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 Wishkah River Watershed
Ackers Over-Wintering Ponds · Conway Ponds · Lantz Creek · Thompson/ Wishkah · Tosland · Wishkah Sedimentation Reduction
Ackers Over-Wintering Ponds
The Ackers Over-Wintering Ponds project is located twelve miles outside of Aberdeen, Washington on the Wishkah River. The project site originally consisted of a spring fed pond, 150 yards long by 30 yards wide, excavated fifteen years ago. The outlet for the pond consisted of a dirt ditch with steep and unstable sides prone to sloughing into the stream bed. Stream flow had been regulated by boards that slid down over the mouth of a culvert, creating a blockage to fish migrating upstream into the pond. Ackers Pond has historically been used to rear a small number of native Wishkah Coho associated with the Wishkah Native Coho Supplemental Project in conjunction with Long Live the Kings.
Project participants, Dave Ackers, Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force and Aquatic Restoration Consultants, focused on upgrading the existing habitat to provide winter refuge for juvenile Coho salmon. Work crews stabilized the ditch exiting the pond by sloping the banks at a 45 degree angle to eliminate sloughing. The existing culvert was removed and replaced by a small concrete dam. Log weirs were installed every 30 feet along the outlet channel from the pond to the river. This procedure created pools and smoothed the gradient thereby providing small fish with much easier access to the main pond. Willow, Red-Osier Dogwood, Red Alder and conifers were planted along the stream banks to control encroaching Reed Canary Grass, regulate stream temperatures and provide additional canopy. With a modest total project budget of only $1,560, the Ackers Over-Wintering Ponds now provide winter habitat for juvenile Coho and Wishkah stock Chum provided by Long Live the Kings.
Conway Over-Wintering Ponds
Located on the east fork of the Wishkah River, the focus of the Conway project was to remove impediments along a series of natural ponds and create open access and over-wintering habitat for yearling Coho. During winter months Conway Pond covers five acres providing prime habitat. During summer months and intermittent dry periods, Conway Pond is reduced to a series of small pools with patches of exposed land and small debris accumulations. Juvenile Coho often become stranded in these pools and unable to migrate. To correct the situation landowners, the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force and US Fish and Wildlife Service worked in cooperation.
At a total project cost of $2,925, the drainage ditch leading into the pond was cleaned and log weirs were installed to allow access to juveniles; gravel was installed behind the weirs to allow spawning within the channel; and Long Live the Kings provided Chum, which were directly seeded into the channel.
Lantz Creek
Ground breaking was originally slated to begin after the first of the coming year; however, during the first early rain in October, the existing Lantz Creek county road culvert failed and totally collapsed. Additional rains would have most likely destroyed the road and could have damaged the Aberdeen water main; therefore, the fish barrier culvert correction was rescheduled for this past fall.
The culverts were ordered and delivered without delay. Local shop owner, Oakie Thompson, allowed the culverts to be unloaded at his shop and volunteered the services of his equipment to facilitate the transfer. The project coordinator, Lonnie Crumley, of LWC Consulting, met with the two neighboring landowners and worked out an agreement to use their property for a bypass for the county road while construction was in process. This required the property put back to original condition after the culverts were laid. Both landowners, Joe Pekola and Kermit Lantz were extremely supportive and worked very cooperatively throughout the process. Without Mr. Thompson’s assistance and the cooperativeness of the neighboring landowners this project could not have been done.
Starting September 24th equipment to begin the project was moved in and assembly was started simultaneously to lay the county road culvert, and the culvert on the private landowner’s property. By that evening, a 7 foot round culvert on the private landowner’s property was put in place, with the necessary stream work to be done finished the next day.
To reduce impacts to the logging, gravel hauling and school bus activity on the county road, laying a 78 foot long (8 gauge, multi-plate steel, weighing 16,000 lbs.) culvert on the county road was scheduled to start on Friday, September 26th. On the morning of the 27th installation was finished. The following Monday the project team completed stream treatments, cleaned the area, added erosion controls and started moving equipment out.
Both culvert installations went very well and are easily passing a fair amount of water. Before the culvert replacements, Lantz Creek supported limited Coho salmon and Cutthroat trout. With the barriers removed, Chum salmon can likely use the lower portion of this stream and Coho salmon can also have access to expand habitat in greater numbers. The entire length will provide off-channel rearing habitat for multiple salmonid species. The culverts are now both fish passable and fish should be occupying the stream this year.
|
|
|
|
|
Thompson/Wishkah Project
The Thompson/Wishkah Project is located on the private property of the Thompson family bordering the Wishkah River. The focus of this project was to open habitat for spawning, rearing and overwintering and removes impediments to migrating Salmon and Cutthroat Trout.
