Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Brian Peck, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Through the Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program (CFRP), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds salmon restoration projects throughout the Grays Harbor and Chehalis River Basins. Each year, a request for project proposals (RFP) is sent out to potential project sponsors. Typical projects may include: culvert replacements, riparian tree planting, riparian fencing, large wood placement in streams, habitat and fish passage barrier assessments, and outreach efforts such as this newsletter. If you are interested in receiving an RFP this year, or obtaining more information about a potential project on your property, please contact me at the number below.
Six projects will be funded in fiscal year 2002, for a total of $194,000 dollars. There are one outreach/education, one assessment, and four on-the-ground projects as described here:
Proposed by Educational Service District 113, this proposal supports a partnership that fosters environmental education and stewardship throughout the Chehalis Basin by linking Washington's learning standards to environmental issues that are part of the watershed. Thirty-five 4th --12th grade teachers and 1,000 students from 14 school districts will be involved in this project that focuses on water quality monitoring and pollution prevention.
The Mason Conservation District (MCD) will conduct a comprehensive survey of large wood, riparian, and floodplain features within this watershed. Methods, according to Timber, Fish and Wildlife standards, include assessing the quantity and location of instream large wood, riparian species composition and density, and floodplain impacts such as stream adjacent roads. This data will aid in future prioritization of on the ground restoration efforts. If you live along a stream in the Cloquallum River watershed, and are interested in learning more about this upcoming effort, please contact Mike Madsen of the MCD at 427-9436.
Proposed by the MCD, these two projects will open over five miles of high quality wetland habitat on two tributaries to the Mid Fork Satsop River. The existing culverts are barriers to the upstream migration of fish. By replacing these culverts with adequately sized bridges, the upstream habitat will be made accessible to coho salmon and cutthroat trout. Additionally, an 800 foot spur road and stream crossing will be decommissioned and removed.
These two projects, proposed by the Lewis County Conservation District, are located on tributaries to the South Fork Chehalis River. These culverts have been identified as fish barriers and will be replaced with correctly sized culverts, primarily benefitting coho salmon, cutthroat and steelhead trout. An additional component of one of these projects will reduce fine sediment inputs by removing fill associated with an abandoned railroad crossing.
Brian Peck is the coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program, 360-753-8084 or brian_peck@fws.gov ##
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
Last year a number of poems written by Debbi Davis' ninth grade class at Adna Middle/High School were published in Drops of Water. You will find several written by her class this year throughout this issue.
By Liz Frogner
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Janet Strong, Chehalis River Basin Land Trust
"Look, there's a Barbie doll hanging out of the nest!"
Collecting strange objects is only one of the fascinating things Carol Boyer's students have learned about ospreys over the past three years. Three consecutive classes of Elma Elementary 5th Graders have monitored a half-dozen active nests within easy driving distance of their school.
With the help of Terry Sisson, a local Master Birder, they began in Spring 2000 by observing a single nest and taking the temperature of the nearby Chehalis River. By Spring 2002 Mrs. Boyer's students were monitoring 6 nests, spring and fall, recording data on parents and fledglings. In addition, they have examined the benthic invertebrates, taken sediment samples and tested for several water quality factors in streams and rivers close to the nests.
On Saturday, April 20, students T J McGrath, James Russell, Ernie Cedillo, Jackie Watts, Blair Brown and Amanda Lewis presented the cumulative results of three years' research to members of the Grays Harbor Audubon Society. Besides actual field monitoring, the students' research included forays to the library and into the internet. Ospreys are large fish-eating birds with white heads. Some might mistake them for smallish bald eagles. The female is larger than the male. The male has entirely white underparts while the female sports a chocolate brown necklace of streaks and a brown face mask. The adult body is mostly chocolate brown. Adults have black talons and beaks and yellow eyes; youngsters' eyes are orange.
