New Outreach Efforts in Upriver Focal Areas
By Lucy Applegate
Outreach efforts have recently begun in two new focal areas. Over the next few years, watershed tours, fish viewing trips, and educational presentations will engage the communities of Marblemount, Rockport, Concrete, and Darrington to learn about stream stewardship and salmon recovery.
This past summer, SFEG staff, along with local fish habitat experts, began the first in a series of educational outings to teach people about Finney Creek. Finney is a major tributary of the Skagit River, flowing in just west of the town of Concrete. Past logging practices have left this creek overloaded with sediment, creating shallow, warm habitat with not much opportunity for large woody debris recruitment. In other words, poor salmon habitat. In its lower reaches, Finney is a popular swimming creek. This nice warm water is great for people to swim in, but it’s one of the main challenges facing salmon recovery here. Another popular pastime here is driving off-road vehicles through the creek bed. We face a great challenge in teaching people how harmful it can be to drive vehicles through the stream channel. This disturbs the gravel substrate, and at many times throughout the year there are salmon eggs in the gravel. SFEG is working to raise awareness of Finney Creek and how people can love it in a more salmon-friendly manner.
Biologist Kurt Buchanan explains the salmon life cycle with the help of a female chum carcass on the banks of Finney Creek.
In August we took 15 locals on a Finney Watershed tour, braving bumpy roads in a 15-passenger van. We went to the site of SFEG’s original logjam project, far up above the anadromous zone. These logjams were installed in 1999 as part of an effort to decrease stream channel width and temperature, and increase channel depth, as well as improve habitat complexity. Participants compared photos taken just after logjam installation, and compared those images with the site today. Desired changes were already apparent- adjacent to logjams pools were forming, and the creek flows in a meandering pattern, rather than a straight riffle. Temperature readings indicated the water at that site is a cool 53 degrees Fahrenheit, ideal for the resident trout species there. At SFEG’s most recent logjam project, a few miles from the mouth of the creek, the water temperature was a hot 73 degrees, lethal for young Chinook, formerly a common salmonid in this system. During the next few years we will work with surrounding communities to find a way to enjoy Finney Creek and recover salmon at the same time.
Getting our feet wet during the Finney Watershed tour.
Outreach efforts are occurring all through the area, with field trips to see spawning salmon in Finney Creek and Illabot Slough this fall. For help in these efforts, many thanks to tour guides/biologists Kurt Buchanan and Chris Detrick, and to Tom Savoy of Blue Sky Outfitters (www.blueskyoutfitters.com) for the use of a 15 passenger van on December 2. If you would like to be notified of upcoming outings and programs in this area, please contact Lucy at 360-336-0172.
