Seal River resident warns of habitat work side effects

Reading The Eagle, and not having attended a September 17 county commission meeting on the proposed ‘bottom land’ in Skamokawa, I attended the commission meeting today (September 24) to voice my concern. The proposed land purchase, acquisition, take-over, or whatever it will be called, is going to impact anyone living downstream from this projected ‘fish restoration habitat.’

I live on Seal Slough directly downstream from Columbia Land Trust’s wetland restoration project. C.L.T. is currently spending large amounts of money to attempt to correct a faulty project. This, by the way, is our money being spent, either directly or indirectly, through grants from Bonneville Power Administration (from power rates), grants from Fish and Wildlife (from license fees continually being raised), and from well meaning people's grants of money and property, and from other sources.

My dike, along with my neighbors’ dikes, have been seriously degraded by the increased volume of water surging through the slough every six hours. I presented a study on the dike erosion to the commissioners which clearly shows the deterioration of our 100 year old dike. In only two years, with no flood event, we have lost two feet of dike footing, causing the dikes to sluff into the water.

The plans for the wetland restoration in the Skamokawa basin will do the same, a huge increase of tidal flow up and down the river. Anyone with property along the river will be affected by this! I see some homes with their riverbanks shored up; this may not be sufficient with the increased current.

I am not affected by this personally, other than watching my county being slowly bought up by government and non-governmental organizations taking the huge amounts of acreage, from any sort of production of hay, cattle, etc.

Beware Skamokawa! Will be happy to show the results of our dilemma to anyone interested. Keep in mind, once it becomes ‘fish habitat,’ it then becomes virtually impossible to correct. It took us, Grays River Habitat Enhancement District, seven years of continual attempts to undo the Kandoll Farm project, eventually coming out with a compromise, which I pray will work. If not, my eight acres will be swamp with less than one acre livable.

Poul Toftemark, Seal River/Rosburg