Fourth Street Creek flows through and under the town of Coquille and has been highly modified over the past forty years. Fourth Street Ck was historically part of Cunningham Creek Budd Creek watershed and flowed through the flood plain section which is now adjacent to Sturdivant Park and the highway 42 by-pass. The Ck was modified by moving the channel to the edge of the flood plain and the outlet moved through culverts, to the Coquille River. The actions not only decreased the fishery potential by also increased water temperatures and diminished channel complexity. The project addressed those issues by reestablishing a more natural stream course through the flood plain and improved water flows to the Cunningham Ck off-channel ponds. Channel complexity and stream temperatures were improved by creating a much more diverse channel course for the thalweg and by planting native vegetation.

Hathaway Construction Incorporated excavated, according to specification, a 410 foot channel linking Fourth St Ck to the Cunningham Creek off-channel ponds. The new channel starts just before the blocked mouth of the old culvert by-pass, flows through a new 2x20 foot culvert and then meanders across the flood plain to the mitigation ponds. When a good window of planting opportunity opened this winter (94/95) members of various volunteer community groups, agencies, and associations gathered willow cuttings and planted them along the streamside creating a native riparian zone.