The Hallwood Side Channel and Floodplain Restoration Project by Yuba Water Agency Aug 11, 2025 Completed in late 2023, the Hallwood Side Channel and Floodplain Restoration Project is one of a suite of projects Yuba Water Agency has implemented (or is planning to implement) with a wide range of partners to enhance native fish habitat along the lower Yuba River and support the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes initiative. The Hallwood project was designed to enhance the lower Yuba River ecosystem by increasing available juvenile salmon rearing habitat, and thereby improve the natural production of Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead. The project also reduces flood risk by lowering water surface elevations and velocities during flood events. The project was designed based on the premise that restoration of natural river and floodplain processes in a landscape dramatically altered by historic mining practices will create a healthier, more natural, and therefore, more productive river. Improvements enhanced up to 157 acres of seasonally inundated riparian floodplain, approximately 1.7 miles of perennial side channels, and approximately 6.1 miles of seasonally inundated side channels, alcoves and swales. Enhancements were made through land surface changes, riparian planting, and placement of large woody material embedded to simulate a more natural river at key locations. One of the most visible changes was the removal of tall, linear cobble embankments called training walls, which were constructed in the early 1900s by hydraulic dredges following the Gold Rush. These training walls are within the highly modified Yuba Goldfields setting where hundreds of millions of cubic yards of hydraulic mining sediment was deposited in the lower Yuba River through the early 1900s. The area was subsequently dredged multiple times, creating significant impacts for the natural flow of the river and the floodplain. Significant portions of a large, two-mile-long training wall that once ran through the middle of the river, known as the Middle Training Wall, were removed as part of the Hallwood project. The total project cost was approximately $12 million, with Teichert’s in-kind contribution of rough grading and aggregate removal estimated at $90 million. Funding was provided by grants from the California Natural Resources Agency, Wildlife Conservation Board, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Yuba Water Agency. Learn more about this project and Yuba Water’s fisheries enhancement efforts here.
