Water Quality Improvement & Habitat Restoration Projects

INTRODUCTION:
Reservation waters support a vast fisheries resource, including salmonid species. Tribal members rely on the fisheries for subsistence and commercial harvest and ceremonial use. Salmon are particularly culturally significant, playing a central role in the community and spiritual life of the Tribe. Aquatic vegetation is also important to the Tribe, as it provides critical habitat to aquatic species including salmonids and their prey. Estuarine, and particularly pocket estuary, habitat is increasingly recognized as critical and limiting to salmonid populations in the region (Beamer, 2000).

Because the Swinomish culture is so intrinsically tied to the welfare of the salmon, the Tribe is committed to protection and restoration of the resource and its habitat. This commitment often brings the Tribe into conflict with other groups whose goals and needs appear to be incompatible with desired protective or restorative methods. Restoration of estuarine habitat involving replacement of conventional tidegates with self-regulating tidegates (SRTs) that allow increased saltwater flux is an example of one such controversial method. While SRTs improve fish passage and may enhance estuarine habitat function, the effects of the increased saltwater flux landward of such gates on adjacent land use have been poorly documented and are viewed as a threat, particularly to agricultural productivity.

The Fornsby Creek SRT project provides a unique opportunity for the Tribe to restore estuary habitat on Tribal lands, implementing the same methods they ask others to employ for salmonid protection and restoration, while quantitatively investigating the positive and negative impacts of the restoration activities.

The project area once part of an estuary 900+ acres 150 years ago (1850)

• Skagit & Samish River deltas were one large delta
  
• Swinomish Slough had more freshwater from North Fork of Skagit River; went dry at low tide
  
• Corp of Engineers completed channel straightening and continues maintenance dredging (to depth of –20’ MLLW) of the Swinomish Channel
  
  

Swinomish Channel Today:

• 11 miles of dredged channel
  
• 27,000 linear feet of dikes
  
• 105 miles of tidal sloughs were destroyed by dredging, channelizing, wetland filling, and jetty construction.
  
• 56% loss of historic channel
  
• 75% of the estuary habitat of mudflats, salt marsh and sea grass lost within the Area
  
• Some remnant channels remain as farm ditches simplified by decades of agriculture with flap-style tidegates prohibiting use by salmon
  

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

1. RESTORATION: Increase habitat
   
   1. TIDEGATES
      
      1. Install SRTs
         
      2. Enable fish passage
         
      3. Restoring tidal influence
         
         
   2. CHANNELS
      
      1. 2+ miles of channel restored//modified/enhanced
         
      2. 5+ mi total channel accessible for salmon rearing
         
      3. Replace 2 culverts with bridges
         
         
   3. NATIVE PLANTINGS
      
      1. 70+ acres planted (riparian habitat/buffer)
         
      2. Planting maintenance
         
         
2. MONITORING: Monitor effectiveness of restoration: do SRTs work?
   
   1. BIOLOGICAL
      
      1. Fish counts; 3 beach seine sites (2x/mt)
         
      2. Vegetation; survey 70+ acres; designed planting plan
         
      3. Benthic sampling (macroinvertebrates)
         
         
   2. HYDROLOGICAL
      
      1. Surface Water, channels
         
      2. Water quality - 14 sites (2x/mt)
         
      3. Level – 12 sites (continuous)
         
      4. Temperature - 12 sites (cont.)
         
      5. Flow, sediment grain size, channel x-sections (b/a)
         
      6. Groundwater, 14 wells
         
      7. WQ (1x/mt)
         
      8. Level (cont.)
         
      9. Soil salinity (1x dry; 1x wet seasons)

TIMELINE:

5/2003: Received funding for monitoring and SRT portion of project from WA State Salmon Recovery Fund Board (SRFBoard).

11/2003: Installed 14 monitoring wells and well water level loggers; initiated chloride monitoring in wells and channels.

2/2004: Installed 12 pilings and 12 surface water level loggers.

3/2004: Began beach seining for fish count monitoring.

6/2004: Conducted botanical survey of project area.

8/2004: Received funding for channel work, culvert-to-bridge replacements, and buffer plantings from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Wetland Reserve Program (WRP); conducted initial soil salinity monitoring, channel cross sections, flow monitoring, and benthic sampling.

Fall 2004: Replaced FOR1 tidegate; began channel shaping on Segements 1 & 2 ; installed 12 temperature loggers; replaced culvert with bridge at FOR4; conducted elevation survey of wells and surface water level loggers.

Winter 2004-5: Received funding from US Fish & Wildlife Tribal Landowners Incentive Program (TLIP).

Spring2005: Continue channel shaping on Segements 1 & 2; Install native plants, plugs/seedlings.

Summer2005: Install SRT at FOR3 site; install culvert-to-bridge replacement near OLD1; channel modifications on Segments 3 & 4; install native seeding/plugs on modified channels.

Fall2005: Install fencing; fall vegetation planting & maintenance.

Summer2006: channel modifications on Segments 3, 4, & 5.

Fall2006: Install new SRT at OLD1; install large woody debris (LWD) in channels.

2006-2007: Continue water quality monitoring and vegetation maintenance.