Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force
Home | Board of Directors | Bulletin | Projects | Area Served | Pertinent Facts | History | EDT | Salmon | Become a Member | Contact Us | Links | Volunteer
Habitat Projects in the Black River Watershed
Allen Creek · Huber (Pants Creek)
Allen Creek
Allen Creek is a tributary of Beaver Creek located in the Black River drainage. It flows westerly, through Deep Lake and Scott Lake. At about six miles in length, the creek flows through agricultural land with almost one-half mile of bank bordering the community of Scott Lake. Although the area of the creek above Scott Lake is considered to be natural, the portion down stream from Scott Lake is confined to a man-made ditch approximately 4,500 feet long.
Designed to protect and improve salmonid habitat, the Allen Creek Project was accomplished through the use of sound conservation practices and stream bank bioengineering. Specific techniques were used to reduce degradation caused by livestock access, improve stream canopy cover and repair stream side vegetation.
Riparian corridors were fenced to eliminate livestock access to valuable spawning and rearing habitats and planted with native conifers, willows, and dogwood to diversify the sparse Red Alder canopy. Large woody debris was strategically placed and a gravel weir was installed to improve spawning habitat parameters.
The introduction of large woody debris into Allen Creek was designed by Lloyd Phinney and constructed by Cascade (of Rochester) and a crew from Columbia-Pacific RC&D. Ten large woody debris structures were placed in appropriate areas of the stream channel to provide cover and reduce stream velocities. A weir, made from a conifer log and large boulders, was installed to store and slowly release spawning size gravel. The weir will provide a temporary spawning bed and a long-term gravel source to replenish spawning gravel downstream.
Until recently, livestock were allowed access to the creek throughout most of the project site. The Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force, through its Project Coordinator Greg Edwards, installed fencing to exclude livestock from certain reaches of Allen Creek. As a direct result of that effort, natural revegetation has shown significant improvement.
Although Allen Creek supports a variety of fish species including Coho, Cutthroat, Rainbow Trout, Crappie and Large-Mouth Bass, there is limited area suitable for salmonid spawning. The quality of this spawning habitat is being improved by providing shade through better canopy cover and by reducing siltation due to livestock activity in and around the stream bed. Bank stabilization and canopy cover repair included the planting of thirty 4 feet to 6 feet Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar; under planting of one hundred Western Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, Lodge Pole Pine and one thousand Willow and Red Osier Dogwood stakes.
The Allen Creek Project is an outstanding example of combined resources and successful partnerships between landowners on Allen Creek and the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force. Volunteered time and materials amounting to $3,070 helped to keep this cooperative project within its total project budget of $19,160.
| The outfall of the corrected
barrier AFTER construction |
The outfall of the barrier BEFORE
Construction |
Funded
by the Family Forest Fish Passage Program, this fish barrier was addressed
in five days on a private forest road in Capital Forest, over Pants Creek,
WRIA # 230691, a tributary to Stony Creek which flows into the Black River.
This project addressed a 3 foot diameter corrugated culvert that was a
total barrier due to a 3 foot outfall drop and a 2% slope. The
correction was made by installing a 50 ft long, 14 ft. wide manufactured
bridge. The
cumulative mapped gain from this project is 2.14 miles with 1.29 miles of habitat gained to
the next barrier up stream. This project opened habitat for
Coho, Cutthroat Trout, and Searun Cutthroat Trout. This project was
completed at a cost of $113,500.