Helicopter, Giant Logs, Enhance Habitat for Salmon

Project in the Stillaguamish River Estuary is an Experiment in Restoration

Update: January 2008 - Back in August, we used a helicopter to place big trees with giant rootwads into tidal channels at Port Susan Bay, to see if it helps create better habitat for juvenile salmon. Conservancy ecologist Danelle Heatwole recently told the Everett Herald what's happening with this experiement.
Read the Everett Herald story.

STANWOOD, WASHINGTON — August 28, 2007 — A Boeing helicopter lifted giant tree-sized logs and placed them in the intertidal channels of Port Susan Bay near Stanwood Tuesday, as The Nature Conservancy launched an experimental project to enhance habitat for salmon in the Stillaguamish River estuary.

A helicopter and crew from Columbia Helicopters first dropped six concrete ballasts, three in each channel. They then ferried the 26 logs, one at a time, from a staging area on the diked uplands at the Conservancy’s Port Susan Bay Preserve. Ground crews supplied by EarthCorps moved in after each log was placed to cable it into position.

helicopter and ground crew at Port Susan Bay Preserve
Helicopter and restoration ground crew at the Port Susan Bay Preserve. © Jen Molnar/TNC

This project is an experiment to discover if placing and anchoring large wood in the channels can create the conditions that are beneficial for juvenile salmon rearing: areas of low water velocity for energy conservation, areas of deeper water for low-tide refuge, structural complexity for places to hide, and emergent marshes for abundant prey resources. It’s funded by the NOAA Community-Based Restoration Program within NOAA Fisheries.

The channels will be monitored for the next two years to evaluate the ecological response to large wood placed in the channel. While large wood has been used in stream restoration projects for several years now, what makes this project different is that the Conservancy and its partners will evaluate how the addition of the back-and-forth action of the tides affects the way that the wood functions.

The Conservancy has baseline data about the current location and shape of the channels. Snohomish County Surface Water Management, one of the key partners in the project, will gather data for two years that will enable the Conservancy to understand how the shape of the channels changes in response to the

helicopter carries a tree out to the marsh at Port Susan Bay Preserve
A log is taken out to the tidal marsh for placement. © Jen Molnar/TNC

wood. The Conservancy will also monitor the wood complexes for accumulation, loss, and shifting of individual wood pieces.

What the Conservancy learns here can be used to inform future estuarine restoration efforts in the Northwest and elsewhere.

This project is part of the ongoing Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines effort to save Puget Sound. The Alliance is made up of The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, and People for Puget Sound, all working together for the first time to drive a massive, multi-year restoration and protection initiative around the Puget Sound shorelines. The Alliance is creating 10 new parks and natural areas along Puget Sound shorelines, restoring 100 miles of shoreline, and protecting 1,000 miles of shoreline. The Port Susan Bay project is part of the effort to restore 100 miles of shoreline.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.