DESCRIPTION
North Olympic Salmon Coalition and the US Forest Service decommissioned 11.0 miles of active and inactive logging roads associated with FS Road 3040. The project removed culverts and associated fills, pulled back unstable roadfill areas, outsloped or provided drainage from the former road bed, and applied erosion control of disturbed areas to re-establish vegetation. These roads traverse three watersheds: Deep Creek, East Twin River, and West Twin River. Road problems along FS Road 3040 have caused documented environmental impacts. The processes of concern for water quality and aquatic habitat are:1) increased sediment supply from landslides associated with roads, 2) increased sediment supply from surface erosion associated with roads, 3) increase in water supplied to road drainage network, 4) exacerbation of flood effects during extreme runoff/storms, 5) alteration of fish habitat by inundation with coarse sediment scour of streambed and removal of wood and/or riparian vegetation, and 6) chronic effects to habitat, i.e., eroded and undercut stream banks becoming long-term sources of bank instability and sediment supply. Anadromous and resident salmonids such as coho salmon, fall chum salmon, winter steelhead, cutthroat trout and Pacific lamprey are present in the Deep Creek, East and West Twin Rivers. These species spawn and rear within the mainstem and tributaries of the three steams. Fall chum are SASSI 2002 listed as "depressed" in Deep Creek. These steams are in the Intensively Monitored Watershed network.