Ospreys nest near fresh or salt water, eating fish almost exclusively. Liking a great view, they build their nests on top of things -- trees, telephone and electrical poles, snags or tall piers (in the east). The nest is huge -- the size of a double bed -- and is repaired and used year after year. The female lays 3-4 spotted eggs which hatch in late May to early June. The young stay in the nest for 90 days, exercising their wings and practicing flying while still in the nest. Families need about 6 pounds of fish a day to survive. If the fish supply is scanty, parents resort to small mammals. The birds hover 30-100 feet over the water, then dive at speeds of 80 mph to catch a fish.
One student witnessed this amazing display while fishing with his little brother. The osprey's sudden dive and loud splash scared his brother, he said. Ospreys carry their fish catch head first, aerodynamically, for efficient flight.
Washington is home to ospreys from April to September. In the fall the birds migrate to Mexico, Central and South America. No casual travelers, ospreys make this semi-annual journey in only 9 to 30 days. Birds from Oregon are known to reach Mexico in only 13 days.
Today students are very fortunate to have numerous osprey families to observe close to their schools. As recently as the '70s there were only 3 know osprey nests in the Grays Harbor area, according to one local resident. DDT caused the decimation of ospreys and many other birds of prey before it was banned. DDT residues built up in the food chain from bottom sediments through microscopic plants and animals, through aquatic insects, into fish and into the top, the predatory birds. At each level the amount became more and more concentrated, finally causing fragile eggshells in ospreys and eagles. The removal of DDT from the aquatic system has caused the return of these magnificent animals.
How can we help the ospreys? Well, Grays Harbor PUD has already helped one family. After the students found a female osprey dead apparently of electrocution just below a nest, with the male crying overhead, they contacted Grays Harbor PUD about the nest on top of an electrical pole. GH PUD came to the rescue immediately. In a single day, workers erected a new pole nearby, complete with a large wire platform. Since its placement, the ospreys have gone off the grid and built a new, safer nest.
Students say that ordinary people can help our magnificent birds of prey:
Carol Boyer and her students have begun a course of important local research, whose results will add to the body of knowledge about birds of prey and will lead to more effective protection of these vital links in our natural world. Students are rightfully proud of all they have learned and contributed to the local information base. And they will never lose that sense of wonder and adventure grown out of observing and recording the lives of their Elma ospreys.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By students in Debbie Davis' ninth grade class, Adna Middle/High School
By Kylene Davis
By Lyndee Layman
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Rob Schanz, Chehalis River Council
A couple of months ago we told you about our new volunteer monitoring program, funded by a grant from the Washington Department of Ecology. In April we signed the grant contract and began planning our first round of sampling this summer. In the next few months we will purchase equipment, develop our Quality Assurance plan, and train volunteers.
A key first step is to select monitoring sites. Our goal is to monitor water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates at sites that represent a range of rural land uses, so that scientists can use our data to learn how different land use practices affect water quality. Sites must be on perennial streams that are wadeable in the late summer, and should be of interest to local citizens and school groups. All sites must also be legally accessible from public roads or by landowner permission.
Four sites were selected based on these criteria:
Elk Creek has a drainage area of about 40 square miles and enters the Chehalis River at Doty. Most of the watershed is owned by commercial timber companies. At the monitoring site the creek spills over a sequence of gravel bar riffles and basalt shelves, separated by deep pools. Elk Creek is well known by fishermen in the Pe Ell/Doty area. The South Fork Chehalis River has a drainage area of about 48 square miles and includes Stillman Creek and Lost Valley Creek. The river flows through the Boistfort Valley, home of some of the best agricultural land in Lewis County. The upper watershed is forested, and drains Baw Faw Peak. The site is used by Boistfort School students who participate in the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium's water quality monitoring program. The Middle Fork Newaukum site is located in a dense alder and cottonwood floodplain forest. This river site represents the typical mix of rural land uses that exist in the upper Chehalis Basin (agriculture, commercial forest, and residential). The landowner has given permission for access to the site and is a volunteer in our program. Students from Adna High School monitor water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates at a nearby site on the Middle Fork. The Berwick Creek site is located upstream of Chehalis, and represents a small stream with mixed rural land uses. The site is located near a salmon recovery/fish passage project that has been proposed by Lewis County. Berwick Creek enters Dillenbaugh Creek in Chehalis, and downstream reaches have been heavily impacted by urban and industrial land uses. The site provides an opportunity to measure the level of ecological function lost by urbanization.
