DESCRIPTION
Preliminary design from NSD needs to be updated
Concept is to improve habitat conditions in the reach below the newly restored fish passage barrier at SR 101 by WSDOT
The project will restore healthy levels of functional large wood via engineered log jam (ELJ) construction in a severely disturbed reach of Siebert Creek between Old Olympic Highway (RM 1.5) and the SR (Highway) 101 box culvert at RM 2.65. Work will be accomplished in one or two construction phases. A combination of ground-based and helicopter placement techniques will be employed depending on access and landowner agreements.
The ELJs will return stable, complex salmon spawning and rearing habitat to Siebert Creek's RM 1.5 to RM 2.6 reach, by capturing gravel and wood, scouring pools, stabilizing spawning riffles, retaining salmon carcasses, providing cover, and encouraging the creek to access its floodplain. Besides the immediate benefits provided by the ELJ's, the project will recreate the channel structure necessary to allow the retention of naturally recruiting wood. Tribal survey data collected in 2003 and 2010 shows long planebed channel form reaches below the SR 101 culvert that are devoid of wood, scoured to bedrock or have large substrate not conducive to salmon spawning. Channel reaches downstream of Old Olympic Highway restored by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in 2005 are showing signs of recovery based on survey data the tribes collected in 2010.