The Englishman River, located on the East Coast of Vancouver Island, is a major salmon and trout-bearing stream. Land use practices such as logging, agricultural development, and urbanization within the Englishman River watershed have destabilized, and widened the channel, resulting in a lack of large woody debris (LWD) compared to historical conditions (Bocking and Gaboury 2001, Gaboury 2005). LWD influences geomorphic processes and creates fish and aquatic invertebrate habitat (Hilderbrand et al. 1997). As such, the paucity of LWD recruitment on the Englishman River has been identified as factor affecting fish population abundance and recovery (Bocking and Gaboury 2001).
This project will restore a minimum of 6000 m2 of riverine habitat through the rehabilitation of aging large wood structures on the Englishman River, and its tributaries. Large wood structures provide numerous benefits to riverine habitats including sediment capture and retention, the creation of habitat complexity (pools, channel width variation), and erosion control.