We will monitor each of these site three times a year for the next five years, collecting data on dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, fecal coliform, and benthic macroinvertebrates. If you have information on these sites, or are particularly interested in one of them, contact the Chehalis River Council at (360) 807-0764 or crc@crcwater.org.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Kathy Jacobson, Chehalis Basin Education Consortium Coordinator
On Thursday, April 18, the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium, in cooperation with Grays Harbor College, held its 1st Annual Chehalis Basin Student Congress. Over 100 students and their teachers attended, representing Centralia and Aberdeen High Schools, Boistfort and Elma Elementary Schools, Onalaska, and Rochester Middle Schools, North River and Mary M. Knight Schools, and Ocosta Middle/High School. In the morning, students worked with local resource professionals to interpret water quality data collected in "State of the Chehalis River Basin" sessions. They came up with the following recommendations on ways that "they could take to maintain and improve the quality of life of the Chehalis watershed, so that they and future generations may enjoy a better quality of life."
Later, students, through displays, shared their involvement in watershed studies, and in the afternoon the students participated in workshops, with the goal of "gaining new knowledge and skills about their watershed and to learn new ways to protect the Chehalis Basin." Eight different workshops were offered. Among them were "A Fish's View of the Watershed: What Hurts and What Helps," "Mayflies and Stoneflies: Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring," and" My Life as a River: Short Story Writing."
Here's a few of the stories that the students wrote in the "My Life as a River" workshop:
Elma Elementary, Grade 5, By Lani Camp
Cold, rapid, waterfalls I flow through a rain forest, creature-filled. Curving, waving, go a little slow. Take a dive, enjoy yourself. I'm clean and fresh, baby blue. Slippery, muddy, maybe even slimy. Sit on the grass and enjoy the soundful, colorful site! Please don't pollute. It's harmful to us all. I flow, flow, flow different places round. Time for me to go now. I hope you enjoyed it all.
By Jan Lindsell, teacher, Onalaska Middle School
At the end of the Congress, the students were asked to evaluate the event. Here's a sampling of student responses when asked, "What was the most important thing that you learned today?" Parking lots are harmful to streams Streams that have curves are healthier than straight streams. Rivers are more sensitive to change than I thought. I learned how many things that we normally don't think about affect fish and their habitat. Plant native plants around streams and not foreign plants. When you step in water, you can kill fish and fish eggs. I learned most of the names of cities in the basin. I learned how to think from another point of view. Rivers are important, and I need to take care of them.
To protect the world, and that everything you do affects the world. That you can learn things that you never learned before, and I will use the things I learned to help the environment. A teacher, when asked, "What do you think were the highlights of the day for your students?" commented: "To develop an awareness of what society is doing to protect our earth, and to use our natural resources wisely." A special thanks goes to Professor Don Samuelson and his students for hosting us at Grays Harbor College; and to our key sponsors, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Educational Service District 113. ##
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Cindy James, Department of Ecology
A preliminary "water cleanup plan" to improve aquatic health by lowering temperatures in eleven upper Chehalis River tributaries was approved on December 4th, 2001 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10. The plan, also known as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), focuses on stretches of the Black River, the Chehalis River (South Fork), Dillenbaugh Creek, Lincoln Creek, Newaukum River, Salzer Creek, Scatter Creek, and the Skookumchuck River. These waters are all upstream of the Porter Bridge. The TMDL focuses especially on improving land management activities associated with forest harvesting. The TMDL identifies timber harvest as a major cause of water quality decline in the watershed. Stream side harvesting has reduced the amount of shade that normally cools the water. Forest management activities have also created sedimentation problems. Sedimentation tends to make the tributary channels wider and more shallow, leading to slower and warmer currents.
