Elementary students have spent the last couple months raising coho salmon from eggs and now will get a chance to release them into a local waterway. They will also participate in several other activities such as macroinvertebrate studies, salmon life cycle games, art, and habitat tours. Volunteers help NOSC staff lead activities, set-up and take-down supplies, and ensure students rotate through activity stations safely.

Volunteer dates include:



April 12th, 19th, 26th – Dungeness Fish Hatchery on Dungeness River. Tentative timing is from 8:30am-1:30pm.



April 18th and 25th – HJ Carroll Park on Chimacum Creek. Tentative timing is from 10am-2pm.

Top: Elementary students releasing coho salmon, photo courtesy of Mae Wolfe. Above left: Coho fry waiting to be released, photo courtesy of NOSC staff. Above right: Student releasing coho salmon at Jefferson Land Trust's Illahee Preserve in 2022, photo courtesy of NOSC staff.

Article by Cheryl Lowe

In winter 22-23, I joined the NOSC coho spawner survey team on Naylors Creek, a small Chimacum Creek tributary in Jefferson County. That was the winter that many coho returned to spawn in Chimacum Creek, and our team was privileged to watch one particularly determined salmon successfully leap from the streambed up through a small waterfall into a ‘perched culvert’ under West Valley Road and head upstream.

We also noticed flagging and survey markers near the road that year. I remembered attending a meeting several years ago where participants discussing fish barriers mentioned Naylors Creek, and I wondered if the two were related. This spring, Jefferson County Public Works posted a notice inviting bids for a Naylors Creek fish barrier removal project, so I contacted Bruce Patterson, Jefferson County’s Project Engineer in charge of this project, to find out more details. Although this is not a NOSC project, it does highlight how other regional partners are also working to restore salmon habitat.

Culvert-related Fish Barriers

NOSC has completed a number of restoration projects that replaced or removed culverts blocking fish passage. If you drive almost anywhere in Jefferson and Clallam Counties, you’ll probably have passed fish barrier removal projects on Hwy 101 and elsewhere, led by federal, state and county governments. A drop or gap on the downstream side of a culvert is often an obstacle for fish passage, depending on how high the culvert sits above the streambed, the amount of water flow, the shape and slope of the culvert, and/or which salmonids are negotiating that stream. In Washington State, culvert requirements include consideration of upstream movement by juvenile salmonids seeking overwintering habitat as well as adults returning to spawn.

Setting priorities for which old culverts to replace first is complex. Grant funders consider which salmon species will benefit, how many other barriers already exist downstream and upstream of that blockage, as well as other factors such as how that barrier might potentially contribute to flooding problems, road safety concerns or damage adjacent properties.

WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife and its many partners have developed a database of known salmon streams with fish barriers, guidelines for how to assess and prioritize projects, and also coordinate important project funding through the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board (https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/habitat-recovery/fish-passage/about). Counties often need state and federal grant funds as match or primary funding to replace culverts that block fish access on county roads. It’s a complicated and competitive process. 

For over a decade, replacing the old culverts on Naylors Creek has been on Jefferson County’s priority list for fish barrier removal projects. Planning & design work for this project was funded by the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board (BAFBRB) in their 2019-2021 funding cycle. Jefferson County then received a construction grant from the BAFBRB in the 2023-25 funding cycle. When Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant funds became available, a portion of the 2023-25 BAFBRB funds were used to transition the project to federal funding while the rest of the BAFBRB grant funds were returned to fund other salmon habitat projects. The larger FHWA grant filled the budget gap created by unanticipated, increased construction costs. 

Naylors Creek Culvert Replacements

Jefferson County’s website describes the project:

“County project #18020592 will replace two deteriorating Naylors Creek fish passage barrier steel pipe culverts with larger precast concrete culverts designed for fish passage and long-term stream bed stability. One culvert is at West Valley Rd. M.P. 2.6 and the other at Gibbs Lake Road M.P. 1.8. The design and permitting cost of $250,000 was assisted by a Fish Barrier Removal Board grant. Construction (scheduled in the summer of 2024) will be funded by a $1,913,000 FHWA grant through WSDOT.

Silver salmon and steelhead are the fish species that will receive the greatest benefit from replacement of these culverts.”

The fish window (the period of time when disturbance from construction will have the least impact on important fish species in that area) for construction is July-September.

Zooming back out to the bigger Olympic Peninsula perspective, there are many agencies and organizations working on salmon recovery and fish passage barriers. Many are coordinated by regional organizations in Puget Sound called Lead Entities that develop salmon recovery strategies and priorities for their region on a watershed-based scale. https://www.eopugetsound.org/articles/lead-entities-salmon-recovery-puget-sound

NOSC’s tag line is community stewardship & collaborative restoration. All of the Olympic Peninsula agencies and organizations working on salmon habitats, whether they work directly with NOSC or not, are partners in our broader effort to restore salmon populations.

*Special thanks to Bruce Patterson, Jefferson County Project Engineer, for taking the time to respond to all my questions.

Top Right: Photo of spawning salmon attempting passage through culvert. Middle Left: Fish-passage biologist with the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife accessing culvert. Photos courtesy of The Seattle Times. Above: West Valley Road Culvert Outlet. Photo courtesy of Jefferson County Washington.

References

Jefferson County Website Info: https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/1482/Naylor-Creek-Culvert-Replacements

Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board: https://wdfw.wa.gov/about/advisory/fbrb

The Washington State Legislature established the grant program of the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board (FBRB) in 2014 to identify and remove impediments to salmon and steelhead migration. The FBRB evaluates fish passage projects and submits a priority project list to the Governor's Office and the Legislature for funding consideration. Visit their GIS story board: Fish Passage: A Sense of Urgency.”

Reference Article: “Considerations for Fish Passage Through Culverts” by Frank E. Votapka, 1990 (Federal Hwy Administration publication):

https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1991/1291vol1/1291-038.pdf

More info about Clallam County salmon restoration projects: North Olympic Peninsula Lead Entity for Salmon.

https://restoringolympicpeninsulasalmon.org/about/the-olympic-peninsula/

More info about Jefferson County salmon restoration projects: See Hood Canal Coordinating Council’s salmon info page: https://hccc.wa.gov/SalmonRecovery

Here at the North Olympic Salmon Coalition we are feeling very grateful to be a part of such a supportive community! Your support means the world to us.

We have exceeded our fundraising goal for the fiscal year 2023-2024: we have now raised $98,212.44 of a $94K goal!



Membership income has been our largest contributor. Monthly donations help provide predictability and stability to fund some of our programs, including our education, monitoring, volunteer and outreach programs. Your demonstrated belief in our mission propels our good work, creating a community of environmental stewards and healthier watersheds and forests.  

If you’d like to donate, please visit Donate | North Olympic Salmon Coalition (nosc.org)

Header photo: John Gussman. Graph above created by NOSC staff.