 | | | 6/29/2011 11:18:00 AM Plan to improve fish habitat churns residents |  | | Mirror photo by Carrie Draeger
A stack of logs 15 feet high waits in a staging area along the Entiat River. Crews will create engineered jams this summer using more than 1,000 logs. |
| | High flows could postpone plans to save fish | WENATCHEE — High Entiat River flows could wash out plans for massive fish protection projects this summer.
“It’s kind of put a little bit of a crimp in our plans,” said Alan Schmidt, with Chelan County Natural Resources. “Nobody could have predicted these high flows in 2011.”
The Upper Columbia Salmon Board is conducting a colossal fish mitigation study in the area, but has a limited window to complete the three multi-million dollar projects because of restrictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that regulates all conservation projects along rivers in the United States.
That window may shrink because high river flows may force the three project sponsors to hold off on parts or all of their projects, said Susan Dretke, a conservation specialist with Cascadia Conservation District.
All projects must be completed between July 15 and August 10.
Cascadia is sponsoring one project, the other two are sponsored by Chelan County Natural Resources and the Yakama Nation.
The projects will put more than 1,000 logs into the river, creating engineered log jams, removing old structures and making other improvements.
“If the river isn’t low enough we can’t get it done,” she said. “We’re not sure what we are going to do or how it will work.”
The board has from July 15-August 10 to complete the projects, before red salmon start spawning in the areas and NOAA officials already said they will not give any more extensions.
High flows pose the most danger for the highest up project, sponsored by the Yakama Nation, Dretke said.
“The issue is biggest for them,” she said. “They may not be able to build any of theirs.”
The Yakama nation’s project involves constructing a temporary bridge, but projected levels on the river could completely flood the top of the bridge, Dretke said.
Cascadia’s project is also in danger, Dretke said.
Project sponsors had planned to ford the river to build their portion of the project, but if the levels are too high they will not be able to drive vehicles across it.
Dretke said models from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project that snow will start to melt and make the projects possible, but the agencies involved are still unsure about what will happen.
“Nobody has an answer at this point,” she said. “We are all moving ahead as if we are going to construct this year, but a plan B does need to be put in place.”
Cascadia will move forward with its plans until it can’t anymore, she said.
“We will march along in that vein until we can’t,” she added. “How we are going to get there is up in the air.”
If the levels don’t go down, no one is really sure what will happen to the project because of its scope.
“In years past it meant we would just do it when we can,” she said. “Nobody has an answer at this point.”
Because most of the funding for the project is coming from sources that are mandated to spend it this year, officials are not sure what happens when Mother Nature prevents projects from happening.
The scope of the project means there is no precedent set in the past for delays.
Dretke said the projects could be pulled, they could construct as much as possible during their time line, or they could wait until next year.
“We’re not sure what we are going to do or how it will work,” she said. “It’ll kind of be a nail biter.” Contact Carrie Draeger at reporter@lakechelanmirror.com. or 509-682-2213.
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Carrie Draeger Staff Writer See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the industry leader and only science based, man made and artificial fish habitat, proven to provide all fish with cover they prefer to prosper. WENATCHEE — After years of planning, truck load after truck load of large logs have started to make their way up Entiat River Road and some residents in the area are not pleased.
“This is huge,” said Wes Childers, who owns land and a bridge along the Entiat River. “There’s a tremendous amount of material being put into the river.”
The logs are part of a massive summer project by the Upper Columbia River Salmon Board.
In a few weeks the logs will be imbedded and cabled into banks and side channels along the northern portion of the Entiat River, to determine if the process, called mitigation, actually improves fish health.
Childers, who lives down stream from the projects, said the proponents did not give landowners enough notice or enough information.
“We didn’t know about these projects until we saw the big trucks going up with the logs,” he said.
The project will add more than 1,000 logs into the river system.
“I don’t feel that we’ve been informed of the magnitude of this project,” he said. “Who knows more about that river than the people who live on it?”
Childers said he was aware of a project but did not know how big it is.
He fears logs will break loose, causing flooding that could wash out his bridge and other private property, he said.
“In flood stage the Entiat River gets very high and is very powerful,” he said. “I didn’t see that these questions (of liability and damage) were asked.”
Childers spoke with Chelan County Commissioners and the Upper Columbia Salmon Recover Board last week, asking that the projects be monitored 24 hours a day and that proponents provide liability for the logs if they break loose.
“Its going to back the river up,” Childers said. “You folks are putting a lot of stuff in the river.”
County commissioners said they have expressed similar concerns to the agencies involved.
The three agencies doing the work are the Cascadia Conservation District, the Yakama Nation and Chelan County’s Natural Resource Department.
“I don’t think anyone disagrees with what the goal (of the projects) is,” said Commissioner Doug England. “(But) the liability, we feel, hasn’t been properly addressed.”
Commissioner Ron Walter said no one is held liable if the logs break loose and damage property or harm residents.
“The issues that Wes raised aren’t just for the Entiat,” he said. “That is part of our concern. I don’t think we want to absolve these project sponsors of liability.”
Walter said commissioners will work with state representatives Cary Condotta, Linda Evans-Parlette and Mike Armstrong to address the liability issue at the state level.
“I’m hoping that cabling in and keying it into the banks works, which I’m told it does,” Armstrong said.
“I love the projects,” he said. But wants to protect residents.
Commissioners have repeatedly suggested having the logs branded or tagged to make sure they know who’s logs get loose.
So far Chelan County Natural Resources is the only agency that will tag its logs.
Cascadia is also considering tagging or branding their logs.
Natural Resources will also avoid the use of cables, according to Habitat Manager Alan Schmidt.
Childers also wanted to know if the project had been engineered for a 100-year flood like the one in 1948, which washed out bridges and roads, damaged buildings along the banks and stranded residents.
“I’m voicing the concerns of a lot of people, everybody I’ve talked to, up and down the river,” he said. “I think it needs more study. I think it needs an independent review.”
Managers from each of the three projects assured Childers that the log jams were engineered to withstand a 100-year flood, stay put and allow natural debris through the river.
“We certainly can’t eliminate all of the possibilities,” said Mike Rickel, director of the Cascadia Conservation District, who is sponsoring one of the projects.
Childers was not convinced.
“I don’t care how they’re designed, they’re going to back up material and ice,” he said. “Nature trumps. It overrides. It’s a simple case of man artificially manipulating nature with unknown consequences.”
The managers also said that community outreach and involvement has been a staple of the board’s planning since the process began.
The projects involve work on private land and much of the design process came out of the Entiat Watershed Planning Committee, Rickel said.
“We’re constantly looking (for ways to engage the community),” he said. “(But) we won’t be able to address all of the land owner concerns.”
Paul Ward, a salmon recovery board member with the Yakama Nation, said the bigger issue is how to regulate human activity and make sure the rivers get back to where they used to be.
“This isn’t about managing the environment,” he said. “Its about managing the humans.”
Ward suggested that the board take a look at bridges with pillars in rivers, like the one Childers owns, and how they affect the river and projects.
“These are the human impacts we have to look at,” he said. “Focusing on these artificial structures is kind of missing the point.” |
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