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Issue 7 April 1997 |
This newsletter appears monthly in 45,000 households throughout the watershed. Printing is done by The Chronicle, and distribution is by the Chronicle, the Olympia Daily Olympian, the Tenino Star and the Aberdeen World. This is an early edition available only to WWW users. Please send us your feedback.
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error.
Inside this edition!
Stories of interest in this issue:
Banks For Salmon are river banks important?
Even more Projects Complete an update from the CBFTF
Nonpoint Source Pollution: The Nation's Largest Water Quality Problem
The importance of planting trees and vegetation or does shade matter?
A Glossary of Fish and Fishery Terms
Calendar of upcoming meetings and events for you to attend.
Special Youth Puzzle check this one out!
This is an early electronic copy of Drops of Water. Drops of Water is distributed monthly to newspaper receiving households throughout the basin. It goes to print mid-March and will be distributed during the following week. Watch for it in the Tenino Star, The Olympian, The Chronicle and the The Daily World.
The newspaper insert is funded with a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This electronic edition is sponsored by the CRC.
Letters to the Editor, contributed articles and contributing partnerships are encouraged.
Comments via email to The Chehalis River Council
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Many people would like to simplify their lives-- but for the sake of threatened runs of salmon, we need to keep our rivers as complicated as possible.
The wild salmon of the Pacific Northwest evolved in an extremely complex environment. Before the coming of European settlers, rivers and streams were tangled webs of channels, oxbows, sloughs, and wetlands. Waterways were choked with brush, beaver dams and downed timber. Their banks were thick with trees and overhanging bushes, providing a canopy of shade in summer and heavy load of nutrient-bearing debris--such as leaves, twigs and lichen -- in the fall.
Salmon made use of the habitats created by these diverse elements. They spawned in gravel in the riffles, rested in plunge pools, foraged in backwater areas and took shelter under the overgrown banks and fallen trees.
As our society has modified the landscape for agriculture, forestry, industry and urbanization, much of this complex "structure" within river systems has been lost. Streams are often channelized, losing their meanders, shallows and pools and becoming ditches through which water is sent. Many rivers have been stripped of their bordering "riparian" forests.
The loss of stream bank vegetation affects salmon in numerous way. Salmon need water temperatures in the 42-65 degree Fahrenheit range (with 55-58) degrees being ideal); unshaded streams stripped of their sheltering canopies of leaves frequently reach the upper end of this range, stressing the salmon, and in warmer areas can reach lethal levels. The lack of shrubs, roots and grasses overhanging the bank deprives juvenile salmon of hiding places from predators. Exposed banks can erode, covering spawning gravel with sediment deadly to developing eggs And in the natural system, the leaves and other debris which fall into the stream from riparian vegetation provide food for the insect larvae ("nymphs") and small crustaceans which are in turn eaten by maturing salmon. Removal of this vegetation breaks some important links in the food chain.
A recent United States Forest Service study indicated that 90% of the steams in our region are missing key habitat components for salmon, due to loss of streamside vegetation from grazing, logging, and development, removal of logs and brush from within the stream, road construction and other causes. The good news from the same study, though, is that restoration of most streams for salmon is quite feasible given cooperation between fishery managers and landowners.
Landowners whose property borders a stream or river can do a great deal to increase the survival of salmon by increasing the habitat complexity. The first step, of course, is to preserve the streambank vegetation that is already there. All too many landowners, meaning no harm to fish, strip away brush and trees to "improve the view," or even, ironically, to improve fishing access.
Among other steps to consider:
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For more information on what you can do at home to help salmon recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest, please contact your local watershed restoration group, soil and water conservation district, or Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, 45 SE 82nd Dr., Suite 100, Gladstone, OR 97027-2522.
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The Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force (Task Force) has a long tradition of writing annual reports on the projects completed that year. This is the third in a series of such reports. This article covers five different projects. In all our projects, sound conservation practices and streambank bioengineering techniques were used to address the US Fish and Wildlife Service-identified degradation by livestock access to streams, stream canopy reductions, excessive sediment depositions in streams, and streamside/bank vegetation loss. Where necessary, riparian corridors were fences in to limit livestock access and were replanted with conifers and other native trees and plants in order to diversify the current red alder-dominated canopy.
