Drops of Water

Vol. 7 No. 1. February 2006

Returning to Nature

by Taylor Pittman, Information and Education Specialist, US Fish & Wildlife Service

Like the many industrious beavers that live along the Chehalis River, Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is busy. Among many things, they are working on restoring and enhancing natural stream flows, along with fish and wildlife, to many sites in the Chehalis River Basin. The Elk River Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA) and the Chehalis River Surge Plain Natural Areas Preserve (Preacher Slough) are two prime examples of such industriousness. With US Fish and Wildlife Service funding, these important sites are being enhanced for fish, wildlife, education and low-impact recreation. Local help came from many fronts: RG Forestry and Columbia-Pacific RC &D (contractors), Elma Middle School and University of Washington students and The Nature Conservancy.

The Elk River project is the beginning of long term efforts to remove fish passage blockages and fill material in streams and wetlands and to abandon failing roads in the Elk River NRCA. At the same time, managers are looking at ways to provide public access and hiking trails to explore this fascinating area.

Elk River NRCS

Natural Resource Conservation Areas protect outstanding examples of native ecosystems, habitat for endangered, threatened and sensitive plants and animals, and scenic landscapes. The Elk River NRCA spans 4973 acres of diverse habitat, ranging from tide flats and sloughs, salt marsh and freshwater wetlands, to forested uplands. This area provides habitat for many coastal species such as marbled murrelet, Roosevelt elk, Olympic mud minnow, coho salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout, lamprey, crayfish and sculpin. Bald eagles, trumpeter swans, peregrine falcons and many waterfowl also frequent the NRCA. Its presence highlights the extraordinary natural wealth in the Grays Harbor area.

Jeff Vanderpham, DNR Research Technician, and Birdie Davenport, Natural Areas manager, began the Elk River restoration project during the summer of 2005. DNR identified the area's restoration potential during the completion of the state's road maintenance and abandonment plan. Three old fill-and-log stringer bridges had failed on the shoreline of Beardslee Slough,

Site 1 Fill removal.  Photo: Taylor Pittman

blocking stream flows and causing sediment (rocks and mud) to enter the slough.  The sites were close together and on the same road, enabling removal in one project.

Each of the three sites identified for restoration contained a primitive bridge, constructed in the middle of the last century to give logging access to the area.  These fill-and-log bridges were deconstructed with an excavator, two small double-track (low ground pressure) dump trucks and a bulldozer. The connecting roads were decommissioned and the sites reconstructed in as natural a way as possible to facilitate the future presence of fish and clean water for the entire river and estuarine system. 

Restoring a fish-bearing stream and its water to a more natural state requires that the project crew make every effort to minimize the impact of their actions. For example, they work to contain and reduce sediment (dirt and rock) falling into the creek and reduce soil compaction.

Throughout the project, RG Forestry, the contractor performing the heavy equipment work, took great pains to ensure that his machinery left the minimal amount of impact possible. Temporary devices like pumps, culverts and crossings were installed to minimize damage and impact while the work went on. The excavator removed the fill and logs to match the original natural slope. A rubber-tracked "wonder machine" called a Maruka then moved the dirt away from the stream channel to upland sites.

"I care about what happens out here," said Ron Gold, owner of RG Forestry. "I grew up in Chicago, so I appreciate the big trees and clean water of the Northwest."

Two of the three sites are tidally influenced. Consequently the restoration work was done on a tidal schedule û work in the stream channel and along the banks was done only during periods of low tide. Prior to flooding by each high tide, fill material was pulled out and the banks smoothed and restored to reduce the sediment being released into the stream. To encourage reseeding of natural vegetation, jute matting was placed on the banks.

DNR, through its Washington Natural Heritage Program (WNHP), began a comprehensive inventory of salt marshes and other coastal biotic communities in 1982. The WNHP's purpose was to identify the highest quality salt marsh systems to preserve as examples of ecosystem integrity. Elk River was the largest and highest quality salt marsh system remaining in Washington at the time of the inventory.

After DNR consulted with the Oregon Natural Heritage Program and other scientists, they determined that the Elk River estuary contained the largest, most diverse and highest quality examples of a salt marsh ecosystem remaining in Washington or Oregon. Subsequent discussions with British Columbia scientists revealed that no system of comparable size or quality exists there.

Chehalis River Surge Plain Natural Area Preserve (Preacher's Slough)

On any given day last spring, if you were traveling down Highway 107 near Montesano, you might have seen groups of students hiking the trail along Preacher Slough. This area is part of a larger area designated as the Chehalis River Surge Plain Natural Area Preserve (CRSP NAP), a 2643 acre site where Sitka spruce and western red cedar thrive in the wet soils where fresh and salt water mingle. These Elma Middle School students have been helping plant native trees and shrubs to replace an infestation of the extremely invasive Bohemian knotweed (a robust hybrid between Japanese and Giant knotweed) and other weed species.

