Copalis River Fish Passage and Road Decommission

The Copalis River Fish Passage and Road Decommission project is a restoration project on The Nature Conservancys Copalis Preserve in Grays Harbor County, Washington. The site itself is located .3 miles northwest of the upper Copalis river, and is also hydrologically connected to several surrounding wetland complexes, both to the north and south of the proposed work site. The overall goal is to remove two existing road/stream fish barriers (one collapsing bridge, one debris filled steel culvert), one other collapsing bridge structure (high potential to become a barrier in the near term), and a failing ditch relief culvert. The intent is to restore hydraulic connectivity upstream of the affected live stream crossings, as well to improve overall hydrologic connectivity to several surrounding functioning wetland complexes. The project will also include measures to restore riparian habitat through road prism decommissioning activities, tree planting, and non-native invasive weed treatments.
Project is expected to improve passage for three WRIA 21 stocks, including Tier 2 Copalis Coho, Tier 3 Copalis Winter Steelhead, and Tier 4 Copalis Cutthroat. (WRIA 21 Queets/Quinault Salmon Habitat Recovery Strategy, figure 2,pg 27).

The goals of this project are to improve and/or restore access to rearing and spawning habitat for coho, winter steelhead, and cutthroat on 2 small unnamed tributaries to the upper Copalis River and to improve overall riparian health of the Copalis property, through road decommissioning and on-site Invasive weed treatment. Desired future condition is improved connectivity of both surface and subsurface hydrology associated with the many wetland complexes both upstream and downstream of the proposed work site, completely passable road/stream crossings to all life stages of fish species present and setting the remaining road prism on a trajectory of recovery relating to soil/plant productivity, and improved native vegetation composition through the control of noxious weeds.