Land Trust works on Kandoll Farm plan

Columbia Land Trust hopes to go to bid this year on a project that will address drainage and flooding issues on lowlands along Kandoll Road near Rosburg.

A project completed several years ago to restore salmon habitat on land known as the Kandoll Farm also brought unintended consequences--freshets flowed over dikes but stayed as flood water because of drainage system changes, and two 12-foot culverts that replaced a tide gate have apparently increased stream flow in Seal River Slough to the point that it's eroding a dike protecting private property.

CLT project coordinator Ian Sinks said an engineering firm is about 30 percent through with the design work. The Land Trust is planning to close the culverts and construct a network of channels that will drain water in the area in the opposite direction into the Grays River, not Seal River.

Modeling of the new stream flows show that the new channel shouldn't adversely impact flows in the Grays, Sinks said.

The new channels and adjacent shoreline work would become new habitat for endangered fish species, Sinks said.

Sinks added the the Land Trust has secured funding from the Bonneville Power Administration and is now nearly ready to begin applying for permits.

He and Commissioner Blair Brady said they would work to set up a meeting with permitting agencies to explain the project.

Consulting engineer Jack Bjork said freshets have eroded Kandoll Road, and he is proposing that the road and its shoulder have applications of chip seal paving. Chip seal isn't as thick as asphalt, he said, but it should be adequate to protec the road and dike from freshets.