Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group
This year’s RRNW Symposium field trip will be to several of the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group's projects on and near the Washougal River.
The field trip will tour multiple sites along the Washougal River which highlight the challenges, opportunities, and philosophies involved in restoring highly impacted rivers that don’t meet our typical conception of alluvial reaches. Brice Crayne with the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group will lead a tour of multiple sites constructed at various points since 2015 along the mainstem and tributaries. These projects addressed issues related to historic logging and splash dam operations, sediment starvation, lack of spawning and rearing habitat for salmonids, and fish passage. The project teams overcame challenges with logjam construction in bedrock-reaches where difficult access, heavy recreational use, and need to preserve historical values were major factors. The field trip will include discussion of restoration techniques ranging from detailed methods of logjam construction and performance to watershed-scale strategies for gravel management and augmentation.
Highlights include:
- LWD design and performance in bedrock-controlled reaches - Specific topics include anchoring to (sometimes rotten) bedrock, hardware testing and performance, and construction of channel-spanning structures in confined settings.
- Sediment recruitment and processes - Specific topics include LWD design to recruit sediment and watershed scale management and augmentation of coarse sediment in a starved landscape with slow rates of passive restoration.
- Fish habitat benefits and challenges - Specific topics include:
- Fish use before and after projects
- Creating spawning and winter rearing habitat in reaches without floodplains
- Fish passage issues at large historic logjams
See photos of Silver Creek and Bluebird Creeks
Tentative Schedule:
- 8 am - Meet in Lodge Lobby for van service. Depart (by 8:20 am) for Camp Wariki: https://maps.app.goo.gl/RT5vN8T8KfUkfMRf8
- Folks that want to drive home from the field trip can park at Camp Wariki. We will all be taking shuttle vans to the individual sites (TBD based on snow and ice conditions)
- 9 am - Arrive at Wariki and orientation
- 9:30 am - Field visits
- 12:15 pm - Depart Camp Wariki. Van service returns to Skamania and arrives by 1 pm.
Bring:
- Positive attitude
- Warm and/or rainy weather clothes and sturdy shoes
- Water and snacks
- Mask (for wearing on the shuttle, if you want)
- Questions and curiosity!
