Baz Road Fish Passage Project

Replaced three culverts on East Fork Jones Creek, tributary to Washougal River. Culverts were impassable due to beavers blocking the inlets, creating intermittent access for adult salmonids to highly productive habitats upstream. Project will benefit coho, cutthroat and steelhead.

This project was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation thru their Lower Columbia Community Salmon Grants Program with oversight from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board. The $35,000.00 grant was passed thru to DNR so they could revise their original design to incorporate LCFEG and WDFW input on changes expected to decrease beaver alterations of the fish passage structures. 

This partnership not only restored fish passage but also allowed DNR the flexibility to increase the rearing habitat value at this site. The new design maintains the beaver pond habitat and included the placement of dozens of logs for habitat diversity. 

The 2004 coho run will have access to over two miles of high quality stream channel and ten acres of rearing habitat that has been inaccessible for many decades, a true win-win for the people, fish and beavers using this watershed.

Wildboy Creek Logjams

The Wildboy Creek Project was our first major placement of LWD, covering about one mile of stream channel in the upper Washougal River basin. The level of effort required to implement this project was also the greatest challenge we have faced recently due to the inaccessibility of the site. The nearest 2-wheel drive vehicle access to the creek was 3000’ feet away at the top of a ridge and a rough 4-wheel drive road down the BPA easement only gave us access to ferry tools and equipment.

This project was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation thru their Lower Columbia Community Salmon Grants Program with oversight from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board. The project site is owned by Longview Fiber Corporation and is managed as a tree farm. The project site is located downstream of a dam constructed in the 1940’s to store water for fire suppression after the area was burned over during the early 1900’s. The stream channel has since lost its gravel source due to the dam and has become incised to bedrock. In 2001, Longview Fiber felled multiple trees across the channel to try to capture gravel but these huge logs were turned lengthwise with the channel by high water events and became ineffective.

WDFW and LCFEG staff walked the site in 2003 to determine if it was feasible to re-position and anchor these logs across the channel to capture gravel entering the stream from tributaries so steelhead and cutthroat spawning and rearing could take place. The resulting project used a 50 CFM air compressor imported from Germany and a 35 pound rock drill to drill holes in the bedrock stream bottom to place over 200 anchor bolts. The 350 pound compressor was transported in a 16’ fiber glass drift boat that was dragged 4,500’ up the stream to the starting point and then back down to the finish by a DNR crew supplied from the Larch Mountain Correctional facility. The logs were moved into position using two chainsaw winches operated by the DNR crew and then bolted together. ¾” high strength steel strand was then used to tether the logjams to the anchor bolts. A total of 24 logjams and ten large boulders were placed in the 4,500’ project reach, all by hand labor supplied by Larch Mountain DNR Corrections crews under the direction of LCFEG’s project manager.

Photos show Wildboy Creek at low flow, note bedrock stream bottom.  Drift boat used to move and compressor and crew putting logjams together.

Little Washougal River Restoration

This project is a continuation of restoration efforts in the lower Little Washougal River at Stauffers dairy. The project entailed stabilizing eroding stream banks using bio-engineering techniques and creating off-channel rearing habitat. This project will benefit chinook, coho, steelhead and cutthroat.

This project was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation thru their Lower Columbia Community Salmon Grants Program with oversight from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board. The project site covers approximately ½ mile of stream channel owned by three private property owners, the Stauffers, Marks and Shinn families.

The primary focus of the project was to reduce erosion on the outside of a meander bend that was threatening a home. LCFEG staff and volunteer engineers designed a treatment similar to a engineered log jam that we call a “woody debris catcher”. This structure uses multiple long logs placed at different elevations to capture and hold in place small floating organic debris. Key logs are buried in the stream bank to anchor the structure in place and provide long term stability. Native trees are then planted to provide root mass to stabilize the bank in the future.

The secondary focus of this project was to create opportunity for juvenile fish to rear thru the winter in groundwater fed, off-channel habitat. LCFEG constructed one large pond on Stauffers property and a beaded channel on the Shinn property. The Shinn property has an existing relic channel that our new beaded channel connects to, and we created a surface water diversion to ensure continuous connectivity.

In Winter 2004/ 2005, LCFEG will plant over 9,000 native trees and shrubs on these properties using volunteer labor and corrections crews provided by DNR. These plants are grown in special containers at Clark Public Utilities for local watersheds. The plants will be purchased using funds from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Photos show bank erosion, construction of debris collector and beginning of off-channel pool constructed as Stauffer's dairy in 2004.

Larson Creek Fish Passage

This project is the final phase of a project begun in 1999 to restore coho salmon to a beaver pond complex in the Little Washougal River. Actions taken to date include placing a bridge and culvert, placing LWD, placing spawning gravel and increasing the beaver ponds’ size. Partners involved include three private landowners, BPA, Clark County, SRFB and LCFRB.

This phase of the project involved placing two fish-ways designed to allow volitional upstream access around two beaver dams. The fish-ways are 32’ long and were fabricated from cedar planks at the Evergreen High School woodshop. The students and teacher Bill Culver spent two weeks constructing the fish-ways and spent one Saturday installing them at the site. Additional labor was provided by DNR Corrections crews under the supervision of LCFEG staff. Technical advice and design for the fish-ways was provided by WDFW engineer Pat Powers and LCFEG volunteer engineer Ed McMillan.

This project was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation thru their Lower Columbia Community Salmon Grants Program with oversight from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board.

Photos show fish ladder installation, operation of the fish ladders is expected to begin in late November 2004.

Nutrient Enhancement

This on-going project is a partnership between LCFEG and WDFW intended to increase the aquatic productivity in local streams. LCFEG staff, volunteers and corrections crew labor is used to place the dead hatchery salmon in local streams. Recent scientific evidence strongly supports the idea that aquatic environments, like terrestrial environments, need annual inputs of two key nutrients- Nitrogen and Phosphorous.

Salmon are rich in these two nutrients and the ecosystems of the pacific NW evolved to rely on the annual importation of these marine derived nutrients in order to thrive. LCFEG and other local conservation groups work with WDFW staff to develop specific plans for each watershed to determine where and how much nutrient enhancement is needed.

In addition, LCFEG has sponsored several important studies that are designed to show the benefits of using other forms of nutrients when salmon carcasses are unavailable. These studies are funded by the USFS and the studies are being implemented by USGS. It is our hope that these studies lead to increased aquatic productivity in watersheds throughout the Columbia basin.

Photos show salmon carcasses and carcass analogs placed in local streams as nutrient enhancement.  Note juvenile salmon eating analogs in last photo.