Prioritizing Restoration and Education Actions
By Perry Welch

In 2004, SFEG's Project Restoration Committee engaged in a process to identify Focal Areas for future salmon habitat restoration projects and outreach efforts. The intent was to select geographic areas in which to direct the organization's energy. Our goal is to have the greatest possible positive affect on salmonid populations by focusing limited resources and integrating SFEG programs.

Establishing Focal Areas involved a process of developing an initial list of geographic areas that represented a suite of potential priority areas. To evaluate each potential area we developed a matrix of criteria and a simple rating method of high, medium, and low to attain a net rating score for each area according to the criteria. Using a ranking cutoff score, we reduced the original list of 48 geographic areas to 14 potential areas. Since this list was still too large, we further reduced the list to several Primary Focal Areas for SFEG's near-term focus. This process involved several factors, such as where SFEG and other entities are currently working and whether there are existing studies or planning efforts in the area. Most importantly, SFEG will consider opportunities for cultivation of landowner support and partnerships.

The Primary Focal Areas for the near term include: South Skagit River Tributaries (Day, Morgan, Anderson, Sorensen Creeks), Upper Skagit River Floodplain, Cascade River Floodplain, Sauk River Floodplain, Middle Skagit River Floodplain, Skagit River Estuary, Upper Skagit River Tributaries (Diobsud, Bacon, Goodell Creeks), and Finney Creek. While these areas are where a concerted effort will be made in the near future, SFEG as always remains open to pursuing other important opportunities outside Focal Areas with willing landowners.

The identification of Focal Areas itself does not provide a means for projects to become identified and pursued. Additional research and planning is necessary to identify strategies for targeting education, outreach and planning. Specific issues within each Primary Focal Area will need to be teased out. A determination of general property ownership will help determine outreach strategies for each Primary Focal Area.

General steps for moving forward in each area include 1) collecting existing information, 2) determining the potential suite of problems, 3) identifying data gaps and data needs, 4) identifying potential partnerships, 5) prioritizing restoration actions, 5) determining community support needed and develop an outreach plan, and 6) seeking funding to implement outreach and restoration actions.

Several potential projects have already come to mind in the South Skagit Highway Focal Area at Anderson Creek, Morgan Creek, and Day Creek-where SFEG is now engaged in a Restoration Feasibility study with the US Forest Service (USFS). In the Cascade River Floodplain Focal Area, SFEG is currently seeking funding to repair several fish passage barriers at Cascade River Park. In the Upper Skagit Floodplain, SFEG recently completed a project to enhance floodplain connectivity and fish passage at Marblegate Slough. For several years, SFEG has been working with the USFS to moderate water temperature in Finney Creek.

SFEG hopes that by focusing our efforts on choice areas that are more biologically productive, our priorities and projects will be more scientifically defensible and more competitive for limited funding opportunities. Restoration and education should be a two way process, with projects providing a platform on which to conduct community education and education efforts generating support for restoration projects.

Thank you to Project Restoration Committee members participating in this effort: Deene Almvig, Dan Ballard, Bob Carey, Bruce Freet, Steve Hopley, Dick Knight, Ken Urstad, Alison Studley, Kurt Buchanan, Phil Jensen, and Bob Warinner.