Since I took considerable heat from one angry citizen at the Wooden Boat show yesterday over storm culvert projects being worthless, I thought I’d share this with anyone wondering about costs and what the paybacks might be. Here’s why we are needing to raise money to support re-engineering of culverts over the next few decades. This seems to be one of those “green projects” that provided local jobs, and should benefit the salmon runs almost immediately. I’ll be interested to follow up on this to see how the runs restore themselves after this project. If you want to support this legislative effort, check out People For Puget Sounds web site for the Clean Water Photo campaign on the front page of www.pugetsound.org
*9/14/09 Olympian
Fix the road, fix the stream
JOHN DODGE; The Olympian
Sometimes road-improvement projects go hand in hand with wild salmon restoration.
Such is the case on the campus of The Evergreen State College, where one mile of prime spawning and rearing habitat soon will be available with the replacement of a fish-passage barrier near the mouth of Snyder Creek.
A 3-foot-wide culvert in the streambed under Sunset Beach Drive Northwest is being replaced with a 55-foot-long, 14-foot-wide culvert that is built to mimic the natural streambed near the creek’s juncture with Eld Inlet.
“Fish won’t even know they are in a culvert when they pass through it,” predicted Jamie Glasgow, director of science and research for the Wild Fish Conservancy.
The college, the fish conservancy, People for Puget Sound and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group teamed up on the $214,000 project, which should be completed by Horsley Timber and Construction in the next few days in time for returning sea-run cutthroat, coho and chum salmon and possibly steelhead.
More at
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/970114.html
totaly agree! thanks for this