Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration
Krause Creek is a seasonally flowing stream that originates in the Swan Mountains and terminates in Echo Lake, north of Bigfork, in Flathead County. Efforts to concentrate the flow and channelization have led to localized downcutting and increased sediment loading downstream. Downcutting and lateral erosion have widened and deepened the channel, and transport of eroded sediment downstream to Echo Lake threatens water quality and aquatic habitat. Additional impacts include dewatering of adjacent riparian area and upland forest.
The Flathead Conservation District is exploring options for using Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR) techniques to create an inset floodplain and stabilize downcutting. This restoration approach is being explored because the cost of mechanically constructing an inset floodplain is prohibitive and because the layout of this property allows for flooding or channel migration/anastomosing with minimal impact to the landowners.
Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration is a practice of using simple, low-cost, structural additions to riverscapes to mimic functions and initiate specific processes. Structural additions include Post Assisted Log Structures (PALS) and Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA’s). Hallmarks of this approach include:
- An explicit focus on using structures to force natural processes which will, over time, create the desired outcome
- A conscious effort to use cost-effective, low-tech treatments (e.g. hand-built, natural materials, non-engineered, short term, design life spans) because of the need to scale up application
- Letting the system do the work through deferring critical decision making to riverscapes and allowing for natural ecosystem engineering processes to take place
Krause Creek 2015 
Krause Creek 2005