In the Sterns Creek Project, several construction phases were completed in 1996, these including fencing off some 4,000 feet of stream bank, with average setbacks of over 25 feet on both stream banks; planting more than one hundred western hemlock, sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and western red cedars along the banks. We also installed 'hardened cattle accesses' to the creek and watering ponds by using 50 cubic yards of spawning size gravels. Three spawning weirs were installed that will release 60 cubic yards of spawning size gravels into the system. We created an off-channel rearing wetland/pond habitat, approximately one acre in size, which is fed by spring water that is concentrated and piped into the pond area. We installed a waterline to a pasture that had no previous access to water.
This project had several problems created by work originally done several years before, which needed correcting. These problems included electric fencing which was not holding a charge. Another problem was the discovery that several watering ponds were unusable due to water quality problems. Both of these problems were corrected and the fences and watering ponds now work as designed.
The Lincoln Creek Project was designed to protect and improve salmonid habitat on portions of both the North and South Forks of Lincoln Creek. We successfully fenced in more than 4,200 feet of streambanks, with average setbacks of 25 feet on the South Fork; stabilized more than 900 linear feet of eroding streambanks on the North Fork. More than 4,000 willow, red-osier dogwood, Douglas firs, western red cedar, western hemlock, sitka spruce, and lodgepole pines, of various sizes, were planted along both forks along with 32 vegetation plots for increasing the diversity in the currently reed canary grass-dominated riparian zone. We also installed a hardened cattle access on the South Fork, along with 75 feet of rootwad revetment on the severely eroded banks of the Creek.
The Beatty Creek Project was designed by Students of Evergreen State College to protect and improve salmonid spawning habitat by using sound conservation practices and stream bank bioengineering. Portions of the riparian corridor were fenced in to eliminate livestock access to valuable spawning habitat on the Creek. A channel was constructed to direct flows through a large patch of reed canary grass that had hampered adult and juvenile passage. Large woody debris was strategically place to increase bank stability and improve spawning habitat parameters. The riparian zone was then planted with conifers, other native trees, and shrubs to provide cover, control temperatures and to diversify the canopy.
The main construction phase included fencing 960 feet of streambank, along 1,400 feet of the creek, with an average setback of 25 feet beside the fence line and over 75 feet on the remaining property; stabilizing 300 linear feet of streambanks; planting ninety 4-6 foot tall Douglas firs and western red cedars, planting 30 various species of riparian trees and shrubs, and installing 200 willow and red osier dogwood stakes; placing eight instream log structures to channel the creek and create inter-gravel flows; and recreate 60 feet of creek channel.
The project was carried out by college students of the Ecosystem Restoration class at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, for education purposes. Other funding was obtained from a Jobs for the Environment grant to provide the labor to remove reed canary grass and to dig the new channel.
Fencing was installed using a woven high tensile livestock fencing system which is powered by a solar charging unit. The fence posts were placed every 15 feet and wire was installed by the students, with no problems with the fence construction to date. The bioengineering of the nonexisting stream banks was also designed and constructed by the students. During the 1994-95 winter season, at least three high water events have tested the integrity of these structures, with no failures, and all still remain functional to this date.
The planting phases were completed in late November of 1996. Various tree species were planted this year to augment the original revegetation application in the Spring of 1995. The willow and dogwood stakes were planted primarily to stabilize the newly developed channel. That was also when larger Douglas firs and western red cedars were planted outside the immediate riparian zone, to provide future woody debris recruitment and diversity that is vital for salmonid habitat parameters. The plants came from a variety of sources that included donations from the Washington State Department of Transportation, native transplants off the Department of Natural Resources Lands, and from a local native plant nursery.
Plant and channel maintenance was also performed this Fall. The reed canary grass had started to re-invade portions of the channel that were not bio-engineered. Blackberry brambles had also clogged the upper portion of the creek. A crew of trained forest workers, from Northwest Upland Restoration our of Elma, Washington, came out and mowed down the canary grass and removed forty feet of the brambles. They planted taller Douglas firs in this area to facilitate shading out the blackberries in the future.
This project offers the community an excellent example of just how agricultural uses and salmonid habitat can coexist. The project enhances and restores the only degraded portion of the habitat on Beatty Creek. Due to improving the cover and rearing habitat on this stretch of this creek, heavy predation by heron and kingfishers should decrease, enabling fish populations to increase in the Black River tributaries of the Chehalis River.
