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Project timeframe: 2003-2013
BEF funds invested to date: $160,150 |
"With the relative unavailability of funding to support long-term monitoring, BEF’s Model Watershed approach and 10-year support are critical to our ability to base restoration projects on tangible results rather than ‘best guess’ methodology."
-- Robert Warren, Former Sea Resources Executive Director
The Chinook River is a small watershed (12mi2) that drains directly into the Columbia River estuary in southwest Washington State. Historically, the river maintained healthy populations of chum, coho, and chinook salmon. However, decades of over fishing and habitat alteration devastated Chinook River salmon populations, and by the mid 1900s natural runs of chinook, coho, and chum salmon were considered extinct.
In 1968, Sea Resources (a non-profit, community-based organization) was established at the 100-year-old Chinook River fish hatchery to develop community vocational programs and implement a hatchery supplementation program to resurrect the once healthy populations of Chinook River salmon. Over time, hatchery operations proved incapable of reestablishing healthy fish runs. As a result, Sea Resources shifted its focus in 1996 to watershed restoration as a means of rebuilding historically abundant natural salmon runs. With this change in focus, the organization sought to develop a long-term and scientific approach to restoring natural watershed processes and habitat in the Chinook River.
- As a first step, Sea Resources commissioned scientists to assess the physical and biological conditions of the Chinook Watershed and prescribe priority actions for restoring habitat in streams and on adjacent lands.
- BEF and Sea Resources both acknowledged the need to develop and apply a comprehensive restoration and monitoring framework to guide long-term restoration in the watershed. From 1999-2002, BEF awarded three grants totaling over $90,000 to Sea Resources. This funding supported Sea Resources' efforts to establish the scientific foundation and baseline monitoring necessary to initiate and guide a comprehensive watershed restoration program over the long-term.
- In 2003, BEF worked with Sea Resources to formalize a 10-year restoration and monitoring plan for the Chinook River. This plan a) identified specific and measurable restoration objectives; b) laid out the 10-year monitoring schedules necessary to track progress towards set objectives; and c) identified the long-term restoration actions that were judged necessary to restore salmon populations. BEF and Sea Resources developed this program to rigorously track restoration results and allow future actions to be adjusted and improved based on measured outcomes. In addition, the approach demonstrates accountability -- in the form of measured results -- to funders, landowners, and other stakeholders that have a vested interest in the Chinook River and its salmon.
- Based on the completed 10-year restoration and monitoring plan, BEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sea Resources and pledged to provide scientific support, funding, and the services of an independent science team over the duration of the project. BEF pledged an additional $250,000 to support this effort from 2003-2014.
- As of August 2005, Sea Resources had removed fish passage barriers, replanted streamside areas with native vegetation, initiated a chum salmon reintroduction program, and repaired unstable and eroding forest roads in headwater areas. Moreover, Sea Resources had initiated one of the largest estuary restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest, with the potential to restore almost 1,000 acres of the Chinook River estuary.
- Using a monitoring-intensive Model Watershed approach, Sea Resources continues to track biological and physical conditions to determine whether restoration actions are improving habitat and increasing the survival and productivity of Chinook River salmon. With the ability to measure habitat improvements and track biological recovery over a 10-year period, the Chinook River Model Watershed project quantifies restoration progress and improves ongoing restoration strategies and actions based on the measured results of past actions. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation allows BEF and Sea Resources to verify that investments of time and money are producing the expected outcomes and being invested in the most effective manner possible.
- As Sea Resources continues to address top priority restoration objectives, BEF expects water quality and stream habitat to improve and salmon numbers to increase. BEF contends that Sea Resources’ efforts to engage the local community and base restoration actions on rigorous scientific evaluation and monitoring will ultimately produce healthier streams, improved fish runs, and a higher quality of life for residents of the Chinook River watershed.
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