Commissioners focus on tide gates, culverts

Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren, Blair Brady and Lisa Marsyla, who participated by phone from her vacation in California, discussed Indian Jack Slough habitat restoration, a deteriorating culvert on the Elochoman River, and handled other business during their meeting Tuesday.

Dan Friesz leads Columbia Land Trust’s habitat restoration project for the 185 acre property at SR 4 opposite the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge, called the Indian Jack Slough property. The Columbia Land Trust’s plan will result in the filling of nearly 3,500 feet of drainage ditches, harvesting 50 acres of non-native poplars, restoring 5 acres of wetlands and planting nearly 50,000 native trees and shrubs.

The Trust plans to mow areas for elk forage and develop swales, which are transition slopes that will prevent deer from “careening into steep ditches,” Friesz said.

Friesz said hydrological graphs indicate that a new tide gate near the refuge headquarters on Indian Jack Slough has increased drainage in the area, in spite of the ditch-filling that occurred last year.

Terri Butler-Bates, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist for the Willapa National Wildlife, which manages habitat for the Julia Butler Hansen refuge, appeared to support the Columbia Land Trust. Butler-Bates said that in the past year, with the new tide gate on Indian Jack Slough installed near the refuge office on the west side of SR 4, the refuge has more capacity for water to drain, and that overall water levels were being maintained.

Russ and Ann Kastberg, members of Willapa Hills Audubon Society, who have worked with restoration of Nelson Creek since 2007, also supported the Columbia Land Trust project. Russ Kastberg said he has surveyed stands of poplar and is conducting an amphibian study on the property.

Landowner Frank Loomans, whose home adjoins the Trust property, objected to the plans.

Summing up Loomans’s concerns, Cothren said, “I understand you’re concerned about your home and property being devalued; but there was always water there, and there will continue to be water there.”

Brady brought forward constituent questions regarding the source of habitat restoration funds, economic benefit to the county and how the trust would get water to the property.

Friesz explained that the project has some federal and state funds remaining; it plans to open some grazing land so cattle can help manage canary grass. He said, after an intensive planning process, “five to six years down the road,” the Trust might consider breaching a dike.

Brady and Cothren said the commissioners would have major concerns with breaching dikes. The Trust is holding a community meeting on the Indian Jack Slough property on August 10, from 10 a.m. until noon, and invites people to walk around the property and learn about the scope of the project.

Columbia Estuary Environmental Educational Program Manager, Katie Klinger, brought three students, Kyle Mullins, Amber Wirkkala and Cramer Smith, who have participated in a culvert barrier assessment in a program supported by Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST).

The students presented an overview of the factors they had studied, and then focused on one culvert, which needs repair.

Ground beneath the culvert at mile 10.6 on the Elochoman Valley Road has been scoured away and the culvert is rusting. There is no pool for salmon to jump from due to the scour.

Public works manager Pete Ringen and Cothren said they were aware of the problems, that the culvert should be repaired. Ringen said he would contact the Fish Recovery Board for available funding.

The commissioners also accepted a proposal to partner with US Fish and Wildlife to replace a culvert on Risk Road near Skamokawa. USFWS would “shoulder the cost and permitting of replacing it,” Ringen said.

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, commissioners learned that the Marine Resources Committee was funded for another two years. Carrie Shofner and Donna Westlind will receive $21,250 for coordination. Shofner said there may be $18,500 for projects for the coming year, but that has not been confirmed.