FY2021 Nooksack Tribe Priority Project Implementation

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South Fork Nooksack early chinook are essential for ESU recovery, but wild abundances and productivity are critically low. Restoring instream habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River through the construction of historic-scale engineered log jams is an important strategy to improve abundance and productivity in the near term.



The primary goal of restoration in the SF Nooksack Fish Camp Reach is to improve habitat conditions to address early chinook limiting factors of high temperatures, low habitat diversity, and lack of key habitat by restoring habitat conditions and addressing the root causes of habitat degradation, namely the lack of large stable log jams that form and maintain complex pool habitat. Restoration is designed to benefit Nooksack early chinook holding and rearing survival by restoring deep complex pools that can function as refuges from high temperatures and improve juvenile rearing productivity; there will be collateral benefits to other species that use the reach (steelhead, bull trout, coho, chum, sockeye, pink, cutthroat trout). The objective of the project is to place engineered log jams in order to form deep primary pools with complex cover. This project is expected to lead to measurable improvement in the following habitat viability and project effectiveness indicators (Nooksack Chinook Monitoring and Adaptive Management Framework): pool frequency, natural and woody edge habitat length, number of stable log jams, and low and high flow cover.