News from Mid-Columbia Fisheries | |
Welcome to Our 2024 Restoration Technicians | |
Pictured from Left to Right (back row) : Stephen Richardson, Justin Finkbeiner, Kira Pinkerton, Marcus Ashton, Spencer Wirtz, Gavin Skaar. Not Pictured: Olivia Tyrnauer and Cal Randle. Front Row: Aaron Balagot | A BIG welcome goes to our 2024 Restoration Crew. The seasonal restoration technicians started back on March 11th, with both new and returning crew members. Special thanks to Aaron Balagot, our amazing Restoration Technician Supervisor and Volunteer Coordinator, for his work planning for the 2024 field season. | |
Project In Focus:
Riparian Forest Restoration on Spring Creek |  | |
Mid-Columbia Fisheries is collaborating with Kittitas County on riparian restoration
along Spring Creek in the lower Kittitas valley. Spring Creek is a spring-fed tributary,
which eventually becomes a side channel of the Yakima River. The spring is located in
the dynamic lower valley, where upwelling occurs as groundwater comes to the surface near the entrance of the Yakima Canyon. In the past, this productive aquatic environment was altered for agriculture with the removal of native riparian vegetation. This reduced stream shading, caused the water to warm, simplified instream habitat, and impacted the aquatic food web.
Kittitas County acquired the property and began planting a native riparian forest along the
creek’s banks in 2021. Mid-Columbia Fisheries has been working to increase growth and survival of plantings through stewardship work, and installed an additional two acres of native plants in the fall of 2022. Restoration of Spring Creek focuses on stream and floodplain functions; however, this work also enriches these habitats for native birds, mammals, and other wildlife that rely on riparian areas in our arid ecoregion. Survival of the new plantings has been good. The young cottonwood trees are now over 10 feet tall. The lower Kittitas Valley will continue to be the focus of work by Mid-Columbia Fisheries and our partners. We are grateful to Kittitas County for their leadership. It is exciting to see the floodplain and its riparian forest reemerge.
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Drone image of Kachess Reservoir at low capacity and an emergency fish passage flume at the mouth of Box Canyon Creek. Partners (including Mid-Columbia Fisheries) worked together to concentrate flow into one channel using straw bales and plastic sheeting to keep water from soaking into the ground. Bull Trout did utilize the flume, which was evident during upstream spawning surveys. | Kachess Reservoir at full capacity in July 2021. Picture is looking south from the mouth of the upper Kachess River. | |
Low Snowpack and its Impact on Fish
The people, fish and wildlife living in the Yakima basin depend on water that is collected and stored in five reservoirs operated by the Bureau of Reclamation: Keechelus, Kachess, Cle Elum, Rimrock, and Bumping. Salmon, steelhead, and Bull Trout are all migratory species in the Yakima River Basin that require cold water with adequate flows to make it to their spawning grounds.
The water in the Yakima basin is managed with fish needs in mind. Water is released from the upper Yakima River reservoirs (near Snoqualmie Pass) first to support agriculture and fish passage during the summer months. In the fall, a process called “flip flop” happens where flows are reduced from the upper Yakima reservoirs, and water releases are ramped up out of Rimrock Lake, on the Tieton River. Despite a management system that aims to support both people and fish, years where the snowpack is low have a significant impact on the amount of water available for everyone.
At Snoqualmie Pass, the area in the region that typically gets the most snow, the winter of 2022-2023 culminated with a snowpack around 78% of the historic average (based on data back to 1926). Despite being close to the long-term average, the peak melting period came and went quickly in May and early June. By early July of 2023, many of the tributaries to the Yakima River were already running very low, which created issues for migratory fish. By the 4th of July 2023, both Gold Creek and the Kachess River had disconnected from the reservoirs and gone dry for hundreds of yards, stranding juvenile Bull Trout and other fish.
Other areas like the mainstem Naches River and the Little Naches River continued to flow, but with little snowmelt, the water warmed up quickly. In 2023, an emergency fish passage flume was constructed at Box Canyon Creek to aid Bull Trout in reaching their spawning grounds.
At the time of writing this, March 4, 2024, we have finally received more snow! The snowpack in the Central Washington Cascades sits at 97% of average for this date, up from 65% near the beginning of February. With small amounts of snow continuing to show up in the forecast, we are hopeful for a “Miracle March” that will bring more snow than rain. A long, cool spring would allow the snow to melt gradually, storing clean cold water in the mountains and providing a more stable environment for all fish and wildlife this coming year .
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Staff Spotlight: Carson Briski and Steven Urakawa | |
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Mid-Columbia Fisheries is busy with restoration work and our staff has also grown to support projects throughout our region. Additionally, some of the staff have grown into new professional roles.
Steven Urakawa was recently promoted to Riparian Project Manager, and Carson Briski was recently promoted to a Project Manager.
Carson will be managing both riparian and floodplain restoration projects. He is currently managing a restoration project that will remove a dilapidated house in Ellensburg that is regularly inundated by Mercer Creek, and planning for the revegetation of the site. Carson’s project management duties also include grant writing, permitting, implementation and reporting for numerous projects throughout the Yakima Basin. He enjoys creating positive relationships with private landowners and our Mid-Columbia Fisheries partners. Carson joined Mid-Columbia Fisheries in 2019 as a restoration technician, improving projects from the ground up, after working in both salmon fisheries and the logging industry. Carson has an environmental science degree from Central Washington University (CWU).
Although he was born and raised in Kittitas County, he grew up spending summers in Alaska where he was first captivated by the realm of natural resources. “I love coming to work everyday,” says Carson, “because there is a 100% chance that I will learn something new, which I can pass on to co-workers, partners, and our seasonal technicians.”
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Steven will be supporting all aspects of our riparian restoration projects, from planning and permitting, to managing plant materials, to implementation and monitoring. Steven has a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from CWU, and joined Mid-Columbia Fisheries as a restoration technician in 2022. In his undergraduate work, Steven became interested in disturbance and succession in riparian and aquatic areas following wildfire, an interest which continues today. Before joining Mid-Columbia Fisheries, he worked as a technician for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on their Ecological Interactions Team. In his personal time, Steven enjoys almost anything that takes him outside – from fishing and hiking, to hunting and camping. “Whether our work involves cottonwood and riparian plant communities, or fish and aquatic organisms,” says Steven, “it’s interesting when there is a problem to solve.”
Mid-Columbia Fisheries is grateful to both Carson and Steven as they help implement more high quality habitat restoration in and along streams and rivers in the Yakima Basin!
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Something's Fishy in Area Classrooms | |
In our Salmon in the Classroom Program, students participate in a variety of classroom lessons while observing the salmon life cycle up close by rearing salmon from egg to fry before a field trip full of habitat assessment to decided what makes a good place to release reared fish. This tank is located at Valley View Elementary in Ellensburg. | |
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Join us for the 2024 Eastern Washington Riparian Symposium!
Click here for agenda, registration portal and more!
Field trips and social opportunities begin the afternoon of March 28, 2024.
Do Not Delay: Registration closes on March 19, 2024!
Sponsored by the Committee of Populus: The Columbia Basin Riparian Planting Partnership with funding by the Washington Department of Ecology.
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Thanks to all of our our Symposium sponsors! | | |
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group is dedicated to protecting and restoring wild salmonid populations, their habitats, and ecosystem functions that support native fish species through restoration, protection, education, and community involvement throughout our region. |
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