Designing 5,000 feet of stream in northern Minnesota

Knife River Reach 4 - Stream Design and Construction Oversight

Running through Lake County, Minnesota, the Knife River provides a critical habitat to many trout species including steelhead. The section referred to as Reach 4 is particularly important to steelhead as it serves as a key spawning site. Part of the team restoring and improving Reach 4, Environmental Troubleshooters (ET) needed technical guidance to gather data on the stream itself. Enter our professionals to lead the design process.

With the main goals of improving the habitat to be a viable home for fish two years and older as well increase the distribution of spawning habitat and reducing bank erosion, we worked with ET staff to collect information at the stream reach level and completed a Natural Channel Design Level III Assessment to evaluate the overall stream condition and stability. The assessment included completing a stream profile, representative crossing sections, and pebble counts.

While we designed 5,000 feet of the stream, the initial phase of this multi-year project focused on a 600-foot segment. Providing on-site construction supervision and supporting ET, we helped achieve a successful start to the restoration of this vital waterway.