The TMDL expects that implementation of recently updated and required forest practices will help lower river temperatures by increasing stabilization of stream banks, re-establishing riparian vegetation, and controlling sediment delivery from upland sources. Similar voluntary efforts on other non-forested private and agricultural land will also help.
It will probably take decades of land management (non-point source) improvements for water temperatures to meet state standards for full protection of aquatic health. Consequently, the TMDL also restricts temperatures of discharges from permitted facilities so they don't add to the temperature problem. Approval of the submittal report by EPA actually marks the beginning of detailed planning for "cleanup" strategies needed to lower temperatures in the upper Chehalis River. The Department of Ecology (WaDOE) expects to coordinate the water quality cleanup planning with ongoing watershed planning being conducted by the Chehalis Basin Partnership and others throughout the Chehalis watershed. You can contact a representative of the Chehalis Basin Partnership, or the Department of Ecology at 360-407-6276 if you would like to participate in the detailed cleanup planning.
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Robert Wheeler, Triangle Associates
Watershed Planning in the Chehalis Basin has been very busy, especially related to public involvement and decisions on technical assessments and approaches. The Chehalis Basin Partnership (CBP) has been guiding the efforts as the planning process moves toward plan development.
To date, three public Study Area Workshops have been held, one at Ocean Shores, one at Montesano, and one at Black Lake High School. Numerous citizens attended both the Montesano and Black Lake sessions, while attendance at Ocean Shores had somewhat fewer attendees.
All sessions have been considered successful in that the citizens have identified water resource issues that they are concerned with in their particular Study Area. Additionally, the citizens have had the opportunity to learn about both the Watershed Planning effort and the Army Corp Ecosystem Restoration Project. The CBP members have also had the chance to better understand water resource issues that exist within each Study Area.
The last Study Area meeting was held at the Chehalis Middle School on May 21st.
The meetings will also assist the CBP in identifying specific stakeholder groups within the Chehalis Basin. There will be a focus on these groups as solutions to issues are discussed and addressed.
The Steering/Technical Committee has been concentrating on two prime technical assessments. The first one relates to instream flow evaluation and stream flow monitoring. An additional grant from the Department of Ecology to focus on instream flow is allowing for more flow monitoring within the basin, especially on streams where instream flow control points do not have any flow monitoring.
The second technical assessment will work on a water quantity evaluation and water balance for the entire Chehalis Basin and for three to five selected sub-basins. The sub-basin evaluations will be quite detailed with an intention of allowing water rights decisions to be made after the studies have been conducted. The three to five evaluations can be used as models for future studies within the Chehalis Basin and will be included with recommendations for prioritized future study areas and methodologies. ##
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Beth Coffey, Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager, Centralia Flood Damage Reduction Project with Leslie Kaye, Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs
Are you wondering what the heck is going on with flood control relief efforts? Are you feeling like you don't quite understand what is the proposed solution? Are you confused about what role the Army Corps of Engineers plays in all this? Welcome to the club! All you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask is the focus of this report by Seattle District, Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager, Beth Coffey. She officially goes on record with vital information about the Centralia Flood Damage Reduction project exclusively for Drops of Water.
Basic information first: The current focus of the Centralia Flood Damage Reduction project is to complete the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by June 30, 2002 for public review in July 2002. The work over the next couple of months is critical to be considered for Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2002 money. Now a little history: In 1998 the Army Corps of Engineers was requested by U.S. Congress to re-evaluate flooding in the Cities of Centralia and Chehalis. This action was mandated in order to see if a solution could be found to the frequent, large-scale floods that caused extensive damage to area structures and that shut down the I-5 transportation corridor for several days.
