Rattlesnake Gulch Fish Passage & Restoration 2021

The grant helped support a project to provide fish passage and improve habitat for ESA-listed Mid-Columbia Steelhead in Rattlesnake Gulch Creek. This creek enters Swale Creek at river mile 0.5. Swale Creek is an important tributary to the Klickitat River in Klickitat County. A 2019 assessment of Swale Creek tributaries gave Rattlesnake Gulch Creek the highest ranking for sediment and water contributions to Swale Creek. Mid-Columbia Fisheries and their partner Yakama Nation improved fish passage by removing a small concrete dam from the mainstem of Rattlesnake Gulch Creek and replaced two road culverts with bridges on the forks of the creek. Each of the road culverts partially blocked fish passage to the east and west forks of the creek. The project opened a total of 3.6 miles of habitat to Mid-Columbia Steelhead. The project also removed a berm and fill in the floodplain, removed embedded railroad ties adjacent to the stream, added large wood, and installed native, riparian plants. Yakama Nation is a key partner in the project, and brought a significant amount of funding from Bonneville Power Administration to implement the project.

The goal of the project is to provide fish habitat and improve habitat in Rattlesnake Gulch Creek to benefit all life stages of ESA-listed Mid-Columbia Steelhead and other native fish in stream and in lower Swale Creek. The proposed actions are expected to improve conditions in Rattlesnake Gulch Creek and nearby lower Swale Creek.
The desired future condition of lower Rattlesnake Gulch Creek is fully restored fish passage, restored floodplain connectivity and function, improved riparian cover, and improved in-channel and floodplain habitat.
The desired future condition of lower Swale Creek will take more than one small project to achieve. This future condition of Swale Cr. is improved habitat through restored baseflows, restored floodplain habitat (reduced confinement), reconnected tributaries and restored fluvial, alluvial, and hillslope processes, improved riparian cover, and improved in-channel habitat through a higher frequency of pools, higher quality pools, and increased cover.