Shillestead Brook is a small tributary to East Murray Creek. The creek historical has destructive sediment flushes in the spring and is a dry stream bed in mid summer. These side streams provide important water for Chinook salmon fry and rainbow trout when they hold water.
To help reduce the destructive nature of this channel, reduce the sediment load, and to create better habitat for fish rearing, NEWSS applied to build over 20 Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) in Shillestead Brook, but was only permitted for half. This project was then faced with a job half done that may in the future have to be done in wet conditions, which are more expensive.
In 2025, NEWSS was successful in installing 11 BDAs along the channel.