FY-23 Suquamish Tribe Conservation of Curley/Salmonberry Creek Watershed

This project involves property acquisitions and/or conservation easements in the Curley Creek Watershed. The project will work with Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) to support the long-term protection of riparian, floodplain, and stream habitats in the Curley Creek watershed through property acquisition and/or conservation easements in high priority salmon recovery reaches identified in the Tribe’s 2017 Curley Creek Watershed Assessment and a more recent GPC strategic planning project. The project builds on more than a decade of conservation planning and habitat protections in the watershed, including the mainstems of Curley Creek and Salmonberry Creek, the primary tributary and most productive salmon stream.

. Long-term protection and potential future restoration actions such as floodplain reconnection, riparian restoration, and reintroduction of channel complexity including beavers, would provide benefits to all salmonid species by protecting flow regimes during winter peak and summer low flows, and shade and large woody debris as refuge against climate change.