DESCRIPTION
This project will produce a conceptual design to increase the quantity and quality of adult spawning and juvenile rearing habitat for Summer Chum and Chinook salmon along 2.4 miles of main channel, 1.4 miles of side channel, and within 200 acres of floodplain by 2024. Phasing is designed to provide the habitat and geomorphic information and hydraulic modeling needed to establish a common understanding and appreciation of existing and potential fish habitat of Walcott Flats reach. The project will be structured and paced to provide numerous opportunities for dialogue and for increasingly shared and refined consideration of habitat deficiencies and restoration options among reach landowners. By incorporating this project into an existing meeting platform, with frequent guest presentations, landowners may become interested in other projects and learn from those sites as well. Over a project period of 24
months, multiple project threads will come together in the form of a conceptual restoration design and next steps action plan, expanded and improved intra-reach and wider salmon community communications.
Jefferson County will produce Resiliency & Action Plans to restore habitat for Hood Canal Summer Chum and Mid Hood Canal Chinook in the Wolcott Flats & Rocky Brook Confluence Reach of the Dosewallips River. Flows projected though 2080 will be modeled and conceptual designs developed consistent with Manual 18 and landowner willingness. The project will achieve three linked objectives: 1) Identify "ecological corridors," one for the near-term and typical flows, and a second (longer-term) for full re-engagement of the floodplain. Both will increase the quantity, complexity and diversity of all habitat types along the 2.4 miles of main channel, up to 1.4 miles of side channel, and up to 195 acres between RM 3.4 and 5.8, 2) Survey landowners, and 3) Develop conceptual designs for all participating landowners to improve habitats for spawning, rearing and migration by improving sediment transport, pool formation, in-channel habitat complexity at flows typical for these targeted salmon life histories. Existing geomorphic, landslide, vegetation, and other information will be analyzed and used in combination with a new physical habitat assessment and 2D hydraulic model to generate CMZ and other maps. Proposed conditions will be identified, modeled, analyzed and refined in partnership with landowners leading to an Action Plan for next steps. Of the 14 shoreline landowners, one private landowner and Washington State Parks are formal partners. We will work to cultivate more.
Jefferson County- Dosewallips
