The proposed restoration project will provide fish access to valuable off-channel rearing habitat by installing a fish passable culvert and realigning a degraded ditched stream channel. Coho salmon and steelhead will benefit directly from the proposed restoration and are the target species of the project. This restoration project will promote high quality rearing habitat for salmonids and increase juvenile survival. The restoration project will also restore natural hydrologic processes to a modified ditched stream channel which suggests the project has a high probability of success without the need for long term maintenance.

The project site contains an approximately 6,800-sq, ft. anthropogenically modified wetland pond that is fed by forested wetlands, small organic streams, and groundwater seeps. The outlet stream of this pond currently flows in a highly degraded roadside ditch, through a 6-inch, 60-foot PVC pipe, and onto the road surface proper before passing through a 12-inch retrofitted and perched pipe to its confluence with a large unnamed tributary of the Raging River. Coho salmon fry have been observed swimming in the pond’s outflow on the road surface; however, the pipes and portions of the ditched channel constitute a barrier for juvenile fish passage to the pond habitat. Restoration of the stream channel and the installment of a fish passable culvert will increase valuable off-channel fish habitat and reduce fish mortally associated with a highly degraded stream channel. Coho salmon and steelhead will benefit directly from the proposed restoration and are the target species of the proposed project. Steelhead are listed as threatened in Puget Sound river basins, and coho salmon are designated as a species of concern under the Endangered Species Act. The Snohomish River Basin Salmon Conservation Plan (2005) lists coho salmon as an important species to a target for restoration due to increasing habitat loss within the watershed. Specifically, the Plan identifies the Raging River watershed as a high priority sub-basin for off-channel rearing habitat restoration.

The restoration approach and proposed techniques for this project focus on restoring natural hydrological processes to a modified stream system which will keep costs low and ensure long term sustainability. To allow fish passage upstream to off-channel rearing habitat, a fish passable culvert must be installed under a privately maintained gravel road. To prevent fish mortality and allow fish access to upstream habitat, the onsite wetland pond outflow must be realigned out of the currently degraded ditched channel. Channel realignment will require the excavation of approximately 150 feet of new stream channel. The newly excavated stream banks will be managed to control invasive plant species (mostly reed canarygrass). Native riparian plantings will be re-established throughout the riparian corridor. Large woody debris and gravel will be placed in the newly aligned stream channel.

The proposed project will be a collaborative effort between the Institute for Community Leadership (landowner) and The Tulalip Tribes (project manager). The Institute for Community Leadership integrates individuals in the practical work of environmental restoration and in the educational work of connecting the protection and promotion of a healthy environment with the development of healthy and positive communities. The Institute conducts this work with a conscious and deliberate method of racial and cultural inclusion. At the proposed restoration site, they educate urban, suburban and rural youth in the study of salmon, ecological life cycles, water resources and the role and responsibility human beings in caring for the environment. The Institute conducts nonviolence, leadership and environmental work in 60 school districts throughout the West Coast of the United States, with a focus on the Puget Sound area.