The reevaluation of this problem was not new to the Corps; we have studied the flooding issues in Centralia and Chehalis for many years and recognize that devastating floods have and will continue to occur. However, past flood reduction projects have either been limited by a lack of local sponsor funding, or the proposed project was not economically justified to qualify for federal cost sharing--the costs of constructing the project outweigh the benefits for reducing flooding. The Corps' money authorities for this project are 'cost-shared' authorities, which means that a local sponsor must share a portion of the costs of the design and construction of projects. This time around is different! The Washington State Department of Transportation has partnered with Lewis County because of their mutual interests in reducing flood hazards-including closure of I-5-in the Centralia-Chehalis metropolitan area. What this means is that more funds may be available for cost sharing on a federally sponsored project. It also means that any project that reduces closures to the transportation corridor and the two cities will also increase the potential economic benefits of a federally sponsored project. The process used for getting to a solution is lengthy but thorough. The Corps identified seven potential alternatives to reduce flood hazards in the Centralia- Chehalis area. Working with local and State agencies, the Chehalis Tribe, other Federal agencies, and local interest groups identified the alternatives.
The seven alternatives are as follows: (1) Reevaluating the Skookumchuck Dam for flood storage, (2) Flood bypass/floodplain modifications, (3) A setback levee system, (4) Check dams (flow restrictors), (5) A nonstructural alternative, like flood proofing homes in the floodplain, (6) No action, and (7) A combination alternative that looked at both structural and nonstructural alternatives.
The Corps and the other interested parties also set up project criteria. Purposes of the criteria were to allow a consistent evaluation of each alternative and to determine each alternative's ability to meet the project purpose of reducing flood hazards. All of the criteria must be met before the Corps can forward an alternative as a recommendation to Congress for approval and authorization. The criteria included:
We took the seven alternatives, compared them to the project criteria and "filtered out" any that did not meet these criteria. The setback levees with modifications to the Skookumchuck Dam, the bypasses with modifications to the dam, and the combination alternative were the three alternatives that met the project criteria. The next step was to look at the remaining alternatives to determine which one reduced the greatest flood damages and which one was the most cost effective. Through the evaluation process, the setback levees with modifications to the Skookumchuck dam provided the "best" reduction of flood damages for the cost. The setback levees will provide 100-year flood level protection for the areas in the cities of Chehalis and Centralia and general protection for the areas such as Centralia Airport, Ford's Prairie, and I-5. They do not protect all areas.
The setback levees and Skookumchuck Dam alternative do not increase downstream flood stages. This is due, in part, to the timing of the releases of water from Skookumchuck Dam, but more greatly due to the fact the levees are 'set back' away from the river and do not constrain it.
The setback levees will increase the amount of flood water that occurs in a small portion of the project area, which is a confined area around the airport. The induced flooding appears to be most significant in 100-year flood events, where two to six inches of additional flooding may occur. Our analysis is that this additional water will not increase the duration of flooding. Therefore, the setback levees and dam modifications will limit the flooded areas to predictable locations-inside the setback levees-and may increase the depth of water in these areas. It will not increase the amount of time the flood water remains in the area. Utilizing the dam for flood control will also reduce flooding along the Skookumchuck River. Finally, the recommended alternative does protect the I-5 corridor and will reduce the likelihood of closure of this highway in the future.
Although the setback levees and dam modifications do avoid many environmental impacts, we believe there will still be some impacts. These include some loss of wetland areas, some loss of riparian habitat, some modifications to the floodplain, and some changes to the existing scenery. All impacts and mitigation proposals will be addressed in our Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), scheduled for issuing in draft for public review and comment in July of 2002.
The Corps is committed to ensuring that your voice is heard while the project is still conceptual in nature. If you read this article and have questions or comments, please contact me at my email address: Frances.E.Coffey@usace.army.mil or by calling (206) 764-4478. You can also comment by visiting the Seattle District web site at www.nws.usace.army.mil under Links of Interest, Centralia Flood Damage Reduction Project.
We welcome you to come to the next public meetings scheduled for June 13, 2002 starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Montesano City Hall in Montesano and in Lewis County on July 9, 2002 at a location yet to be determined. Please come tell us what you think, your comments are important to us. ##
Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
By Matt Hyita and Jason Stahl
Back to top
Back to Whats New Index Page
Back to CRC Index Page
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council