Category Overview
Conserving land along our waterways protects important habitat and helps keep our rivers healthy, clean, and more resilient to drought. Riparian Protection projects conserve and restore fresh and saltwater habitat while protecting fish habitat. In doing so, the grants help provide our families, farms, and fisheries with clean water across the state.
Project Highlights
A collaborative watershed restoration effort has been ongoing in the North Fork of the Stillaguamish since 1985. The catalyst was a massive landslide in the Deer Creek Watershed. This effort includes state, federal, local and local agencies, Indian tribes, conservation groups, educational institutions, small and large private landowners and interested citizens. The present manifestation of this cooperative effort is in a reach scale habitat restoration effort located between River Mile 20 – 23 which is presently funded by State JFE funds and USEPA funds. The cooperators have surveyed, designed and engineered plans necessary to gain appropriate permits for the introduction of large woody debris mimicking stable log jams which provide critical habitat for anadromous and resident salmonid species. Combining our existing funded effort with conservation easements and additional restoration dollars will provide a tremendous restoration opportunity. This will be monitored over time to present data adequate to draw conclusions on its success. Approximately 200 acres of land is targeted for acquisition via conservation easement. The location of the project was chosen due to its high use for spawning Chinook salmon and their need for cover and holding habitats. Additionally, the same engineered log jam technology will be utilized to reduce sediment inputs from large landslides and unstable stream banks which are presently impacting salmon habitat.