HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

My Remarks at the Stage 7 HOV lane Groundbreaking Ceremony

Here are my remarks (and some photos courtesy WSDDOT) for last Friday's groundbreaking ceremony for the Stage 7 HOV Lane Project. Although conservationists are usually pretty rare sights for highway project ceremonies like this, I believe it's important to be able to stand up and point to the good that WSDOT is doing on projects like Spring Valley. There's no understating the importance of the Spring Valley Ranch Project: the single most important preservation and restoration project in the watershed.

"I am thrilled to be here to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Stage 7 HOV Lane project. The Stage 7 project is a shining example of how environmental mitigation should work. In addressing mitigation for the project’s wetland impacts, DOT chose a high-value site in the heart of the Hylebos Watershed, a former farm called Spring Valley Ranch. The wetland had been filled and the stream ditched, but this site was considered by many the most biologically important reach of Hylebos to acquire and restore. It has historically been the hotspot of salmon spawning for Chinook, coho and chum salmon.

Now, thanks to DOT this site, which was restored in 2007 as advance mitigation, is once again a rich habitat for native salmon, great blue heron and other wildlife. I visited the Spring Valley Ranch yesterday and it is absolutely flourishing, a riot of green growth threaded through by a cool, rippling stream that is awaiting the return of Hylebos’ Chinook salmon next month.

We thought so highly of the Spring Valley Ranch Project that we gave the DOT our Innovation in Conservation Award, which recognizes progressive and innovative approaches to conservation in the Hylebos Watershed. I’m here to tell you today that while the Stage 7 project will bring us future transit improvements, it has already significantly improved our environment and our community."

Spring Valley Owl

Hylebos friend Joyce Carlson stopped by the office yesterday with this photo she snapped of an owl looking down on the Spring Valley Ranch project on Hylebos Creek. I'm not a great birder but after looking at my bird guide, I'd say it's a short-eared owl. (Feel free to correct me, if I'm wrong!)

Joyce said that there was another unidentified owl nearby that she didn't get to photograph. It's nice to see the wildlife enjoying the conserved property!

 

A Flood of Flooding

Interesting (and a bit predictable in its news) article from the (soon-to-be-defunct?) P-I on the recent rash of flooding in Western Washington.

Logging and development are prime suspects because dense forests intercept and slow down rainfall before it becomes a flood, while development plasters concrete and asphalt across marshy areas that once soaked up floodwaters. Meanwhile, climate change appears to be increasing the incidence of extraordinarily heavy rainstorms, scientists say.

A federal study adds credence to the development and logging hypotheses. In fact, the Puget Sound region so far has come out No. 1 nationally in an examination of how land cover changed -- primarily from development and clearcutting -- from 1973 to 2000.

The study is nearly finished, and so far no faster rate of land conversion has been found anywhere in the nation, said Dan Sorenson, a U.S. Geological Survey geographer.

The main reason is clearcutting, which decreased forest cover by 10 percent. The No. 2 reason is the footprint of development, which increased nearly 7 percent.

The reporter also notes that a significant amount of that development has foolishly - at least to some of us - gone into river floodplains.

Hylebos Creek got its picture in the news over at the Seattle Times website.

Cold But Beautiful in the Hylebos

Today, I met Matt Perry, who is the new field representative for Congressman Adam Smith (9th District), covering environmental issues. Matt and I toured the Lower Hylebos Marsh, West Hylebos Wetlands and Spring Valley Ranch this afternoon.

Although it was cold (reeeallly cold), it was an incredible day in the Hylebos: stark and crisp. Lower Hylebos and Spring Valley Ranch are growing; even with the leaves off the deciduous trees, the wetland vegetation was manifest, asserting itself over the floodplains, while the red osier dogwood and alders are growing tall spires toward the sky. (although, someone has taken it upon themselves to "prune" the alders at LHM. More on that later).

The West Hylebos boardwalk was still caked in packed snow/ice in some areas and the waters were high, though not at flood stage. The boardwalk decking suffered its first casualty down near the T intersection towards Brooklake. A large alder branch speared the edge of the boardwalk, gouging out a 12-inch piece of the decking.

Also of note, the no-slip decking is getting slippery, as algae builds up on it. This is something we're probably going to have to address with Parks, sooner rather than later.

So, a big Hylebos welcome to Matt Perry. I look forward to working with him and thank him for a reason to spend 2 hours outside on a beautiful winter day!

Spring Valley Ranch Featured Article

This is a neat one. Melanie Coon of Wa. Dept. of Transportation, and I wrote a feature article for the journal Stormwater Solutions, on the Spring Valley Ranch project and the way WSDOT worked with the Friends to turn their mitigation problem into a huge, huge Hylebos conservation project.

I'm glad to see WSDOT and Spring Valley Ranch getting some national attention by people in the field; this is the sort of mitigation approach that should be happening on every project!

Having A Chummy Tuesday

I had kind of a rough start to the morning and I wasn't feeling great on the way in. I decided to stop by Spring Valley Ranch and see how the project was doing with the flooding from yesterday. The first thing I noticed was that we had a real floodplain functioning. The floodwaters from yesterday had largely drained back into the channel, in precisely the way you'd want a floodplain to function (and opposite how the site functioned pre-project).

