OUR GEM: k’wne’ ‘ulchiyark’wmtsut – Fisheries restoration connecting two restored reaches
New Channel Construction on Hangman Creek in 2025 showing LWD, channel alluvium and staged fill material. Image via Our Gem.
The Hangman Creek Fisheries Restoration Project began in 2002 and is funded by Bonneville Power Administration under the Fish Substitution Policy to compensate for lost salmon harvesting. Early research found the limiting factors to be a lack of connection between channel and floodplain, a lack of large woody debris (LWD), excess fine sediments, and high stream temperatures associated with a lack of tree canopy.
Initial work on Hangman Creek below the Sanders townsite began after a series of land purchases that at present are 3 contiguous miles of valley bottom. The project name “k’wne’ ‘ulchiyark’wmtsut” translated to “to make it crooked again” was named by tribal leader and elder Felix Aripa. The initial goal of restoration was primarily to reconnect the stream channel to the floodplain by redirecting flow into historic channels and filling straightened man-made channels, building flow choke structures and analog beaver dams (BDAs), and installing extensive riparian plantings to support beaver populations.
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