DESCRIPTION
The goal is to restore SF Nooksack early Chinook spawning, rearing and holding habitat to recover self-sustaining runs to harvestable levels by addressing limiting factors of temperature, habitat diversity, and lack of key habitat.The project will use engineered log jams (ELJs) modeled after historical SF logjams to restore geomorphic and habitat-forming processes. the project will combat incision, aggrade the channel, encourage split flows and anabranching channel form, increase side channel habitat and floodplain connectivity, enhance a cool water tributary channel, create thermal refugia and low flow pool habitat, and promote forested island development. The WRIA 1 Recovery Plan identified SF early Chinook as one of the highest priority populations; it is essential for recovery of the threatened Puget Sound ESU. The project enhances benefits of the SF Chinook Rescue Program, a native broodstock hatchery program supporting recovery, and addresses a temperature TMDL on a river threatened by climate change. The project will also benefit ESA-listed steelhead and bull trout; coho, sockeye, and pink salmon; and the Southern Resident Killer Whale.
Lummi Nation used this grant to restore instream and side channel habitat in the South Fork (SF) Nooksack River, north of State Route 20, in Skagit County (RM 19.5-18.2). The goal was to restore SF Nooksack early Chinook spawning, rearing and holding habitat to recover self-sustaining runs to harvestable levels by addressing limiting factors of temperature, habitat diversity, and lack of key habitat. The project used engineered log jams (ELJs) modeled after historical SF logjams to restore geomorphic and habitat-forming processes. Funding was used to construct 44 ELJs, including three channel-spanning ELJs and 11 pile supported augmentation log jams, construct a racking fence, and plant 10.9 riparian acres. Similar to the successful Larson's Phase 2 project upstream, the project will combat incision, aggrade the channel, encourage split flows and anabranching channel form, increase side channel habitat and floodplain connectivity, enhance a cool water tributary channel, create thermal refugia and low flow pool habitat, and promote forested island development. The WRIA 1 Recovery Plan identified SF early Chinook as one of the highest priority populations; it is essential for recovery of the threatened Puget Sound ESU. The project enhances benefits of the SF Chinook Rescue Program, a native broodstock hatchery program supporting recovery, and addresses a temperature TMDL on a river threatened by climate change. The project will also benefit ESA-listed steelhead and bull trout; coho, sockeye, and pink salmon; and the Southern Resident Killer Whale.