The Allen Creek Project has been a very successful partnership between the landowners on Allen Creek and the Task Force so far. Almost 3/4 of a mile of the creek, crossing three different properties, has been protected by fencing livestock out of the stream. Another 1/4 of a mile of fencing has been proposed and will be installed at the beginning of 1997.
The construction phases that have been completed to date include: fencing of 7,011 feet of streambank, along 4,106 feet of the creek, with average setbacks of 10 feet; placing and anchoring 10 LWD structures that includes 4 rootwads and 5 logs for cover, and one log and gravel weir for a spawning pad, placing 20 cubic yards of gravel behind the weir; planting thirty 4-6 foot-tall Douglas firs and western red cedars, under planting 100 western hemlock, sitka spruce, and lodgepole pine, 1,000 willow and red-osier dogwood stakes; construction of two 20' x 40' livestock access areas; and installation of one nose pump for livestock watering.
Construction was completed by private contractors and utilized funds obtained from a Jobs for the Environment grant to provide the labor to anchor the habitat improvement structures, revegetate the riparian corridors, and to install one of the fences.
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The CRC is focused on nonpoint sources of water pollution. This overview was produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and describes the issues we face in this watershed.
Why is there still water that's too dirty for swimming, fishing or drinking? Why are native species of plants and animals disappearing from many rivers, lakes, and coastal waters?
The United States has made tremendous advances in the past 25 years to clean up the aquatic environment by controlling pollution from industries and sewage treatment plants. Unfortunately, we did not do enough to control pollution from diffuse, or nonpoint, sources. Today, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution remains the Nation's largest source of water quality problems. It's the main reason that approximately 40 percent of our surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.
NPS pollution occurs when rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, and coastal waters or introduces them into ground water. Imagine the path taken by a drop of rain from the time it hits the ground to when it reaches a river, ground water, or the ocean. Any pollutant it picks up on its journey can become part of the NPS problem. NPS pollution also includes adverse changes to the vegetation, shape, and flow of streams and other aquatic systems.
NPS pollution is widespread because it can occur any time activities disturb the land or water. Agriculture, forestry, grazing, septic systems, recreational boating, urban runoff, construction, physical changes to stream channels, and habitat degradation are potential sources of NPS pollution. Careless or uninformed household management also contributes to NPS pollution problems.
The latest National Water Quality Inventory indicates that agriculture is the leading contributor to water quality impairments, degrading 60 percent of the impaired river miles and half of the impaired lake acreage surveyed by states, territories, and tribes. Runoff from urban areas is the largest source of water quality impairments to surveyed estuaries (areas near the coast where seawater mixes with freshwater).
The most common NPS pollutants are sediment and nutrients. These wash into water bodies from agricultural land, small and medium-sized animal feeding operations, construction sites, and other areas of disturbance. Other common NPS pollutants include pesticides, pathogens (bacteria and viruses), salts, oil, grease, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals. Beach closures, destroyed habitat, unsafe drinking water, fish kills, and many other severe environmental and human health problems result from NPS pollutants. The pollutants also ruin the beauty of healthy, clean water habitats. Each year the United States spends millions of dollars to restore and protect the areas damaged by NPS pollutants.
During the last 10 years, our country has made significant headway in addressing NPS pollution. At the federal level, recent NPS control programs include the Nonpoint Source Management Program established by the 1987 Clean Water Act Amendments, and the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program established by the 1990 Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments. Other recent federal programs, as well as state, territorial, tribal and local programs also tackle NPS problems.
In addition, public and private groups have developed and used pollution prevention and pollution reduction initiatives and NPS pollution controls, known as management measures, to clean up our water efficiently. Water quality monitoring and environmental education activities supported by government agencies, tribes, industry, volunteer groups, and schools have provided information about NPS pollution and have helped to determine the effectiveness of management techniques.
Also, use of the watershed approach has helped communities address water quality problems caused by NPS pollution. The watershed approach looks at not only a water body but also the entire area that drains into it. This allows communities to focus resources on a watersheds most serious environmental problems--which, in many instances, are caused by NPS pollution.
Just as important, more citizens are practicing water conservation and participating in stream walks, beach cleanups, and other environmental activities sponsored by community-based organizations. By helping out in such efforts, citizens address the Nation's largest water quality problem, and ensure that even more of our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters become safe for swimming, fishing, drinking, and aquatic life.
If you are interested in working with the CRC on these issues, please contact us. Our Information Resource Library is open Monday - Friday, noon to 4:00 p.m.
