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Scientists Monitor Caney Fork Fish Habitat

Press Release from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN, Sept. 1, 2011:

A group of fisheries scientists from Tennessee Tech University are busy monitoring the health of the Caney Fork River by pumping electricity into the water.

Though water and electricity are not usually a good mix, the combination is one of the best methods for collecting fish and determining their health Continue reading “Scientists Monitor Caney Fork Fish Habitat”

Oregon Governor’s Fund Awards More Than $480,000 For 2012 Restoration Projects

Oregon Governor’s Fund for the Environment Awards More Than $480,000 in Grants, Announces New Grants Available For 2012 Restoration Projects

PORTLAND, Ore. – On Thursday, August 25th in Portland, Oregon, Governor John Kitzhaber will award $481,690 in thirteen grants to aid farmers, landowners, and local governments for being stewards of our natural resources.

The grants are funded by the Oregon Governor’s Fund for the Environment Continue reading “Oregon Governor’s Fund Awards More Than $480,000 For 2012 Restoration Projects”

Inmate crews “con” logs to restore natural fish habitat

Upper Washougal River restoration moves ahead

Project anchors logs to create fish habitat

The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group has anchored nearly 160 logs along the Upper Washougal River this year in an effort to restore natural fish habitat. Inmate crews from Larch Corrections Center work above Dougan Creek Campground earlier this week.

GREG WAHL-STEPHENS

The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group has anchored nearly 160 logs along the Upper Washougal River this year in an effort to restore natural fish habitat. Inmate crews from Larch Corrections Center work above Dougan Creek Campground earlier this week.

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GREG WAHL-STEPHENS

Logs have been fastened to the Upper Washougal River in recent years using a variety of methods, including bolts and chains and a binary glue.

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GREG WAHL-STEPHENS

Glenn Saastad, a project coordinator with the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group, says the third phase of the group’s Upper Washougal River restoration should wind down by fall.

Just below the popular swimming spot known as Naked Falls, the Upper Washougal River navigates an unusual landscape. About a dozen logs, bark mostly stripped, lie fastened to the river’s bare rocky bed in a seemingly random arrangement.

Glenn Saastad doesn’t see it that way.

Standing in the middle of the low-running river this week, Saastad looked into the future. He described a mix of natural gravel — perfect for salmon spawning grounds — among sediment gathered on each side. He saw slow-moving pools of water formed behind the logs. He saw riparian plants dotting the river’s path.

All of that could take five years or more to materialize. But it’s part of a carefully planned, fish-friendly vision that the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group has worked from to transform the Upper Washougal since 2004. The third stage of the sweeping project — already starting to see results — is set to finish by this fall.

“We’re not doing anything that Mother Nature wouldn’t have done,” said Saastad, the project coordinator. “We’re just doing a sped-up version.”

Leading the effort is Tony Meyer, executive director of the group for the past 10 years. The $800,000 project has covered about five miles of the river so far, he said, mostly where impacts to roads and residents is minimal. Many other parts of the Upper Washougal could use some help as well, he said.

“The area we’re addressing is actually quite small,” Meyer said.

River ‘scoured out’

Logs are the main tool the project uses to restore complex natural habitat to the Washougal River. They’re also the main reason it was wiped out in the first place.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the logging industry functioned under a very different set of rules than it does today. Back then, loggers used “log drives” to move timber by building dams, then sending a torrent of water and felled trees down the river. The process also carved away many of the natural features fish depend on, Saastad said.

“All life is basically scoured out,” he said.

By putting fixed logs back in the river, the fish enhancement group is creating a system of anchors that collect gravel for spawning beds and add complexity to the flow of the river. In the high-flowing winter and spring months, the logs are submerged in water while that process takes place. Saastad hopes they’re eventually buried by natural ground cover in a new landscape.

Just as important are the changes in flow that result from the added terrain, Saastad said. Forming pools behind logs gives fish a respite from water current as they work their way upstream to spawn, he said.

“They need cover,” Saastad said. “They need those pools and those holes so they can make that trip. It’s a grueling trip.”

The goal of restoration remains the same, but the methods used in the project have evolved over the years. Crews have used everything from chains and bolts to a binary glue to attach logs to the river bed.

Not everything has worked. Smaller logs fastened early on have since begun to rot, Meyer said. The group even tried setting down boulders at first, he said. Turns out, they didn’t last very long.

“The river just pushed the boulders out,” Meyer said. “Just pushed them on down the river.”

Most of the logs used now measure more than 60 feet long, and at least a few feet in diameter. They’re fastened strongly enough to withstand a 300-year flood event, Saastad said. Actually attaching them are inmate crews from the Larch Corrections Center.

Bolting logs to a river bed isn’t a typical strategy for habitat restoration. Meyer said it started with his fish enhancement group before being tweaked in recent years.

“It’s a pretty new, innovative approach,” said Dave Howe, a regional habitat program manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The condition of the Upper Washougal leaves no other choice, Howe said. With the river bed scraped completely down to bare rock, bolting and attaching log jams is the only way to get the features to hold, he said.

The unique project navigated several layers of review from various jurisdictions before taking off. It wasn’t always an easy sell, Meyer said.

