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BDAs at High Water

Beaver Dam Analogue (BDA) #8 was installed up against the incised banks of Myers Creek. During high water of spring 2017, the stream pushed its force around the BDA and into the bank, widening and lengthening the channel as needed. This sediment was then carried downstream, where it was captured by other BDAs and settled on the streambed. As a result, the streambed is now closer to its floodplain!

The ultimate goal of this project is to reconnect the stream with its floodplain, and foster the ecological benefits associated with that connection. The following video is taken at the upstream end of the structures that our team installed in the summer of 2016.

Below you can see that large wood is changing the movement of the stream, causing it to spill out over its banks and inundate the floodplain in a broad area on both sides of the creek. This is the least incised portion of the project area, and thus the first to reconnect. It is very exciting to see this degree of success during the first high flows after in-stream construction.

Change Over Time: BDA 9

Left to right: summer 2016, initial construction; spring 2017, first high water; summer 2017, adaptive management construction; spring 2018, second high water

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Change Over Time: BDA 14

Before, during, and after construction–the streambed is raised four feet higher in one year!

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Deflector Dams: Bird’s-Eye View

A deflector dam (2018) pushes the stream against the bank to lengthen and widen the channel and recruit sediment for building the streambed higher.

The same view, 2 years later (2020).

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