The 2nd thing I noticed was Chum! The old channel (which was left as off-channel habitat) had 6-8 beautiful chum salmon doing what comes natural. Talk about a mood enhancer! It made me smile from ear to ear to see those fish working on the generation of chum salmon. Brilliant!

I took some photos and some movie clips. I'll try to get the movie clips online later today or tomorrow. For now, here's a shot of one chummer headed upstream.

Have a chummy Tuesday!

The Ruby Dance (Or Pink, in this Case) Has Begun!

It's good news all around. The Spring Valley Ranch Project is nearly done, the new stream channel is open, and...(wait for it)...spawning has begun!

That's right, a pair of pink salmon rushed in at the opening of the new channel and spawned. When I was out Thursday to view the project, WSDOT project manager Mark Steingrebe pointed out the female guarding the redd from a pool just below her nest. While the water was dark and it was hard to see any identifying marks on the fish, you could see the edges of white along her tail where the flesh had been torn by the digging of the redd. The species identification was made by Wa. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife biologist Travis Nelson.

Pink salmon are not native to Hylebos Creek, though they are welcome to start a run here. Pinks have been returning to Puget Sound rivers in large numbers in recent years and have colonized a number of tributaries where they have not previously lived.

Here are a few more photos of Spring Valley Ranch. I'll have some up on Flickr later this weekend.

This is the old channel, upstream of S. 373rd St., now a dry creek bed, with the water diverted into the new channel.

Here is a view of the new channel, looking upstream from S. 373rd St.

And this is a shot of the new, wider bridge crossing at the road.

 

Good News for the Hylebos on local Front Pages

Seth Bynum exercises his creative writing muscle, imagining the Spring Valley Ranch Project as a subject of Extreme Makeover:Hylebos style. Good stuff, Seth.

Over at the Mirror, Margo Horner touts the Ruby Dance, coming up September 22nd. If you don't have your tickets, once you read Margo's article, you'll want 'em. Contact Sheila at our office for more details.

Cool Spring Valley Ranch Images

I've put our Spring Valley Ranch Before and After images on Flickr in a slideshow. This shows what the site looked like (roughly a year ago) before construction and what we project it will look like 100 years later.

Before: Rendering of the Spring Valley Ranch site before habitat restoration began. The stream is in an artificially located channel above the low point of the site, the wetland is mowed and there are very few native plants or trees established in the wetlands or along the stream

After: Rendering of the Spring Valley Ranch site 100 years after habitat restoration work. The stream has been moved to a more meandering channel flowing through the site's natural low point (thus reconnecting floodplain functions), and native trees and riparian and wetland vegetation has been established. This site is now salmon Nirvana!

Spring Valley Ranch Site Visit

Hillary and I attended a site visit hosted by WSDOT to the Spring Valley Ranch Project. Great day to be onsite, with blue skies and warm temperatures. Overall, the project looks great! My hats off to WSDOT and Mid-Mountain Construction for the implementation.

Here are some photos.

Here is our group (in our snazzy WSDOT safety vests; orange is the color for the summer fashion scene!) surveying grading area 3, where wetlands are being enhanced.

Hylebos Creek, bordered by young trees on one side and orange construction fence on the other. This reach of the channel will go away, being replaced by the new channel. But, it sure looked good today!

Looking down the access road at one of the main staging areas. These logs and rocks are the raw materials of restoration, folks.

This pond is being converted to enhanced wetland, and in the surrounding area the fill has been removed and will be converted to wetland. Awesome stuff!

I like the juxtaposition of this photo, with the cedar tree that's been saved, seemingly surrounded by a dumptruck and loader. (Don't worry. The cedar survived).

Here we are walking down the access road that borders the path of the new channel-to-be.

This is cool. The operator uses his loader to place large mats made of railroad ties so that his loader can rest on those (and avoid sinking into the muck). When he finishes an area, he backs up, grabs the front ties and puts them behind him. In this fashion, he works his way upstream as he goes.

With the bucket about to take a bite of Hylebos.

As the bucket digs the new channel, with a project staff in front, you get a sense of the size of the equipment.

Here we are walking down a section of the new channel that has been dug out and laid with rocks. All it needs is water, some logs and some vegetation and we're talking Chinook habitat!

And, finally, now you can see why they closed 373rd Street. (although this would be fun to jump with a motorbike - sounds like a Hylebos fundraiser). Workers are creating the footings for the new bridge over the Hylebos.

I'll have more photos later as the project progresses.

The FW Mirror has a story on the Spring Valley Ranch Project. One correction: While we were a key in facilitating the purchase of the property, the transaction was all WSDOT, and they deserve the credit there. We never owned the property. We were the middleman, if you will.

Also, reports are that Puget Sound is in even more trouble, as sea levels rise. This is particularly distressing for the Hylebos as a fairly long stretch of the lower Hylebos is really flat and would be significantly impacted by sea level rise.