The group now works closely with those agencies, and has found favor as it works a wide variety of projects stretching from the Bonneville Dam to the Washington Coast.

“The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group is really one of the key restoration entities here in Southwest Washington,” Howe said.

Seeing results

In just a few short years, the project has produced noticeable changes to the Upper Washougal River, but not always what Meyer and Saastad had envisioned.

Some spots haven’t replenished gravel cover as fast as anticipated. Other spots, like one log jam near Dougan Creek Campground, have piled up much more than expected at a narrower portion of the river. Crews are now working about 20 miles upstream from Washougal.

“You have to kind of picture it in your head,” Saastad said of the planning process. “You don’t always get the result you expect.”

The work is always at the mercy of the weather. Crews operate in a short time window that only lasts from about July until October, Saastad said. By then, the river level comes back up and makes work impossible.

The Fish Enhancement Group has put close to 160 logs into the Upper Washougal this year. Next year likely won’t be as ambitious, Saastad said, but the group hopes to get a couple more years’ work out of its grant from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board, even as Phase 3 winds down this fall. For a group that relies heavily on state and federal grants, making dollars last is key, Meyer said.

The Upper Washougal work has produced results so far — Saastad and Meyer said they’ve already seen increased salmon activity that wasn’t there several years ago.

The project is also unquestionably aggressive, reshaping the river in a short time period. But Saastad shrugs at the notion that it’s too heavy-handed.

“I don’t think it’s heavy-handed enough,” Saastad said. “The salmon are basically going to die off unless we do something.”

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.

eric.florip@columbian.com.

Hurricane Irene stirs up tires used for Artificial Reefs

A truckload of tires, gifts from Hurricane Irene, heads under the Oceanana Pier on Monday. In the 1970s the Division of Marine Fisheries constructed artificial reefs out of tires, but the practice has been discontinued for many years. Tires from these old reefs are sometimes Continue reading “Hurricane Irene stirs up tires used for Artificial Reefs”

Vermont conservation getting harder to get Funds

Tightened federal and state budgets are affecting everyone in Vermont, including the conservation community. It’s getting harder to find funds to improve water quality, protect native plant and animal communities, or share nature with young people.

Still, one of the hardest things to come by has always been Continue reading “Vermont conservation getting harder to get Funds”

K.Hoving Companies Going Green for Fish Habitat

When we talk about fishing and being in the outdoors, waste removal, disposal and recycling won’t come up much in the conversation. We enjoy the clean air and water which holds our quarry, not considering the orchestrated work taking place for fish habitat and the environment by waste recovery companies like K.Hoving companies in West Chicago, Illinois.

We toss our trash in the can or roll-off at work, or maybe that roof we recently had to replace got tossed in a dumpster. Off to a landfill right?  What about that old siding, doors, concrete, and windows we threw out? Or the old office building that got torn down, doesn’t that go to the dump anymore? Continue reading “K.Hoving Companies Going Green for Fish Habitat”

dispute over fish habitat that has put the Department of Fish and Game in the middle of a battle between farmers and ranchers

Although rain and snow were bountiful this spring, state biologists are asking ranchers and farmers near the Scott and Shasta rivers to voluntarily Continue reading “dispute over fish habitat that has put the Department of Fish and Game in the middle of a battle between farmers and ranchers”

STATE FACT SHEETS AVAILABLE NOW FOR STATUS OF FISH HABITATS REPORT

Below are links to statefact sheets,

associated with The release of the National Fish Habitat Action

Plan Report;THROUGH AFISH’S EYE:

The Status of Fish Habitats In The United States 2010.

These Fact sheets provide an important picture of the challenges and opportunities
facing fish and those engaged in fish habitat conservation efforts. Continue reading “STATE FACT SHEETS AVAILABLE NOW FOR STATUS OF FISH HABITATS REPORT”

Grey is a dedicated fisherman

Florida warhorse to play R&B

JJGreyandMofroweb.jpg

Jacksonville, Fla. native JJ Grey and his band Mofro give two performances at the 19th annual Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm Aug. 19 to 21.
Published: August 12, 2011 1:00 AM
An avid outdoorsman, Grey is a dedicated fisherman and surfer and holds an honorary position on the board of the Snook Foundation, dedicated to the protection of coastal fish and fish habitat. Continue reading “Grey is a dedicated fisherman”

Fish getting a fair “shake”

Project aims to enhance habitat, fish passage

Blue Mountain Eagle | August 9, 2011

MITCHELL – Crews recently replaced a rusty, ineffective culvert with a fish-friendly bridge over Bridge Creek, near the entrance to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument’s Painted Hills Unit.

The bridge is one of several improvement projects under way along Bridge Creek.

The Wheeler County Soil and Water Conservation District is coordinating the projects, which are intended to benefit fish habitat and also private lands. Partners include the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Bonneville Power Administration, and local landowners.

Officials said the old culvert and irrigation diversions had prevented salmon and steelhead from reaching parts of the creek they once commonly traveled. With the new culvert and other improvements such as fish ladders and state-of-the-art irrigation diversions, the fish will be able to find their way back into rich spawning grounds of upper Bridge Creek.

BPA has produced a video about the project. To view it, visit www.MyEagleNews.com.

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.

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