Habitat Restoration
on Mashel River Showing Results
(From North West Indian Fisheries
Commission)
EATONVILLE, WA—Engineered logjams on the Mashel River
are leading to more salmon and a natural increase of their habitat.
Two years ago logjams were constructed along a one mile stretch of
the Mashel by the Nisqually Tribe and the South Puget Sound Salmon
Enhancement Group.
“While the initial restoration
work added some habitat to what had been a river lacking many habitat
features, nature has been building on our work,” said Jeanette Dorner,
salmon recovery manager for the Nisqually Tribe.
The logjams create more
habitat by capturing fallen trees that would have otherwise floated
down river. Logjams create deep pools in which adult salmon can rest in
while making their way upstream. They also provide shelter and food for
juvenile salmon migrating out to sea.
Past logging has starved the Mashel
of riverside trees necessary for logjams to form naturally. “By building logjams,
we have jump started the process of habitat creation on the Mashel,” said
Dorner.
Coho, a species struggling in the Nisqually watershed, have
especially benefited from the increased rearing habitat on the Mashel. “Because
coho spend an extra year in freshwater when they’re young, they
depend on freshwater habitat more than other species of salmon,” said
Dorner. “An increase in freshwater habitat will benefit all species
of salmon, but especially coho.”
The restoration project is also
providing additional protection for chinook salmon, which are listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act. “The Mashel River is
one of only two tributaries in the watershed that Chinook use to
spawn,” said
Dorner. “By increasing habitat overall, we’re lessening the
chance that a single disaster, like a landslide in the Nisqually
River, could wipe out the population.”
The habitat restoration work
in the lower river will be complemented by additional restoration
work to be done this summer in the upper Mashel River. The tribe and the
enhancement group will restore a stretch of the Mashel that flows through
a popular park in Eatonville. A rip-rap levee will be removed and replaced
with a series of logjams.
“The Mashel River is an example that
in-stream habitat restoration works and benefits salmon,” said Dorner. “Habitat
restoration and protection are the most important things we can do
to recover struggling salmon stocks.”
For more information, contact:
Jeanette Dorner, salmon recovery manager, Nisqually Indian Tribe,
(360) 438-8687. Emmett O’Connell, South Sound information officer,
NWIFC, (360) 438-8687.
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