For a total project cost $4,600, crews worked to place a culvert under a County road that impeded a small stream running through the property. A system of log weirs was built to raise streambed levels to culvert level and the banks on either side were stabilized. A large overwintering pond was constructed on the site. Subsequent site improvements include installation of a fish-viewing trail along the stream and pond and construction of a handicap accessible fishing area.
Funded through the Family Forest Fish Passage Program, this project addressed three culverts that were 33% passable. The site is on an unnamed tributary to the Wishkah River on the Tosland property just opposite the Wishkah elementary school. The road over the three culverts eroded to a narrowest width of 7 ft. An old growth log, embedded in the road alongside of the culverts created a 2.5 ft. drop downstream and a 1.5 ft. step upstream of the culvert. Upstream barriers included car bodies, and old washer and tires, which created a 4-foot elevation drop. The stream was also blocked by a large stump, which was a total barrier with a drop of 5 feet. The road at the site was rapidly eroding and was causing embedded gravels below the culvert. The correction was made by digging out the culverts and installing a 40 ft. long, 14 ft. wide bridge on precast concrete footings. Being well-shaded, and having good streambed gravels, this stream has always supported good coho and cutthroat populations up to the project barriers. Now repaired, this project opened 1.3 miles of habitat for Coho, Cutthroat, Searun Cutthroat, and Steelhead at a cost of $101,000.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wishkah Sedimentation Reduction
The
Wishkah River, a tributary of the Chehalis River, is approximately 40 miles
long and flows south, draining the slopes of the Olympic Mountains, joining
the Chehalis River at Aberdeen. In a collaborative effort with Grays Harbor
County and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the CBFTF has been able to
organize the Wishkah Sedimentation Reduction Project to drastically reduce
the sedimentation problem saddled on the Wishkah.
Prior to project construction, the Wishkah was 452% above natural background sediment loading, uncommon for rivers in Western Washington. Contributing 86% to the entire river basin were three main log and gravel haul roads. The roads involved were the Wishkah County Rd., and two logging roads owned by private timber companies. One of the two privately owned roads is scheduled to be corrected by or before 2016, with the other company committed to corrections by adding cross drains and asphalting the road surface at the private companies expense in conjunction with updates to the County road.
In a domino effect,
the sedimentation is delivered to the river. “Frequent heavy truck traffic
during winter
months when the road is wet grinds the road surface gravels into fine
sediment which fills the road ditches, causing them to fail,” said Lonnie
Crumley, Project Manager, “Undersized and infrequent cross drains do not
adequately direct storm water from the road surface into ditches and away
from flowing stream courses. Sediment-laden water from poorly-constructed
road ditches flows directly into small streams crossing under the road into
the river. Much of the road has no ditching and at low spots standing storm
water causes high sediment concentrations from truck traffic. This is
carried by trucks and other vehicles down the road corridor where it enters
the existing inadequate drain system, exacerbating the problem.”
The Long Live the Kings Hatchery manager, Terry Baltzell, has fought the road sediment problem for several years. It was at his prompting that the county and timber companies paved the road near the hatchery (the Long Live the Kings facility is located 20 miles up the Wishkah on a 35-acre site). “This is something that has been of great concern of mine for over 30 years. There are 22 culverts in a 2 mile section of the road just south of the Mayr Fish Hatchery. The sediment load in that particular section of the road is the highest of any part of the county road that is not paved,” said Terry.
As of June 2006, the corrections have been made to two of the three roads concerned with the sedimentation; the county road, and the privately owned road which was scheduled for repair contingent upon the county portion being updated.
The Wishkah River
supports naturally-spawning stocks of Chinook, Coho, Steelhead, chum, and
Cutthroat. The sediment from these gravel-surfaced roads impact spawning
gravels and the egg-to-emergence survival of all salmonid species in the
river. Overall, Coho are declining, while Chinook and steelhead runs are
healthy, according to a stock status report from WDFW Region 6 staff. The
project objective was to address the unnatural sedimentation that affects
the spawning habitat of these salmonids, which has successfully done.