Salmon Habitat Restoration

• Big River LWD: A second stream channel reach of this project was completed in summer 2006 along 800 feet of an eroding pasture bank of Big River upstream from last years LWD project. FY 05 PCSR funds were utilized to mobilize the wood and construct the jams.
• Hand planting of a wetland mitigation site took place in January-February 2007 on the Reservation across the Big River from the National Fish Hatchery to offset impacts from a USFWS-funded dike repair of the Hatcherys serpentine sediment settling channel. PCSR funds were used to provide project management expertise and administration by the Tribes Habitat Restoration Ecologist.
• Plans consistent with the restoration activities called for in the Lake Ozette Sockeye Recovery Strategy and the Makah Fisheries Management Strategic Plan have been initiated in coordination with private forestry companies to regenerate native mixtures of Sitka spruce and red alder in forested wetlands harvested in the Lake Ozette watershed. PCSR funds were used to pursue these opportunities for proactively co-managing riparian fish habitat.

The Hoko River worksite where riparian and in-stream restoration that had been planned for the lower section of the river, focused instead on the delivery of $25,000 of large rootwad timber for a collaborative restoration project in the upper reach of the Hoko River which was previously obligated under contract with DNR and Rayonier.

The Sooes River worksite did involve 0.20 miles of in-stream monitoring of LWD structural condition and habitat-forming processes (e.g., pool formation) but not riparian monitoring. Plans to continue with riparian habitat work were set aside to address landowner concerns about scour damage undercutting a bank downstream from the engineered logjam project. This effort eventually resulted in our staff removing several key pieces of the logjam structure, alleviating potential issues that could have impacted the Tribes relationship with the community and made future restoration work in the Ozette basin more problematic. Therefore, PCSR funds for salmon restoration along this river system shifted focus to the ongoing maintenance and monitoring of the in-stream restoration structure at the expense of adding the riparian restoration component.

Habitat metrics for the Hoko and Sooes Worksites were therefore set to zero.

Contribution to recovery of aquatic ecosystems within the Makah U&A by conducting restoration projects or supplementing larger restoration projects opportunistically. Improved habitat conditions and access should improve productivity and recovery of regional salmonid populations. Monitoring conditions pre- and post- project completion to evaluate the efficacy of project design toward achieving desired results and lead to better designed projects in the future.