Rapid Restoration Wood and Fill Method

The Rapid Restoration Wood and Fill (RRWF) method is a new restoration technique developed by the Region 6 Forest Service Restoration Action Team that has been implemented in three streams on the Fremont-Winema National Forest. As a contemporary approach to address entire wet meadow restoration in eastern Oregon, RRWF is implemented where streams with incised channels and headcuts have created lowered water table levels therefore degrading the meadow through erosion, decreased habitat for meadow-dependent species and allowing encroachment of upland vegetation. Efforts of the RRWF are to create a virgin floodplain and allow the stream to naturally form a channel.  This is done by adding large wood complexes throughout the floodplain, filling in the channel with soil and rock to floodplain elevation and then covering with salvaged vegetation.  Results include a naturally formed stream channel with a functioning floodplain, restored fish passage and habitat, and the restoration of the water table to its historic level.