Completed Peshastin Creek restoration opens door to more conservation

PESHASTIN — A collaborative restoration on private land has transformed a channelized segment of Peshastin Creek into its natural form, reconnecting floodplain and wetlands, and improving habitat for endangered fish.

“We hope to do a few more of these projects on Peshastin Creek to right some of the wrongs of the past and we hope that these projects provide significant uplift for fish,” said Cascade Fisheries Executive Director Jason Lundgren.

According to Lundgren, Peshastin Creek is one of the most productive steelhead streams in the Wenatchee Basin. It also provides cold water refuge to fish when the Wenatchee River warms in the summer. However, development and construction of US-97 over the past century confined the creek to a straighter channel, disconnecting it from its historic floodplain and reducing habitat complexity.

“We know that rivers need floodplains to dissipate flow and energy and to deposit sediment,” said Lundgren. “Peshastin Creek has been made into a fire hose, especially with construction of the highway.”

Today, the creek’s footprint has widened significantly, marked by side channels, log jams, and depressions. When flows increase to around 50 cubic feet per second and above, Lundgren estimated, the stream will connect to the recently added side channels. The new features will help it slow and spread.

“I think we were pretty impressed by the scale of the work. It’s a pretty amazing amount of work to get done in such a short period of time,” said landowner Fletcher Beaudoin.

The project took just over two months to complete, but its origin dates back to 2022, when Cascade Fisheries began discussions with three joint landowners — Tyler Coke, Beaudoin and Joshua O’Duin — about restoration work on their property.

To ensure the restoration would be protected in perpetuity, the landowners partnered with another local organization, Chelan-Douglas Land Trust (CDLT), to establish a conservation easement on the portion of property surrounding the creek.

“We're doing something that will last for generations,” said Coke.

The landowners retain ownership, but the easement permanently limits the use of the land to protect its conservation values. The easement covers about 20 acres of the property, including some of the land the owners considered most usable for future development. CDLT Conservation Director Mickey Fleming said the organization compensates landowners for conservation easements based on the property's fair-market value, including its development potential.

“Sometimes people think that if they do a transaction for conservation, they're not going to get paid as much as they would if they were to sell it for development. That's not true,” said Fleming. 

Leading up to the actual construction, the landowners said the last four years were a learning lesson in the ecology, funding and bureaucracy behind conservation work. 

“We leaned into that learning process,” said Beaudoin. “Like, knowing that we're going to start this, and we don't know exactly how it's all going to go, but we're going to keep pushing and learning, and eventually we'll get to a good outcome.”

That commitment paid off. The landowners said the transformation of the land has already created a larger buffer from the highway. And, as the stream connects to the additional side channels, they are hopeful that it will revive historic wetlands and attract more wildlife.

“It creates an amazing amenity on our property that we definitely had to put some time and energy into, but we were able to create it through partnership…Without us having to lift as much as it would take to do it alone,” said Beaudoin.

Coke and Beaudoin said the project has inspired them to encourage other landowners to consider similar conservation efforts.

“Landowners can benefit very tangibly from these types of projects, while also playing an important part of restoring our landscape,” said Beaudoin.

As restoration work wraps up on this segment of river, CDLT is already working to expand conservation upstream. Fleming confirmed that CDLT was in the process of acquiring private property just upstream of the current project, opening the door for a broader, contiguous stretch of restored river.

“It's just leveraging the benefits of conservation. If you have a little piece all by itself, it's not going to be able to have that much of an impact,” said Fleming.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media