Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group Announces Summer 2005 Project Schedule

REGION — The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group (LCFEG) recently announced its 2005 Project Schedule. These projects occur throughout Southwest Washington and are the first to utilize the organization’s recently acquired “10a1a Survival of Enhancement” five year permit authorized by NOAA Fisheries. LCFEG is non-regulatory, non-partisan 501(c) (3) salmon recovery organization founded by the state legislature in 1990. Working within specific watersheds throughout Clark, Skamania, Lewis, Wahkiakum, and Cowlitz Counties, LCFEG successfully leverages state and federal salmon recovery funding through partnerships and collaborations with individuals, groups, corporations, tribes, foundations and agencies.

Projects scheduled for construction this summer (July through October) include the following:

Lower Washougal River Restoration Project

Located along the lower end of the Washougal River (RM 0-1) within the Salmon-Washougal Watershed (WRIA 28), this tidally-influenced reach exhibits a severe lack of habitat complexity (boulders, woody debris, & native plants) and high summer water temperatures resulting from past and present human impacts. On-site construction activities scheduled for this summer include: 1) the connection of isolated habitats by increasing access to side channels, oxbows, and other channels necessary for salmon spawning and rearing; 2) installing two large riffles for restoration of the pre-1935 river channel; and 3) rehabilitating three abandoned gravel quarries to provide functional fish habitat and to increase sediment transport functions, water storage capacity, and historic spawning gravel supply. LCFEG also hopes to return a healthy riparian canopy to this site by acquiring funds to schedule volunteer riparian plantings this winter. Plantings would reduce water temperatures and increase both shelter and food supply for fish. Project partners include the City of Camas, Georgia-Pacific (GP), Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) and WADNR.

Upper Washougal River Restoration Project

The first phase of this three-year project includes data collection, material stockpiling, and placement of at least five (5) pre-designed and bedrock-secured logjams into three tributary reaches (Stebbins & Reeder Creeks) along the upper five miles of the Washougal River (beginning at the Washougal Salmon Hatchery in Skamania County). The project addresses habitat impacts resulting from historic forest fires, timber practices, and management decisions resulting in the removal of large wood from the active stream channel. Project activities will restore stream bed substrate, reduce water temperatures, and increase channel diversity for fish. Activities will also restore access to nearby tributaries, increase long-term aquatic productivity, and create suitable spawning and rearing habitat for Washougal River salmon and steelhead runs.

Indian Mary Creek Restoration
LCFEG will replace two 48” culverts impassable to fish on Indian Mary Creek, 150 feet upstream from Franz Lake along the Columbia River Gorge. These culverts will be replaced with either a single 12’ diameter arch pipe or a rail road car bridge on a private driveway at the east end of Franz Lake in Skamania County. Indian Mary Creek is one of the few remaining Gorge tributaries with high year-round flows and spawning or rearing utilization by multiple fish species including chum, coho, Chinook, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. Restoration will restore access to 3,500 feet of stream channel and over 15 acres of highly productive spring-fed wetland currently occupied by resident cutthroat trout only. Project partners include the private landowner and USFWS.

USGS Nutrient Assessment Study Phase III

The final phase (III) of LCFEG’s three-year Nutrient Assessment Study is occurring this summer in conjunction with it’s primary partner, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Columbia River Research Laboratory in Cook, WA. LCFEG hopes to demonstrate the effectiveness of stream nutrient enhancement to restore juvenile salmonid production in watersheds previously identified as nutrient deficient. This summer’s activities follow Phases I (low-level water chemistry assessment of the Washougal, Lewis, and Wind River watersheds conducted in 2003) & II (documentation of in-stream biological productivity via assessments of periphyton (algae), macroinvertebrate (bug), and fish production (e.g., species composition, biomass, and growth) last year). Phase III involves the continued collection of baseline data as well as placing nutrient media (e.g. inorganic fertilizers or carcass analogs) in some of these same sites. Addition of the analogs, processed from Chinook salmon carcasses and directly consumable by both aquatic and terrestrial species, to nutrient-deprived streams is expected to increase juvenile salmon rearing densities in local streams.

For information, please visit our website at www.lcfeg.org or contact Sheila North, LCFEG Outreach Coordinator, at (360) 601-1462 or by e-mail at: info@lcfeg.org.