Early successional response to stream daylighting in Redwood National and State Parks, Orick, California

Author

• Rylee RawsonFollow

Graduation Date

Spring 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Science degree with a major in Natural Resources, option Forestry, Watershed, & Wildland Sciences

Committee Chair Name

Andrew Stubblefield

Committee Chair Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Alison O'Dowd

Second Committee Member Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Darren Ward

Third Committee Member Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Northern California, Humboldt crossing, Stream restoration, Monitoring, Disturbance, Stream, Succession, Redwood, Benthic macroinvertebrates, Water quality, Riparian, Geomorphology, Large woody debris, Crossing removal, Forest roads, Decommissioning

Subject Categories

Watershed Management

Abstract

In-channel stream restoration projects can act as both disturbance and recovery mechanisms, disrupting existing conditions to reestablish the hydrologic and ecological processes that sustain stream ecosystems. These interventions initiate successional trajectories in which channel form and biological communities reorganize over time. In Redwood National and State Parks (California, USA), the Redwoods Rising initiative restores buried headwater channels by recontouring legacy logging roads and daylighting streams buried by Humboldt crossings. Using the National Park Service Klamath Network wadable stream monitoring protocol, I evaluated nine restored reaches spanning one to five years post-restoration, alongside old-growth reference reaches and available pre-treatment data. I quantified changes in channel morphology, riparian vegetation, water chemistry, and macroinvertebrate community composition. Restoration imposed an acute disturbance characterized by widened channels, minimal riparian vegetation, and macroinvertebrate assemblages dominated by disturbance-tolerant taxa. Over five years, channels narrowed and deepened, riparian ground cover increased, and dissolved organic carbon declined. Macroinvertebrate communities exhibited directional change, with decreasing dominance of tolerant taxa and increasing abundance of taxa indicative of greater substrate stability, although full convergence with reference conditions was not observed. Fine sediment declined relative to pre-treatment conditions, indicating partial recovery of in channel substrate composition. These results support a disturbance-driven recovery trajectory in which initial reorganization is followed by progressive adjustment. In these headwater systems, recovery signals were detectable within several years despite site-level heterogeneity. This study demonstrates that restoration can rapidly reinitiate geomorphic and ecological processes, although longer-term monitoring is required to assess recovery and refine implementation practices.

Citation Style

APA

Recommended Citation

Rawson, Rylee, "Early successional response to stream daylighting in Redwood National and State Parks, Orick, California" (2026). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2553.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2553