Proposed Start Date: Jan 01, 2010
Proposed End Date: Jan 01, 2012
Priority: 1
Big Beef Creek is one of three watersheds which had subpopulations of summer chum salmon extirpated but recently reintroduced as a cornerstone strategy to recovering this federally-listed ESA species in Hood Canal and the Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca. Habitat capacity in lower Big Beef Creek where summer chum salmon spawn, incubate, and rear is relatively poor given the stream straightening and simplification that occurred in 1969 and the removal of persistent woody debris. In addition, an access road on a raised foundation to a series of wells providing water for the University of Washington's Fish Research Facility has not allowed the stream to passively recover from channel simplification, except when extreme flood events allow overtopping into a significant floodplain complex and 10+ acre wetland.
This proposed design project will seek to actively restore properly functioning floodplain and channel conditions within the lower 1 mile of Big Beef Creek. Within the constraints provided by the need to maintain the waterline and the UW capital facilities, we will design a large scale restoration project to minimize the road prism, reconnect several side channels and wetlands, and install as many as 30 log jam structures. A revegetation plan will be developed to be included in the future construction proposal, if needed.
Additionally, this project implements a corrective action in a treatment watershed of the Hood Canal IMW program, partnering with WA Ecology and Fish & Wildlife to implement validation monitoring.
This project can be found in the Recreation and Conservation Office's Project Information System (PRISM) as # 09-1642.
The goal of the project is to increase/improve information to help select projects that have a high certainty and benefit. The Objective of the project is to determine project siting, feasibility, design, or implementation.
Non-Capital Projects
Budget: $79,000.00