We need to keep working in tandem with Oregon and Washington on fish restoration

B

Bryan Allen

Well-Known Member
I know we keep getting told that the limiting factor is not available habitat that will solve our salmon crisis. But maybe its time to look past our province ( like we did 25yrs ago with Wa and Or volunteer projects ) down south. This project on the Clackamus in Or is a ramping up of introducing LWD for improving salmon habitat. No more spending effort and dollars introducing LWD, only to see it washed away with the first fall storm.... Live and learn guys-- Bigger IS better
 
This isn't happening here in BC? I still see examples of cabled and staked woody debris placed by an organization I worked for at the time still in the same place 20+ years after it was put in place.
 
RalphH said:
This isn't happening here in BC? I still see examples of cabled and staked woody debris placed by an organization I worked for at the time still in the same place 20+ years after it was put in place.
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Well, I organized some of the BC efforts in the early days of the DFO Public Involvement Program. At first we just dropped trees into creeks and rivers. They didnt last. Next, stream bank planting with willows was tried. Worked well on very small streams to stabilize the bank . But with clearing up above the area that was planted, (logging, urbanization, etc ) these attempts had a high failure rate as the banks were just washed away with the willow wattles . We had a close association with the Oregon STEP program that was working to address similar problems in that State. They were the first to use LARGE woody debris cabled into the stream banks with 3/4 or bigger cables. We had been trying to dig the tree roots into the stream banks without cables. Limited success with that. What they do in some areas down south is as the video shows ------ Use heavy machinery to POUND a tripod anchor into the stream bed and armor it with other woody debris. I am sure some structures take legs on high water, but what doesn't get removed is first class habitat for juveniles and the riffles around the structures improves spawning habitat. Yes-- I know of places where our past efforts were and are still successful.... but there is a lot to be gained by learning from others improvements.
 
Oh not suggesting we not learn from other jurisdictions just mentioning from my experience this has been done here in BC & Close to Vancouver and was wondering is it not done here now? Even when cabled and staked in place there's no assurance it won't either be by passed by channel shifting or covered by sediment deposition - rather quickly in some cases. Natural woody debris does move as well. However I know of at least 1 long log that's been cabled in place for close to 30 years at least!
 
Y
RalphH said:
Oh not suggesting we not learn from other jurisdictions just mentioning from my experience this has been done here in BC & Close to Vancouver and was wondering is it not done here now? Even when cabled and staked in place there's no assurance it won't either be by passed by channel shifting or covered by sediment deposition - rather quickly in some cases. Natural woody debris does move as well. However I know of at least 1 long log that's been cabled in place for close to 30 years at least!
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Yes-- sometimes our puny efforts can't handle our storm events. But we do our best and with experience we do win some. In some moderate sized streams, rip-rap protection will limit channel shifting and still enable the instream structures to do their job. But that can get very expensive. One eye opener I still vividly remember was the result of a flood event in the 70s at Bella Coola. The river came up and flooded a whole bunch of the valley. As soon as it dropped a bit we hopped into the jet boat and went to check out the damage. Running upstream, we very quickly realized we didn't recognize where we were on the river..We finally realized that the main channel of the river had cut a new path across the flood plain. Took a while for the riverine habitat to stabilize to become productive again. ( and for the grizzlies to figure out where their feeding areas has moved to.... !)
 
Bryan Allen said:
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Yes-- sometimes our puny efforts can't handle our storm events. But we do our best and with experience we do win some. In some moderate sized streams, rip-rap protection will limit channel shifting and still enable the instream structures to do their job. But that can get very expensive. One eye opener I still vividly remember was the result of a flood event in the 70s at Bella Coola. The river came up and flooded a whole bunch of the valley. As soon as it dropped a bit we hopped into the jet boat and went to check out the damage. Running upstream, we very quickly realized we didn't recognize where we were on the river..We finally realized that the main channel of the river had cut a new path across the flood plain. Took a while for the riverine habitat to stabilize to become productive again. ( and for the grizzlies to figure out where their feeding areas has moved to.... !)
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Seems like most of the habitat restoration work done here on the lower mainland now, is in the off channel areas to avoid the stuff you mention there Bryan. You and your cronies were the first CA's to get involved in this stuff and you did a great job.
 
