| Element | Specific Issue | Comments | Possible Solutions from Toolbox
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Habitat |
Channel incision/loss of refuge | Channel incision is a continuing source of sediment in the hill lands that drain into the rivers and streams of the Chehalis Basin. This incision separates streams from their floodplains, destroys arable land, and degrades environmental resources. | - |
| - | Sedimentation | Fish need clean gravel to lay their eggs. When dirt and silt get washed into streams, they clog the gravel and fish can't build their nests. | - |
| - | Riparian damage | The vegetation along stream banks helps keep pollution and sediments out of the river, provides shade to keep the water cooler, and ensures that the banks won't erode into the river. When this vegetation is lost, or when the stream banks are eroded or cut or moved, habitat is harmed. | - |
| - | Low instream flows | More water in streams means more habitat for fish, cooler water temperatures, and dilution for the pollution there. All of this helps the health of the river system. | - |
| - | Water Quality | Pollution contaminates habitat. Low temperatures are bad for fish. They reduce growth and harm the reproductive success of fish and wildlife. | - |
| - | Barriers to fish passage | When culverts, roads or other barriers keep fish from swimming upstream, they cannot reproduce. | - |
| - | Water Quantity | More water in the ground means more water will trickle up into streams, which improves the health of the water body (see instream flow comments). | Conservation, water rights trust |
| - | Land use | If existing land use laws are obeyed and new developments don't use too much pavement, it will help habitat immensely by preventing erosion of shorelines and polluted runoff from parking lots, plus allowing groundwater to recharge. | - |
| - | Bank armoring | When bulkheads or other hard surfaces are installed on the banks of water bodies, it allows pollution to run off straight into the water and prevents shade from cooling the temperature. | - |
| - | Stream Restoration | Several groups are working to improve fish habitat in the Chehalis Basin along tributaries and the main river. A list of ongoing stream restoration projects is available from _________. | - |
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