The undisturbed part of the watershed is richly diverse in both plant and animal species.

Counterintuitively, first-year data from a post-wildfire soil erosion study funded by Sierra Pacific Industries, a large industrial timber company, show that control sites disturbed only by fire produced substantially more water runoff and soil erosion than did sites that received post-wildfire salvage logging.

[5] However, given this document was written by an employee of the large timber company which has extensively salvage logged the watershed, the results are questionable.

Reviews of the document prepared by two hydrologists on behalf of Battle Creek Alliance, a local environmental group, argued that it contained substantial flaws.

[6][7] The industrial timberland in the Battle Creek watershed is upstream of the restoration project.