Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

Elwha River Revegetation 2013 – Plant Performance Study

Project ID: P13AC00833

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Partner Institution: University of Washington

Fiscal Year: 2013

Initial Funding: $4,950

Total Funding: $4,950

Project Type: Research

Project Disciplines: Biological

National Park: Olympic National Park

Principal Investigator: Ewing, Kern

Agreement Technical Representative: Acker, Steven

Abstract: This is a collaborative project between the University of Washington (UW) and the National Park Service (NPS) to support monitoring in 2013 of the revegetation efforts in the former Lake Mills reservoir at Olympic National Park. Dam removal began in September 2011 in the Elwha River watershed. Elwha Dam, the first of two dams on the Elwha River, was completely removed by March of 2012 and the Glines Canyon Dam will be fully removed by the fall of 2013. The revegetation program incorporates public outreach and volunteerism, providing opportunities for communicating and educating the public about the restoration process. The UW and NPS will conduct a study to determine the impacts of different site prescriptions and sediment texture on plant performance of five species planted in recently exposed lakebed sediment of the former Lake Mills reservoir. The study will also examine the effect of sediment moisture content on plant condition and mortality over the initial growing season. The results will be used to determine which site prescriptions are most successful and which plant species will have the highest rates of survivorship in the xeric conditions of exposed lakebed sediment. Results will provide project managers with data to improve and therefore accelerate revegetation success and will provide future restoration projects with plant performance results related to soil texture and soil moisture content. The project report will be publicly available through either a peer-reviewed journal article or the NPS Natural Resource Publications Series.

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