Sucker Creek Watershed Restoration Partnership in the Illinois Basin

PRC, Siskiyou Project, Pacific Watershed Associates and the Forest Service meet on Sucker Creek to discuss recent road remediation projects in the Illinois Basin. Photo by Chris Frissell, PRC

In 2008, Pacific Rivers Council initiated a new partnership to jump-start whole watershed restoration efforts in Sucker Creek.  In particular, we wanted to fully and systematically address the long-recognized need to reduce the sediment and hydrologic impacts of the existing road system basin-wide.  With partners Siskiyou Project and Pacific Watershed Associates, PRC has received funding from a consortium including the nonprofit organization Ecotrust, the USDA Forest Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service, to initiate an integrated, watershed-wide assessment to prioritize and develop work plans for remediation and sediment reduction of Sucker Creek’s road network.  

The Sucker Creek Sediment Reduction Action Plan is the first assessment to consider all land ownerships comprehensively and to explicitly account for the basin-wide distribution of critical habitat areas for fish and wildlife species in establishing priorities and recommendations.  The study approaches Sucker Creek from the standpoint the whole-watershed physical dynamics of sediment movement and habitat formation and restoration in Sucker Creek and its tributaries.  Once road segment treatments priorities are established, field assessments of high-priority segments will set the stage for specific prescriptions and work plans for sediment control projects to proceed as soon as funds become available. 

The Sucker Creek Partnership also seeks to open a sustained conversation with the local community about the need and opportunity for improving and reducing the environmental impact of Sucker Creek’s road system, through restoration and improved management practices.   We will also explore community interest in developing restoration-based jobs and businesses. Outreach will include a community meeting and field workshop with PRC and PWA experts.    

Looking beyond the assessment study, we are already working with the Forest Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Illinois Valley Watershed Council, to round up funding for Sucker Creek Watershed restoration projects on the ground.   Meanwhile our Sucker Creek Whole-Watershed Assessment will help ensure that the investment of future resources in Sucker Creek restoration is well-targeted, cost-effective, and sets the course for real recovery and restoration of water quality, salmon habitat, and fish and wildlife in a keystone of the Illinois River Basin.

Read about a presentation PRC staff gave on the project in March.

Read more about the Partnership and the Illinois, which we have designated as a Legacy River.

View A Map of the Sucker Creek Watershed