Dave said:
Seems like most of the habitat restoration work done here on the lower mainland now, is in the off channel areas to avoid the stuff you mention there Bryan. You and your cronies were the first CA's to get involved in this stuff and you did a great job.
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Dave-- as you know there was a steep learning curve on small stream habitat restoration/improvement in the past. And the learning is still going on! BC is still a major player in salmonid enhancement involving volunteers . There have been thousands of all types of people that have stepped forward to help out the fish in BC and other areas from California to the Yukon. ( not sure about the projects in Ak ) I believe that by exchanging information through out the Pacific NorthWest all benefit. But our BC program has changed drastically since 1977 when our volunteers first put on the waders and went to work. ( Some like Howard English from GoldStream were even earlier. ) The crews are much more technically sophisticated at present. Many now work closely with engineers and bio consultants and DFO hatchery staff on stream improvements and fish culture. I dont think DFO is giving enough credit to our volunteers that they deserve. While I appreciate your comments about the job the CAs did-- without the guys and gals, that did the work , we would have been irrelevant . I just appreciate that I was there at the beginning. Cheers Bryan
 
Some really good comments on here wrt habitat restoration.

The provincially-funded Watershed Restoration Program that was supported under Forest Renewal was another one of those programs was quite a bit was learned over a few years - up until the neo-conservative so-called provincial Liberals (actually conservatives) got in power in BC where they pulled the rug out from that program, along with the Fisheries Renewal Program. Then Harper got in and the feds pulled the HRSEP funding, as well - and then proceeded to defund the C&P budget and gut all the acts that had fish & habitat protection. That is the legacy of how the past 20 years or so went wrt instream habitat protection & rehab.

Anyways, there were some good research-grade publications that came out of the WRP. But taking projects to Stage III - was only accomplished in a small percentage of the overall work done - and very few of those projects ended-up being visited a few years down the road to see if the projects actually worked.
 
This subject was on the Seattle news last night. Projected cost to do WA state is $5B, with $1B spent so far. Outlook for further money in a COVID environment was poor.
 
wildmanyeah said:
far cheaper to protect the habitat then restore it
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Agreed - cheaper for those involved & interested in salmon & habitat. Might be a different answer for those no so involved. And as it currently stands - there is little to no inspection & enforcement on instream habitat changes in non-urban areas. That has been the norm since DFO largely stopped inspecting forest licensees & others.
 
Absolutely right AA. The volunteers and the CAs relied on having a local Habitat Protection bio or tech to call when they saw something that was affecting fish or habitat. Frequently in urban areas, the Habitat person would work alongside the volunteers as they had the knowledge of their backyard streams. This use of local knowledge was particularly helpful in agricultural areas in the Valley and on the Island. And dont even get me started on how the Cons and even the liberals have gutted the Conservation and Protection enforcement functions.
 
and wrt instream impacts - we are dealing w historical issues as there is a succession of changes that happen as time goes by. Roots stay alive for some time (a few years) in a cutblock, and then die - and then rot and let go soil and landslides/debris torrents about 8-15 years afterwards, and then it starts to regen but w/o shade or instream habitat. It's like a 60-100y succession in impacts until the riparian areas do what they are supposed to do. The past political decisions still haunt us today - as the political decisions today will haunt the next couple generations. Those politics also seem to go thru cycles of 15-25 years wrt focusing on fish and fish habitat protection. That's really the problem...
 
agentaqua said:
Those politics also seem to go thru cycles of 15-25 years wrt focusing on fish and fish habitat protection.
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I wonder if they are based on economic cycles

The build back better policies floating around to rebound after covid seem to be environmentally focused.
 
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