SF (Nuxw7íyem) Homesteader Ph1 Restoration

The Nooksack Indian Tribe will restore 0.4 miles of mainstem riverine habitat in the South Fork (SF) Nooksack River, north of Acme, in Whatcom County. The Homesteader Restoration Project is a reach-scale restoration design developed in the Homesteader Reach, RM 5.7-6.4 in the lower SF Nooksack, upstream and downstream of the Standard Creek confluence. The Project includes 9 new log jam structures and enhancement of two existing log jam structures.
This project will implement Phase 1 of the Homesteader Project from RM 5.9 to 6.3, including 9 log jams and removal of at least 125-ft of riprap from the historic migration zone. During construction, we will have the opportunity to remove rip rap and other debris that has accumulated in the channel as a result of past erosion control efforts. The goal of the project is to restore upstream migration, holding, spawning and rearing habitat to improve abundance and productivity of SF Nooksack Early Chinook, which is considered essential for recovery of the ESA-listed Puget Sound Chinook ESU. The project builds on previous design work funded by the SRFB.

The primary goal of restoration is to improve habitat conditions to address early SF chinook limiting factors of lack of key habitat (deep pools with complex cover), low habitat diversity, and high water temperatures by constructing engineered log jams (ELJs) to form pools and temperature refuges and increase edge and habitat unit diversity, and removing channel constraints that reduce floodplain connectivity. Restoration is designed to benefit SF Nooksack chinook adults (upstream migration, holding, spawning life stages) and juveniles (post-emergence, oversummer, overwinter rearing). Increasing the frequency and complexity of pool habitat and creating temperature refuges will increase holding adult survival and rearing juvenile productivity, while converting hydromodified bank to natural bank is expected to increase juvenile habitat capacity. There will be collateral benefits to summer and winter steelhead, bull trout, coho, chum, sockeye, and pink salmon, and cutthroat trout. Benefits should accrue within 1-5 years of construction.