The Carpenter Creek Restoration project has been implemented on approximately 0.5 acres of land adjacent to Carpenter Creek. Carpenter Creek is located just outside of Mt. Vernon on its south side near Little Mountain Park. The objective of the Carpenter Creek Native Planting project was to: 1) Exclude livestock from accessing the creek to reduce fecal inputs 2) Improve riparian habitat with the removal of invasive species and new planting of native ones.

Skagit County installed 324 plantings and 531 feet of livestock exclusion fencing on 513 linear feet of stream and 0.47 acres. This was the first project completed under the new Natural Resource Stewardship Program. Maintenance is on-going through 2012. Final designs and permit documents were developed for this project as part a Department of Ecology grant (WA120309-3).

The Carpenter Creek Restoration design project was lead by Skagit County Public Works (SCPW) in partnership with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group (SFEG) with the goal of design and permitting restoration actions to improve riparian habitat.This program is through Skagit County Department of Public Works and is implemented in partnership with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group (SFEG). This program is part of the Natural Resource Stewardship Program (NRSP) which works to implement riparian restoration on private lands in the Samish and SKagit basins. The project is funded through the WA Departement of Ecology (DOE) and provides an opportunity for private landowners to obtain small grants (up to $35,000) to restore riparian vegetation and improve water quality on their property. Projects include; livestock exclusion fencing, enahcing the riparian zone and habitat restoration. Livestock exclusion is desgined to prevent acess of livestock to waterways by fencing. Fish and aquatic instects are sensitive to sediment input, water temperature and increase algae and plant growth due to excess nutrients which can be caused by livestock accessing the streams. Livestock access to streams can aslo contaminate the streams with manure which can cause unhealthy nutrient levels and fecal coliform. Enhancing the riparian zone includes; planting native vegetation and controlling non-native invasive plants. Habitat Restoration involes improving the bank stability and availability of fish habitat by creating a pool riffle structures in the stream. This includes small scale installtion of rootwads, logs and other structures. SFEG has implement plans on eight properties and has prepared plans for six other sites.