Edmiston Spring Channel Enhancement Completed

The Edmiston Spring Creek project is now officially complete, including three years of post project monitoring. This was a partnership project between Snake River Fund, Jackson Hole Trout Unlimited, Friends of Fish Creek, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Teton Conservation District.

Edmiston Spring is a small, spring-fed tributary to Fish Creek that flows through the town of Wilson. The Creek crosses Highway 22 and flows adjacent to the Wilson Elementary School and a dozen or so private parcels and serves as valuable nursery habitat for juvenile Snake River cutthroat trout (SRC).  Jackson Hole Trout Unlimited partnered with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Teton Conservation District, local non-profits Friends of Fish Creek and the Snake River Fund, as well as stream-adjacent landowners within the project reach to complete access agreements, a sub-watershed management plan, and implement the project.  Process and relationships developed throughout this life of Edmiston Spring Channel Enhancement will ideally translate to future restoration work throughout the Fish Creek drainage.

The Edmiston Spring Channel Enhancement Project sought to improve stream stability, pattern, and profile, as well as increase the quality of habitat available for SRC, with an emphasis on juvenile life stages.  Project goals were as follows:

• Increase habitat for juvenile Snake River Cutthroat Trout (SRC);
• Optimize fish habitat in late winter flow conditions;
• Maintain existing wetland and riparian habitats.

Restoration activities accomplished in 2015 included:

• Placement of 155 cubic yards of spawning gravels to create or enhance approximately 4,184 sq ft of riffle habitat,
• Excavation of 7 small pools, up to 3 feet in depth, in appropriate locations to provide resting velocities for spawning fish,
• Placement of 14 willow slash and 8 willow mattress structures to promote stable stream pattern and sediment transport while providing juvenile fish habitat,
• Planting 70 potted willows within the riparian zone in the downstream extent of the project reach where willows had been historically removed,
• Construction of 655 ft of temporary wildlife exclusion fencing to encourage success of potted willow planting,
• Removal of 3,500 sq ft of canary reed grass.

In addition to restoration activities, two community education and outreach events were hosted in 2015 by Trout Unlimited and the Snake River Fund as well as Wyoming Game and Fish.

Edmiston Spring construction was completed in 2016.  Final touches included the placement of wetland sod berms within the active channel throughout the project reach.  These treatments concentrate flows within the channel and delineate flowing from back water habitats.

Since 2016, this project has been closely monitored to evaluate completion of goals. For more information on this project, contact us or Anna Senecal, Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

*Information in this post provided by Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s January 2019 Summary Report. View Final Report.