Project feasibility, risk assessment, 90% design, and construction budget for permitting of a project that aims to remove flow barriers and add logjams to allow the channel to migrate through the Elk Flats property.

This grant will be used by the Lummi Natural Resources Department to provide permitand construction ready design in the South Fork Nooksack River, located in Skagit County. The Elk Flats Restoration Project aims to improve key habitat condition, increase habitat diversity and habitat quantity in the Elk Flats reach, by reducing one of the largest amounts of sediment input from landslides into the South Fork and allowing the river to migrate across the floodplain. This project seeks to build on the conceptual design addressed in the Upper South Fork Nooksack Habitat Assessment (Brown and Maudlin 2007).

This project addresses the number one known limiting factor for WRIA 1 salmonids: habitat diversity. Strategically placed ELJs and/or a log complex at the base of the steep cliff will allow the channel to migrate onto the floodplain, but increase wood recruitment, increase pool frequency and gravel stability.