FY2021 Nooksack Tribe Priority Project Implementation
Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Acquisition
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21-NOOK-01 | Puget Sound | 07/01/2022 | 06/30/2024 | 2021 | New | 02/27/2024 | |
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Description
This project will support acquisition of logs for priority Nooksack chinook habitat restoration projects. Specific projects will be contingent upon funding availability and need. A potential worksite is provided below:
• SF Nooksack Fish Camp Reach Restoration. Restoration will restore instream habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River, in the Fish Camp Reach (RM 7.3-9.6), near Acme in Whatcom County, to address South Fork Nooksack chinook limiting factors of high temperatures and low habitat diversity. Preliminary design has been developed for restoration that includes construction of engineered log jams, replacing riprap with log jams, modifying portions of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railway, and removing, setting back or modifying bank hardening. Final (90%) design for restoration in the lower BNSF sub-reach (RM 7.3-8.6) 6 has been funded, and $880k in Floodplains by Design funding and $1.28M in NRCS Resource Conservation Partnership Program funding has been allocated. Implementation costs are expected to be high, and we may also seek SRFB funding. If the project is funded with PCSRF funding to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the Nooksack Tribe, RCO, and NWIFC will have dialogue to ensure that treatment metrics are not duplicated.
**NOTE: In August 2023, we made the decision to allocate this funding to a different worksite: SF Homesteader Reach Restoration, since it was clear that costs would substantially exceed preliminary cost estimates.
• SF Nooksack Homesteader Reach Restoration. Restoration will restore instream habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River, in a portion of the Fish Camp Reach (RM 5.4-6.5), downstream of Acme in Whatcom County, to address South Fork Nooksack chinook limiting factors of high temperatures and low habitat diversity. Most of the funding for the project is being contributed by RCO Grants #21-1132 and #22-1358.
Project Benefit
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.
Funding Details |
PCSRF | $141,793 |
Report Total: | $141,793 |
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Worksites
SF Nooksack Homesteader Reach
- Worksite Identifier: SF Nooksack Homesteader Reach
- Start Date: 09/01/2023
- End Date: 10/31/2024
Area Description
Nooksack River Watershed, South Fork Subbasin, South Fork Nooksack River, Fish Camp Reach (RM 5.4-6.5)
Location Information
- Basin: Puget Sound (171100)
- Subbasin: Nooksack (17110004)
- Watershed: South Fork Nooksack River (1711000404)
- Subwatershed: Black Slough-South Fork Nooksack River (171100040406)
- State: Washington
- Recovery Domain: Puget Sound
- Latitude: 48.74604326237065
- Longitude: -122.21327512692923
ESU
- Puget Sound Chinook Salmon ESU
Map
Photos
Metrics
Metrics
- C.0
Salmonid Habitat Restoration and AcquisitionY (Y/N)
- . . C.0.a
Habitat restoration and acquisition funding .00
- . . C.0.b
Length of stream treated/protected
- . . C.0.c
Project identified in a Plan or Watershed Assessment | |
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- . . C.0.d.1
Project Monitoring (LOV)
- . . C.12
Pre-Restoration Acquisitions And Nursery OperationsY (Y/N)
- . . . . C.12.a
Pre-restoration funding
- . . . . C.12.b.1
Restoration materialsY (Y/N)
- . . . . . . C.12.b.2
Describe what was purchased | |
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