By Erin Matthews, SFEG Habitat Restoration Coordinator

It’s August 11, 2020.  Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group staff are hip deep in Carey’s Creek, a cold and clear stream in Hamilton, Washington that connects Carey’s Lake to the great Skagit River.  Despite the dry and hot summer conditions, Carey’s Creek flows as strong and cold as ever, due to constant inputs of cold groundwater from the surrounding banks. Upstream and downstream of our staff, temporary 40ft-long nets span the channel to prevent fish from getting into the work area.  Excavators stand by ready to get to work in the stream. But first, we have to rescue the fish trapped between the nets so that in-water construction can begin.

Carey’s Creek is a known summer refuge for young coho salmon, resident trout, Pacific lamprey, native salamanders, and more. Sampling by Washington Department of Fish and Wildllife 20 years ago also indicates that Chinook salmon and steelhead trout may sometimes be present. That is why, in 2018, SFEG sent a letter to the owner of this property and asked if staff could come look at the driveway to his home. In partnership with the Skagit River System Cooperative, the Upper Skagit Tribe, Skagit County Public Works and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, SFEG is working to survey as many privately owned culverts in Skagit County as possible, including this one. The goal was to identify old, degraded, or undersized pipes that block salmon and trout passage and then to connect interested landowners with funding to replace those undersized pipes with structures that allow all life stages of salmon access to upstream high-quality habitats. 

Although Carey’s Creek is nearly 40ft wide, in this driveway it was forced through two culverts, 2ft and 4ft wide.  Anyone who has ever put their thumb on the end of a garden hose knows what happens when you restrict water flow at a discrete point. Increased water speed in a small pipe is a big problem for salmon, especially the 2in-4inch juvenile fish that use this habitat for early life development and growth. This landowner was interested in improving his private infrastructure and helping the environment. SFEG worked with him to secure funds from Puget Sound Energy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the culverts and road material and replace them with a 50ft long bridge. The project was designed by the Skagit  Conservation District’s Northwest Region Engineer.

Despite historic data on extensive fish use in Carey’s Creek and landowner reports of juvenile salmon swimming around the mouth of his culvert, SFEG staff were surprised and thrilled to find over 150 salmon and trout in the project area over the course of construction, as well as dozens of freshwater lamprey, a very large (and very lively) adult Pacific Lamprey, several salamanders, and over 100 crayfish. All were gently collected and safely released downstream by SFEG staff.

Through a competitive bidding process, SFEG hired an experienced local contractor, Moceri Construction Inc., to install the bridge. Moceri’s crew of two worked closely with SFEG staff to minimize the short term negative impacts from construction on the water quality in Carey’s Creek. In stream work was completed in only 3 days and the entire project was done in less than 2 weeks. Habitat restoration is a complicated process and often measureable benefits to fish are only observed later, if they are ever directly observed at all. At Carey’s Creek this was not the case! Less than 15 hours after the in-water work was completed for this project, SFEG staff filmed several lampreys spawning in the newly dug channel where the contractor had just spread river gravel.  Even as the Moceri crew continued to operate their excavators 10ft above the waterline, juvenile coho were observed swimming up and down the new channel and lampreys spawned throughout the day. 

Fish passage improvement projects are a collaborative endeavor made possible by the joint effort of local governments, tribes, non-profits, local businesses, and most importantly, community members who are open to working with these groups to improve fish habitat. The benefits to these projects are immediately felt by the local business that are paid to build them, the landowners whose properties are improved, and the many aquatic species who depend on these waterways. As the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group education staff always say “it’s about way more than just salmon!”: these projects are about enhancing both Skagit stream ecosystems and Skagit communities.

Edit: See our You Tube video of the project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gMc2qRX8IA&t=72s