Presenter/s: Lisa Belleveau, MES
Symposium Session: 2024 - 03 Learning from Our Past: Lessons on Monitoring from Tribal Restoration Programs Now and in the Future
Topics covered: estuary
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this presentation is to share the results from monitoring the Skokomish Estuary Restoration Project and highlight some watershed-wide actions to continue to restore and enhance salmon habitat throughout the Skokomish River.
In 2007 the Skokomish Tribe broke ground with a phased estuary restoration project. Since then, almost 1,000 acres have been reintroduced to tidal inundation. One of the main objectives of this project was to restore salmon habitat to help revive the existing salmon populations and also support the introduction of new populations, like sockeye. A monitoring plan was created in order to measure the success of the project. With funds provided by the Environmental Protection Agency the Tribe has been conducting estuary monitoring since 2011. Monitoring includes vegetation surveys paired with pore-water salinity, elevation and sediment changes; tidal channel depth, temperature and salinity; as well as fish presence, timing and abundance.
Our monitoring results show that native saltmarsh plants are dominate in the restoration area; salmon are utilizing the habitat; sediment is accreting (which could help offset the impacts of sea level rise); and even though we have seen six of the top ten Skokomish River crests over the last two years the impacts of the flooding to the surrounding community have been greatly reduced. One important lesson here is that monitoring is essential in order to understand the efficacy of such projects.
In addition to the large estuary restoration project there are many ongoing and planned projects throughout the watershed. These projects will complement the estuary restoration and are intended to promote natural sediment distribution and increase floodplain connectivity. The increase in off-channel habitat connectivity will provide both refugia for threatened species and more floodwater dispersion.