Middle Skagit Floodplain Restoration

Forest roads can impact salmon habitat in a number of important ways. Poorly designed roads on steep or unstable slopes can increase rates of land sliding and sediment delivery to stream channels. Undersized culverts at stream crossings can create fish passage barriers that prevent salmon from accessing valuable habitat. The goal of this proposal was to perform field assessments and implement on-the-ground projects that addressed habitat impacts from sediment and fish passage barriers in the Skagit River basin upstream of the confluence with the Baker River. Significant work was previously completed on sediment, road, and fish passage barrier inventories in the Skagit River basin. A partial sediment budget has been completed for many watersheds using aerial photography and a comprehensive field inventory has identified all barriers to anadromous fish passage in the basin. The purpose of this project was to expand the inventory work to identify specific restoration actions and to correct two fish passage barriers. In the area of sediment delivery, this included completing partial sediment budgets for Circle, Straight, Big, and Tenas watersheds using the methods employed for the other watersheds in the basin. Field road inventory work was completed in the Jackman Creek watershed to identify potential road upgrade and de-commissioning projects. In the area of fish passage barriers, a field assessment of habitat conditions was conducted upstream of at least 25 high priority barrier culverts identified in the barrier inventory. This information was used to prioritize future restoration projects by identifying culverts that are blocking the most high quality habitat. In addition, a partially blocking culvert on Forest road 26 was replaced with a larger culvert on a small unnamed tributary of the Suiattle River just downstream of Boundary Bridge.

This project will help leverage additional funds to complete restoration actions on over 500 acres of mainstem floodplain. Each of the identified parcels will potentially benefit all 6 of the Skagits chinook populations,in addition to the chum, coho, sockeye, pink, char, and steelhead populations. benefits will be derived through the improvement of riparian canopy, LWD recruitment over time, floodplain connections and the recovery of isolated habitat.