River channel and more than 400 acres of tidal salt marsh on Riverside Ranch, as a subcontractor to the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District.
Location: Humboldt County, California
Key Personnel
Sharon Kramer, Ph.D. Senior Consulting Ecologist
Challenge
The Salt River watershed needed restoration of ecological and hydraulic function to support special-status species recovery, water quality, and flood risk reduction across a large, degraded system, complicated further by sediment sources in headwater areas and a need for improved fish passage alongside habitat restoration goals.
Our Role
Integral staff landscape architects, restoration ecologists, and fish ecologists assisted project engineers across planning, design, permitting, and implementation, restoring hydraulic capacity, fish habitat, and water quality in the lower Salt River and lower Francis Creek. The work reestablished a free-flowing channel connected hydrologically to its floodplain, addressed sediment source challenges in headwater areas, and restored wetland and salt marsh habitat in the lower Salt River.
What We Delivered & Results
The project increased tidal prism and estuarine habitat extent into the Salt River through restoration on Riverside Ranch, delivering 7.7 miles of channel restoration design and more than 400 acres of restored tidal salt marsh.