The CRSP is part of a statewide system of natural areas. The preserve is designed to protect a large freshwater tidal surge plain wetland, an unusual feature in many areas of the country and the largest one in Washington. A freshwater surge plain is an area along stream and river reaches (edges) where fresh water, instead of salt, spreads out during flooding or high tides. Plants that grow there include Sitka spruce, lady fern, red osier dogwood, salmonberry and black twinberry.

"The surge plain and Preacher slough were in really good ecological condition. Their healthy condition was the key reason we spent our money protecting it from weed infestation," said Birdie Davenport, Natural Areas Manager for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. "The one area that needed our immediate attention was 16 acres on Preacher Slough." Since knotweed spreads through flooding, it was essential that the area be treated as soon as possible. This area had been pasture and was infested with Bohemian and Himalayan knotweed, blackberries, scotch broom and reed canary grass.

Through a statewide stewardship partnership, the Nature Conservancy began funding the restoration in 2001. The US Fish and Wildlife Service continued in 2003 until the project was completed in 2005. A local organization, Columbia-Pacific RC &D, employing displaced timber workers, mowed the site and began replanting with native species. Now the site has an interpretative trail, also built by DNR, and many exceptional educational and ecological values, including sheltering young salmon and other fish and supporting osprey, bald eagles û a species listed as threatened by the federal government û and Olympic mud minnows û a species listed as sensitive by the state.

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Guest commentary:

Latest asphalt plant permit ruling appealed

By Sue Danver, Black Hills Audubon Society

Reprinted with permission from the January/February 2006 Echo, newsletter of the Black Hills Audubon Society.

On October 3, 2005, Mason County Superior Court Judge William Sawyer ruled that Quality Rock Products could proceed with its plan to expand its gravel mine and construct and operate an asphalt and concrete plant in rural southwest Thurston County. The site is immediately adjacent to the Black River National Wildlife Refuge. Judge Sawyer's decision vacated the 2003 decision of the Thurston County Board of Commissioners denying the special use permit requested by Quality Rock Products (QRP).

On November 22, 2005, both Thurston County and the Black Hills Audubon Society appealed Judge Sawyer's ruling. Black Hills Audubon Society (BHAS) believes there are solid legal arguments on record to deny the entire project and reinstate the County Commissioners' decision. We are pleased that the County Commissioners decided to challenge Judge Sawyer's decision. The case will now proceed to the State Court of Appeals.

After more than four years of litigation, the BHAS board and hundreds of supporters continue to believe that this water-intensive and air-polluting industrial complex does not belong next to the Black River and its sensitive mosaic of wetlands. The County Commissioners' 2003 denial of QRP's permit is appropriate, defensible, and in the long-term interests of Thurston County's citizens.

A slow moving river unusual for western Washington, the Black River is host to over 70 species of birds as well as butterflies, amphibians, and other wildlife. It is a rare and important refuge for many of these species. The Black River is a stop on the new Audubon Birding Trail for southwest Washington, a joint effort between Audubon and state agencies to promote rural economic development. Thurston County has a unique opportunity to develop ecotourism on the west side of the county. This is a great place for people to bicycle, hike, canoe, or watch birds in the Capitol Forest, Mima Mounds, Glacier Heritage Park, and the Black River National Wildlife Refuge. The availability of these diverse outdoor recreational experiences is invaluable and already draws tourists from other counties.

Besides the Black River National Wildlife Refuge and numerous other conservation parcels in the vicinity, housing and schools in Tumwater's Urban Growth Area, just north of the gravel mine site, would be potentially affected by toxic air emissions and hazardous air particulates emitted by the proposed asphalt plant. Additional impacts would come from the noise, pollution, and traffic effects of hundreds of heavy gravel truck trips per day on Littlerock Road.

As fields and forests continue to be lost to housing, the Black River corridor will become even more important in the future as a "refuge" for Thurston County residents. Allowing an industry such as QRP to operate adjacent to the wildlife refuge, next to Capitol Forest, and at the headwaters of the Black River would constitute an enormous loss for current and future human residents of Thurston County, as well as for its plant and animal residents.

The State Court of Appeals case will be heard in six to twelve months.

