Upstream boost

After removing sections of existing dikes in the Port Susan Bay Preserve, the Nature Conservancy plans to build new setback structures to help regulate flood control and restore habitat for salmon, shorebirds and other animals. PHOTO BY ADAM STEWART | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS A flood of funding for projects in the Stanwood area will lead to restoring valuable wildlife habitat and protecting surrounding farmland.

The Nature Conservancy announced a $1 million grant from the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board for restoration at the Port Susan Bay Preserve and $665,759 from the Puget Sound Critical Stock Program to preserve chinook salmon.

The Salmon Recovery Funding Board announced the grants last week as two of 39 projects receiving a total of $12 million in funding. The grants range from $35,000 to more than $1.3 million and cover a variety of activities, including fixing barriers to fish migration, restoring estuaries and floodplains, rerouting stream channels and protecting shorelines.

The Stillaguamish Tribe hatchery got a $665, 759 boost. PHOTO BY JEREMIAH O

At the preserve in the Stillaguamish River estuary south of Stanwood, the Nature Conservancy is in the final design phase to remove nearly 1.4 miles of existing sea dike and build approximately 1 mile of new setback dike to protect neighboring farmlands.

In addition, the conservancy is partnering with the Stillaguamish Flood Control District to build an emergency floodgate that will provide flood relief for farmland on Florence Island, between Hatt Slough and the Old Stilly Channel, said Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Robin Stanton.

“When complete, this project will restore full river and tidal processes to 150 acres of former tidal marsh,” said Stanton. “This project is part of a larger effort to restore ecological functions to the Stillaguamish estuary. It will increase the quantity and quality of estuarine habitats for use by juvenile salmon, shorebirds and other animals.”

Because of the scope of the project, the conservancy engaged a broad-based technical advisory committee to help inform and guide project design including the flood district, landowners, biologists, permitting agencies and tribal officials.

Last December, the conservancy received a $750,000 grant from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund, as well as an additional $250,000 from other state funds for the project.

Another grant to the tune of $1 million from the Estuary Restoration Act from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will also fund the project slated for construction in summer of 2012.

“The goal,” said Stanton, “ is to restore, as much as possible, the natural function of the estuary while improving flood control for neighboring landowners.”

The conservancy owns the 4,122-acre Port Susan Bay Preserve, which encompasses much of the Stillaguamish River estuary including 166 acres of artificially diked uplands.

The Stillaguamish Tribe also received $665,759 from the Puget Sound Critical Stock Program. The money will be spent preserving the south fork chinook salmon, or fall chinook.

Kip Killebrew, Stillaguamish Tribe hatchery manager, said they’ve spent the last 20 years successfully recovering the north fork summer-run chinooks, but lack of resources meant the south fork was left to its own devices.

This year, Killebrew said, they’ve surveyed only 30 spawning adults on the river. That number is down from 100 last year and 200 the year before that.

“Our goals is to get the population back up off the critical edge,” Killebrew said.

To do that, the tribe will use the grant money to rebuild a conservation hatchery on the old Brenner Trout Farm property, near Granite Falls.

The farm dates back to the 1940s, and though all the buildings have since been torn down, the ponds and concrete raceways still exist. More importantly, Killebrew said, it’s a clean source of water that’s proven to grow fish.

The tribe will put up pole buildings, the most inexpensive option to house indoor hatchery tanks, run water lines and install filtration and monitoring systems.

“It’s not cheap,” Killebrew said. “We’re basically providing life support to a captive brood stock for four years.”

“Captive brood stock” refers to the practice of catching newly hatched young from the river and raising them in the hatchery until they’re of spawning age. Then, the fish are spawned in the hatchery.

Killebrew said the goal is to bring the population up to 500 fish in two cycles, or eight years. Once they reach that status, they’ll keep only a percentage of the adults for spawning and release the rest into the wild.

Because the south fork chinook population is at such a critical point, Killebrew said, some stock will go the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hatchery in Manchester, Wash., as a security measure.

“The south fork chinook is a fairly intact species,” Killebrew said, “and we’d like to keep it around.”

The grant money will help. Killebrew said the hatchery should be ready for fish next September. The program started in 2009 to rehabilitate fish populations in the south forks of the Stillaguamish and Nooksack rivers, as well as the Cedar River, and is slated to continue for 10 years.

Killebrew found the Brenner property, but he credits the program’s success to the Pacific Salmon Commission, which resulted from a fisheries treaty between the U.S. and Canada in 1985.

Specifically, he said, Cheryl Ryder, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Rick Van Arman, of the Stillaguamish Department of Natural Resources, were instrumental in “taking my sketch on the back of an envelope and turning it into reality.”