Better Days for Washington’s Salmon: Helping diverse groups restore the Skokomish River
Good news for salmon in Washington! Through our work coordinating a diverse coalition in Washington state, salmon habitat on the battered Skokomish River scored a win recently.
Over the years, road construction, clearcut logging, and dams, among other factors, have significantly altered the character of the Skokomish River, which empties into southwest portion of Puget Sound.
Logging and roads have caused excess sediment to wash into the river, clogging the river channel with gravel. As a result, fish habitat was degraded and the ecology of the riparian zone altered. The Skokomish has also become prone to violent, frequent flooding, which puts downstream communities in danger.
But in September, a major barrier to the salmon’s passage disappeared thanks to the half-million dollar fish-passage project led by the Skokomish Watershed Action Team, which The Wilderness Society coordinates.
As a result, we were able to open up three more miles of the river for fish spawning.
The half-million dollar fish-passage project replaces three road culverts with modern bridges and removes a diversion dam on tributaries to the Skokomish. The results of this work will be a restored ecosystem, viable salmon breeding habitat, and a reduction in road maintenance and repair costs.
The project is part of a remarkable collaboration that has “turned the Skokomish watershed from a poster child for bad forestry to a poster child for collaborative habitat restoration,” said Mike Anderson, senior resource analyst for the Northwest regional office of The Wilderness Society.
Anderson joined forces with the diverse members of the SWAT to create a collaborative approach to the restoration of this watershed. The Skokomish Watershed Action Team is comprised of government agencies, local residents, conservation groups, private industry, and the Skokomish Tribe, has been working for the past five years to restore the Skokomish River and its tributaries to a healthy, functioning ecosystem.
The SWAT works together to plan, fund, and implement projects aimed at healing the Skokomish watershed.
In addition to the great benefits for salmon, our work with the Skokomish Watershed Action team shows that diverse groups can be inspired to find common ground and work together — in this case to restore a battered watershed. Thanks to skillful grassroots organizing, the wild salmon and human residents of the Skokomish will enjoy a healthier, happier, and safer ecosystem!
Read a recent article about the restoration project.
photo: Skokomish River, Washington. Photo by Sarah Jordan.
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Sam Goldman
Sam has been with The Wilderness Society since Fall 2007. He came most recently from M+R Strategic Services in Washington, DC where he worked with national environmental groups to improve their online campaign work and field organizing capacity. Before that, Sam was the Assistant National Field Director for U.S. PIRG where he covered a variety of issues including the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Comments
Skokomish River
It is great to see the Skokomish RIver highlighted by the Wilderness Society. I have just moved to Maine (graduate school) after working in the Skok basin for the past year (for both USFWS and ONP) and hope to work with the Penobscot River Restoration Group in a similar fashion. I am concerned however how the Wilderness Society has characterized this $.5 million project: "“Those are the last major anadromous-fish barriers in the Skokomish watershed,” said Mike Anderson, a senior resource analyst with the Wilderness Society and member of the Skokomish Watershed Action Team"(The Olympian) This is simply not true. Cushman Dam is a MAJOR barrier to anadromous fish that a recent court ruling decided is detrimental to Skokomish salmonids and Tribal customs. The homepage article is extremely misleading and seems to suggest that the Skok is now good as new. This cannot be further from the truth. The tribe and federal agencies, namely the ACE, have created a mess in the lower river and the Cushman Reservoir is a glaring example of ecologial meltdown. The habitat that is most critical to salmonids in the basin is clearly in the upper reaches of the north and south forks of the river (within the ONP) and are still disconnected from the ocean. I fully support cooperative efforts that incorperate all "stakeholders" but would hope that critical ecological goals are not compromised for the sake of political and institutional back slapping. My observations are not ment to be destructive or radical but constructive and realistic. I commend the hard work that was surely neccesary for the results achieved so far but I am also aware the tremendous problems that still exist. I can only hope that the Skok group will continue to work to restore sustainability for both humans and salmonids in the Skokomish River. I welcome dialouge with anyone who cares to respond -ed
Fueling optimism
What a great success story. I have worked in several watersheds where it seems like change for the better will never happen. Thanks so much for telling a story of hope. There are so many opportunities for collaboration, using all the parties involved. Keep up the good work of stewardship and showing others how working together as a community we really can change a streams health and reputation.
John for @consbio