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Guest commentary:

Labor, conservation and environmental groups find common ground

By Linda Orgel, FOGH (Friends of Grays Harbor)

These are challenging times for those who want to respect the earth and still provide a healthy economic vitality in rural communities. Politicians and the business communities tend to pit working people and environmentalists against one another. Protecting wetlands, shorelines, clean water and air are often sacrificed to inappropriate development because of the need for "jobs, jobs, jobs." But what if those jobs that are created by all this development turn out to pay below prevailing wage, lack safety and compensation protection, and offer no quality control? It often is the case that both the environment and the workers lose. When that happens, we all lose.

There are a growing number of people in Grays Harbor who want to do something about this, and they have created a coalition of labor, conservation and environmental groups, and concerned citizens determined to find common cause. Since April of this year, the group has been meeting in Aberdeen every month to talk about good jobs and environmental protection. The coalition is called the Grays Harbor Community Alliance.

The groups meet together to explore perceptions and common goals and priorities including supporting fair wages, sustainable forests, maintaining jobs that provide a living wage, corporate responsibility, continued use of wood in construction, and environmental standards for developers. Both groups acknowledge that they have undeserved reputations that get in the way with each other and with the greater community. One of the first actions of the new group was to press the local media to provide more accurate, fair and balanced reporting on labor and environmental issues.

The models for the Community Alliance are a national blue-green movement and the Washington State Blue-Green Alliance, an organization of labor and environmental groups that have been meeting monthly around the state since August 2004. Their mission includes a commitment for labor and environmentalists to unite together to fight for policies that "enhance Washington's quality of life." Over 20 labor groups and 20 environmental groups from around the state have signed on to this mission.

The Grays Harbor Community Alliance has broken the stereotypes that have kept labor and environmentalists apart. They have made a commitment to find serious approaches to environmental protection that benefit working people and their unions. Both groups have come to realize their strength is in union not in dissent. There are some issues that can''t be agreed upon, but on many issues it is a logical combination. Labor unions, conservation groups, and environmental organizations have large memberships, strong grassroots organizing skills, and long-term activist traditions. This combination is much more effective than going it alone.

The Community Alliance will be concentrating on growing its membership, educating the public about the importance of protecting workers, and helping promote public policy on issues of fair trade, workers rights, right to organize and protecting the environment in Grays Harbor.

"The choice between good jobs and a clean environment is a false one. We need to work together to get both." (Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron, 2004.)

For more information, contact Tom Shook, Carpenters Local 317, tshook@techline.com

or Linda Orgel, FOGH (Friends of Grays Harbor), Linda@fogh.org

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CBEC  -  2005 in Review

By Kathy Jacobson, Coordinator, Chehalis Basin Education Consortium

This past year, the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium was busy connecting students to their communities and to their watershed. Here's a highlight of some of the many ways that institutions of higher learning, natural resource agencies and

Poet Bill Yake and John Hendrickson, owner of Wild Thyme Farm and students at "River of Words" workshop in Oakville.  Photo: Kathy Jacobson

non-profit organizations partnered with the CBEC to provide meaningful learning opportunities and involvement in watershed protection activities. 

January:  A "Words and Images from the Watershed: Washington's River of Words" workshop was conducted for middle school students in cooperation with Millersylvania State Park.

February: A "Healthy Water, Healthy People" workshop was conducted for 20 CBEC teachers in coordination with the Washington State Department of Ecology; later that month, more than 120 students planted 600 trees in partnership with the City of Centralia and the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust.

March:  125 students planted another 600 trees along the Chehalis River, and more than 1,000 students conducted water quality monitoring at various sites in the basin. In partnership with Grays Harbor College, the 4th Annual Chehalis Basin Student Congress was conducted. with over 120 students, teachers and parent volunteers in attendance.

April:  Judging was completed for our regional "Words and Images from the Watershed: Washington's River of Words" Art and Poetry Contest. Winning entries were included in a special student edition of "Drops of Water" created in collaboration with the Chehalis River Council. The edition also featured our 2004-2005 Student Watershed Stewards of the Year. 

May:  Ten field studies along the Chehalis River Discovery Trail and tours of the City of Centralia's Wastewater Treatment Plant were conducted for approximately 250 students, their teachers and parent volunteers. Eighth graders from Rochester Middle School acted as "interpretive naturalists" for four field studies. 

June:  Another 50 children participated in field studies along the river. The CBEC Coordinator participated in a meeting with other watershed coordinators during the annual Environmental Education Association of Washington conference.

July:  Two Rochester Middle School teachers and the CBEC Coordinator attended training for science teachers at the Olympic Park Institute.

August and September:  Teacher training on water quality monitoring was conducted along the Chehalis River and at Schaffer State Park.

