Friends of The East Fork and Fish First have been cooperatively working with local property owners along the East Fork Lewis River and have constructed a number of fish habitat and stream restoration projects over the last few years.
We have a proven history of designing and implementing effective restoration projects backed by independent monitoring of the results. Our 6-person “Stream Team” made up of 2 hydrologists, a river restoration engineer, a stream geomorphologist, a sedimentation geologist, and a fisheries biologist, have extensive restoration training and many years of actual stream restoration project design and installation. We draw from experience with projects on both small and large rivers including those with annual peak flows ranging from 20,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) to over 100,000 CFS, such as the Eel, Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, and Tanana.
Partnering with local landowners on Cedar Creek near Amboy, Fish First has done over 8 miles of very diverse and successful stream restoration projects. Cooperatively, Friends of The East Fork and Fish First have been gathering data for over 13 years on the lower East Fork as well as completing 4 restoration projects in the last few years.
There is a lot of state and federal stream salmon restoration grant money available and because the East Fork has 4 species of “Threatened and Endangered” listed salmon and steelhead, it is a priority stream for fish recovery. Restoration of the highly degraded lower East Fork stream channel, from about Lewisville Park Bridge on down to just above La Center, is the primary reach of stream for channel and fisheries recovery.