DESCRIPTION
This design project will plan how to restore tidal action and fish passage to an abandoned railroad site along the Middle Fork Hoquiam and mainstem Hoquiam Rivers, owned by the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust (CRBLT). This includes the potential to remove at least 6 culverts under the abandoned RR and provide fish passage to three railway impounded wetlands. We will also assess the need to remove 1 culvert under an adjacent forest road to prevent failure risk to the project site wetlands. We will use an alternative analysis process to consider options at each site and produce 30% designs for the preferred alternatives. This project will restore fish passage to 2.75 stream miles and provide fish access to 72 acres of surge plain restored to intertidal habitat. A neighboring industrial land owner upstream of the site intends to remove 5 other culverts on the Middle Fork railroad grade soon. Because the only access to the site is through the neighboring railroad grade, this project must be completed as soon as possible. Grays Harbor Conservation District will manage the project for CRBLT. GHCD staff have extensive experience managing salmon related restoration projects on the Washington Coast.
The project was successful in producing preliminary designs to restore approximately 153 acres of tidal habitat and 4.77 miles of stream in the Middle Fork Hoquiam River on a site owned by the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust (CRBLT) in Grays Harbor County, WA. Grays Harbor Conservation District (District) hired Natural Systems Designs (NSD) as a design consultant and together conducted an alternatives analysis process that resulted in durable restoration decisions by the CRBLT Board. The process included a wetland assessment that defined the character of the wetland ecosystems on the site; a hydrologic study that placed water level loggers and determined the influence of tide and other hydrologic forces at the site; and a sampling of the aquatic vertebrate communities present. After surveying, the project area was determined to be larger than originally estimated in the application. Building upon these studies, NSD developed a series of restoration alternatives for the multiple stream and tidal restoration sites on the property and held a series of meetings with CRBLT to review the alternatives and select their preferred restoration actions. Those preferred actions were then developed into preliminary designs by NSD and presented to CRBLT for approval. The District and CRBLT are currently using these designs to seek funding for final design and implementation.