October:  "Words and Images from the Watershed: Washington's River of Words" workshops were held for 80 teachers, elementary and middle school students, at John Hendrickson's 150-acre Wild Thyme Farm in Oakville. In addition, more than 22 teachers and their 700+ students monitored various sites in the basin, from the Humptulips River to Allan Creek in Napavine. 

November:  50 students transplanted more than 100 trees along the Chehalis River, and the Chehalis River Discovery Trail brochure was completed (with the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust).

December:  Field guides to the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge and to Grays Harbor College's Donald F. Samuelson Model Watershed were completed in cooperation with Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge, Grays Harbor Audubon Society and Grays Harbor College. (Field studies will be conducted in the spring.)

Thanks to all of our CBEC project funders and partners for helping our basin youth and teachers discover the beauty and wonder of the watershed and for the opportunities to participate in meaningful watershed restoration projects.

For more information on the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium's watershed education program for 4th through 12th grade teachers and their students, please contact: Kathy Jacobson, Coordinator at (360) 464-6722 or via email at: kjacobson@esd113.k12.wa.us

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Fecal Coliform and our watershed's "First Flush"

By Rob Schanz, Chehalis River Council

Our volunteers have been collecting water samples and looking for fecal coliform in the upper Chehalis basin for three years. These bacteria live in the guts of warm-blooded animals, and are used to track pollution from sewage and manure.

Until recently we hadn't measured fecal coliform levels much above the state water quality standard (100 counts/100 ml). We were beginning to wonder if fecal pollution was really a problem in our watershed, despite the ubiquitous appearance of Chehalis basin streams on the Department of Ecology's 303 (d) list of impaired waters.

That changed in November when we finally caught a major early-season storm. Suddenly, samples from our agricultural and rural streams jumped above 400 fecal coliform counts/100 ml. This surge in fecal coliform levels is consistent with the theory that pollutants build up on land surfaces during the summer, and are washed off into streams by the first fall storms. Water quality specialists call this the "first flush," which seems like an appropriate name for fecal coliform pollution.

Figure 1 illustrates seasonal differences in fecal coliform levels. Our November results are almost 10 times higher than any of our previous winter samples. The lowest fecal coliform levels occur during winter dry periods, when pollutants are diluted by lots of clean water entering streams from groundwater. Summer fecal coliform levels are

Rob Schanz and Patti Barmettler test for fecals.  Photo: Bill Barmettler

sometimes higher than those found during late-season winter storms. In the summer there is very little water in our streams, and relatively small loads of pollution from animals or malfunctioning septic systems can create high concentrations of bacteria.

Our November storm data also reflect differences in our watersheds. Both the South Fork Chehalis and the Middle Fork Newaukum drain residential and agricultural land uses, and registered fecal coliform levels above 400 counts/100 ml. The South Fork Newaukum drains mostly forested land, and had only 12 counts of fecal coliform/100 ml. Elk Creek also drains a forested watershed, but had fecal coliform levels close to 200 counts/100 ml. Elk Creek has deep pools upstream of our sampling site where fecal matter from animals may collect over the summer, whereas the South Fork Newaukum is steep and fast flowing. The South Fork Newaukum also has a much healthier riparian forest that helps to filter pollutants from runoff.

Our monitoring grant funding ends in June 2006, and we plan to collect two more sets of samples this winter. After that, we will continue monitoring our most troubled sites and begin working with the community to identify solutions. This effort will likely begin in the South Fork Chehalis watershed. If you are interested in more information, contact Rob Schanz at the Chehalis River Council office, (360) 807-0764 or email crc@crcwater.org.

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Got Natives?

By Kathleen Whalen, District Administrator, Thurston Conservation District

Springtime is just around the corner, so now is the time to get your native plant plugs and bareroot stock in the ground, before springtime arrives! 

The Thurston Conservation District is hosting their annual Native Plant Sale Parking Lot Event on Saturday, February 18,

2005, from 12 noon to 4:00 pm at 2400 Bristol Court, SW in Olympia.

A wide variety of native trees, plants, and ground covers will be available to the public at affordable prices, ranging from .75 cents to $2.50 each. 

Local groups and organizations will also host information booths, and plant-care demonstrations will be given at various times during the sale.

For directions to the location and for more information, you can access the Thurston Conservation District website at www.thurstoncd.com or call them at (360) 754-3588.  Don't miss this exciting event! 

If you are a Lewis or Grays Harbor County resident, contact your local conservation district first to find out more about their sales. Lewis CD can be reached at (360)748-0083, ext 4.  Grays Harbor CD can be reached at (360)249-5980. 

Rochester students planting native tree Photo: Kathy Jacobson

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A bimonthly publication of the Chehalis River Council and Cooperating Partners.  Distributed without charge to newspaper readers throughout the Chehalis Watershed.