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Why should we plant trees and other vegetation on the streambanks, or riparian zones, of the Chehalis River watershed? Back in the last century, our creeks, streams, and rivers were healthier and more biologically diverse but now there is widespread degradation of our watersheds. We as citizens and landowners in the Chehalis Basin can work to restore our watershed. We can do this by participating in projects to revegetate degraded streambanks and riparian zones. Some of the ways we can improve the health of our streams include reducing the water temperatures by supplying shade to the water, providing habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms, enhancing habitats for wildlife along the riparian zones, and reducing and controlling erosion. Let's look at these in more detail.
Many streams in the Chehalis River watershed, including the mainstem Chehalis River, have lost a great deal of their native trees, shrubs, and vegetation. Some sections of streams have no trees at all along their banks. A healthy mixture of trees, including evergreen and deciduous species, should be planted on the banks to help shade the water. Young trees planted now will eventually grow tall and have a dense leaf composition which will shade the waters during the hottest portion of the summer months when stream temperatures climb. The shade provided by these trees will reduce the water temperatures and, as a result, will also directly increase the available dissolved oxygen in the water. Both of these factors (cool water temperatures and dissolved oxygen) are critical for the survival of several species of salmonids.
Most healthy streams have a mixture of native trees, shrubs, and plants that provide a canopy of various heights along the riparian zone. Not only does this canopy help to shade the water, but it also provides habitats for a number of birds and mammals that live in the riparian zone. The canopy also supplies the necessary habitat for a number of insects and other organisms that can be eaten by the fish that live in the streams. The canopy provides shade for the stream, habitats for birds and mammals, and food for fish. In addition, the trees along the streambanks will also eventually fall into the stream, to become the large woody debris necessary for vital habitat for fish.
Habitat in the stream is provided by several physical features including the substrate, rocks and boulders of various sizes, and large woody debris such as stumps, logs, and root wads. When a large tree falls into the stream, it will provide habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. Large woody debris also helps to dissipate stream energy as well as influencing sediment storage. Fish habitat is created when the flow of the stream scours around and underneath these objects. Large woody debris provides a habitat for smaller fish and invertebrate organisms that are a natural food source for salmonids, aquatic organisms, and wildlife.
According to the Department of Natural Resources Watershed Analysis, the majority (95%) of in-channel large woody debris (LWD) is recruited from within 66 feet of the stream (Murphy and Koski, 1989.) In addition, streams dominated by a red alder stand may not capable of providing sufficient long-term LWD. Therefore, to maintain healthy riparian zones for fish and wildlife, a mixture of native coniferous and deciduous trees, shrubs, and plants should be planted along these degraded riparian zones.
Agricultural and tree harvesting practices that reduce the size of the riparian zone can lead to soil erosion. A natural array of native trees, shrubs and plants along a river bank helps to hold the soil in place by pronounced and complex root systems. Reaches of streams that do not have trees in the riparian zones exhibit far greater erosion, or mass wasting events, than streams that have a healthy riparian zone.
Healthy riparian zones, with a variety of native plants, shrubs, and trees, help absorb pollutants from a variety of sources, such as highway runoff or livestock operations, through their root systems.
This material reproduced from the CRC Shade the Chehalis plan.
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Alevin/yolk-sac fry - a salmonid that has hatched, but has not fully absorbed its yolk sac, and usually has not emerged from the gravel.
Anadromous - a fish that lives in the sea and returns to fresh water to reproduce. Most salmon are anadromous.
Blueback - another name for sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), especially those from the Columbia River and the Quinault River. Sockeye salmon are not normally present in the Chehalis River. This term is sometimes also used for sea-run cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki).
Button-up fry - a salmonid fry that has emerged from the gravel but hasn't fully absorbed its yolk sac
Cultured/hatchery salmon - those salmon that are spawned, hatched, incubated and/or reared in a hatchery or other artificial production facility
Dog salmon - another name for chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)
Embryo - an animal at any stage of development before birth or hatching
Emergence - when the fry leaves the incubation gravel
Escapement - those anadromous fish that survive to reach the spawning grounds
Eyed egg - a fish egg that has developed to the point that an embryo's eye is visible
Fecundity - fertility as measured by the number of live eggs produced by a female fish
Fingerling - a young fish, usually between about one and six inches long
Forage fish - fish that are small enough as adults to be eaten by other fish; often nongame fish. Examples in the Chehalis River include various sculpin ("bullheads"), speckled dace, Olympic mudminnow and threespined stickleback.
