Jim Creek Construction

Snohomish County will restore a ~1000 ft reach of Jim Creek located on private property, east of Arlington. The project area includes Vos Creek, a tributary that delivers cool water to this reach. The Stillaguamish Tribe recently planted a riparian buffer along 750 ft of Vos Creek (ranging from 40 ft wide to 200 ft wide), which shades and protects the cold-water flow into Jim Creek. This restoration project will:
· Construct engineered log jams to create pools and complex cover;
· Install smaller wood structures on Vos Creek to create complex instream habitat and cover; and
· Plant native trees & shrubs on 3.7 riparian acres to establish a 100-350ft buffer along Jim Creek that will create shade and improve rearing and refuge habitat. The restored riparian buffer will provide a long-term sustained source of wood, shade, and cover in the project reach.
With other funding, the county will treat invasive weeds in the project area using either SRFB grant #19-1151, or another source.
The project is designed to improve the quantity and quality of rearing and spawning habitat for ESA-listed Steelhead and Chinook and other salmonids. This project integrates Watershed Characterization and field-based factors (flow/temperature) affecting a 303D-listed stream reach immediately downstream.

The project goals are to improve juvenile rearing and adult spawning habitat quantity and quality for ESA listed salmon species in an important tributary to the SF Stillaguamish River.
This project will a) construct wood structures instream to increase wood loading, form pool habitat, create cover and complex edge habitat, and b) plant native riparian plant buffers to improve short- and long-term rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids and further protect a stream reach with cold water inflow. This project will benefit salmon species, including Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink and Steelhead, including adults during spawning (cover and cold water), juvenile salmon during outmigration (cover, edge complexity, pool habitats) and juvenile rearing during summer (cover, pool habitats, cold water refuge).
Restoring instream habitat and riparian vegetation in Jim Creek will address the limiting factors of salmonid species of concern while utilizing the benefits of cold-water inputs, and maintaining cold water persistence, from Vos Creek (Leonetti, 2015). Restoration of the riparian area through planting and invasive treatment will provide a sustained source of wood, shade, and cover in the project reach into the future.
These goals are consistent with salmon recovery targets in the Chinook salmon recovery plan for the Stillaguamish River, and will lead to advances in attaining those targets.