South Fork Nooksack River Skookum-Edfro Restoration Project
TRI_0108
To restore salmon habitat in WRIA 1, this project will construct 16 engineered log jams (ELJs) and 4 habitat structures in the mainstem South Fork Nooksack River, consisting of five “woody knarl” ELJs and eleven “rackster” ELJs. The project will also augment three existing engineered logjams constructed in 2010, remove 600 feet of riprap to provide additional opportunities for woody cover, and place floodplain roughening structures to prevent flooding. Endangered early spring Chinook salmon and bull trout will benefit from 16 new primary pools; more pools may develop indirectly as increased roughness causes dynamic equilibrium. Scour pools provide thermal refugia (holding pools) from elevated South Fork water temperatures during summer spawning months, in addition to pools for juvenile overwintering (rearing pools). All features are focused on enhancement of endangered Spring Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) habitat by maximizing natural habitat-forming processes inherent in this reach of river.