Fry - for salmon or trout, a fish that has absorbed its yolk sac and is generally less than about an inch long
Humpy/Humpback - another name for pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). Pink salmon are not normally present in the Chehalis River.
Incubation - the time after spawning during which the embryo develops before hatching
Jack - a salmon, usually a male, that sexually matures at a young age. Jacks return to streams, and despite their small size are often able to spawn successfully and then die.
Kelt - an anadromous trout or steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) that has spawned but not yet died. Unlike salmon, these fish are sometimes able to go back to the sea and return to fresh water to spawn again.
Native salmon - a salmon that exists in the river system from which its stock originally came
Parr - A fingerling salmonid that is older than a fry and younger than a smolt
Parr marks - the distinctive marks that run along the sides of a young salmonid
Rearing - the time a juvenile salmonid spends feeding and growing before going to the open ocean. Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) rear for one (sometimes two) years in fresh water. Steelhead may rear several years in fresh water. Pink and chum salmon leave fresh water almost immediately and rear in protected salt water and estuaries. Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) salmon rearing is quite variable. Chinook may head to salt water quickly, or spend a year in fresh water.
Redd -the nest and associated area in the gravel dug out by a fish in which it lays eggs
Resident fish - a fish that lives its whole life in a particular water body. Cutthroat and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are classified as either "resident" or "anadromous." (Anadromous rainbow trout are steelhead, and anadromous cutthroat are often called "sea-run.")
Run timing - salmon and anadromous trout are often classified by the season or relative time during which they enter fresh water. So a "winter steelhead" is one that enters the river during winter. A "spring chinook" is a chinook salmon that enters in spring (or early summer), but that holds in the river and spawns in the fall.
Salmonid - general term often used for salmon, trout, chars and other fish in the family Salmonidae
Silver salmon - another name for coho salmon
Smolt - a juvenile anadromous salmonid that has undergone the physical changes required for it to live in the sea. Smolts have a silvery color and lose their parr marks.
Spawn - the act, by fish and other aquatic animals, of laying and fertilizing eggs
Stock - a group of fish that is isolated geographically or by run timing during reproduction
Swim-up fry - a salmonid fry that has emerged from the gravel and is beginning to actively swim in search of food
Tyee - a name used for very large chinook salmon, especially the chinook that lived in the Elwha River before the dams
Wild salmon - a salmon that spawns and/or rears in natural conditions. A wild salmon may, or may not, be a native salmon.
Yolk-sac - a bag of nutrients that hangs under a fry and sustains it until it can begin feeding on its own.
These definitions have been paraphrased or verified from:
Influences of Forest and Rangeland Management on Salmonid Fishes and Their Habitat. Edited by William R. Mehan
Pacific Salmon Life Histories. Edited by C. Groot & L. Marcolis
Peterson's Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes.
1992 Washington State Salmon and Steelhead Stock Inventory (SASSI). By the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Western Washington Treaty Indian Tribes.
Next time I'll put together a list of river and habitat related terms. If you have suggestions for the next list, or additions to this list, call Mike Kelly at 360-753-9460.
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10 - Noon, Plantasia Flower and Garden, Olympia
7 - 9 pm, USFS-Olympic National Forest Office, Olympia
7 - 8 pm, Lewis Co. Courthouse Annex, Chehalis
7 - 9 pm, Thurston County Courthouse, Rm. 152
Noon - 4 pm, Fire Hall #8, Tahuya
7 - 9 pm, Olympia Center, Olympia (Daycare Available)
6:30 - 8:30 pm, TBA
7 - 9 pm, North Thurston School District Board Room
10 - 4 pm, TBA
7 - 8 pmLewis Co. Courthouse Annex, Chehalis
In Lewis Co. call 740-1212, in Mason Co. call 427-9670 ext. 396 or 275-4467 ext. 396 and in Thurston County call 786-5445 or TDD 754-2933.
The symbols on this schedule show whether or not registration is required or if there is a fee associated with the workshop.
* . Indicates that registration is requested, contact one of the offices listed below.
$. Indicates that registration is required in advance through Centralia College (360) 736-9391 ext. 331 or ext. 280. Requires a $5.00 continuing education fee.
