Fish habitat restoration underway on WSDOT land near Cashmere

CASHMERE — On an 11-acre stretch of land between the lower Wenatchee River and US-2, crews are reconnecting a side channel that will provide year-round habitat for juvenile salmon and other native fish.

The Goodwin Side Channel project, led by Cascade Fisheries, will improve the existing side channel, extend its connection to the Wenatchee River, and construct approximately 1,100 feet of new side channel. Once completed, the off-channel habitat will provide refuge from high spring flows, warm summer temperatures, and cold winter spells.

The project is located on Washington State Department of Transportation property, just upstream of the Goodwin Road bridge and downstream of the Turkey Shoot rapid.

“This is one piece of floodplain that is available to work on that isn't occupied by a highway or an orchard, so it's sort of opportunistic. This kind of habitat off the main stem is extremely limited on the Wenatchee,” said Cascade Fisheries Executive Director Jason Lundgren.

The lower Wenatchee River is a major spawning area for steelhead, foraging and overwintering habitat for bull trout, a spawning and rearing area for summer Chinook and a migration corridor for sockeye, spring Chinook, coho, steelhead and bull trout, according to Cascade Fisheries. Yet, development along the Wenatchee River has diminished critical habitat for these species.

In its assessment report, Cascade Fisheries found that this section of the Wenatchee River is disconnected from over half of its historic floodplain, leaving little to no off-channel habitat. As a result, fish have few places to escape fast-moving currents, find cooler water or avoid predators.

During high flows, the Goodwin Side Channel is one of the few remaining places to offer this sort of refuge, which is especially important for juvenile fish.  But, it comes with a catch.

“We monitored it for a couple of years. We checked the water quality and everything, and we found salmonids, juvenile salmon, were rearing in there,” said Lundgren. “But it got disconnected and warm in the summertime.”

The side channel is only connected to the Wenatchee River during periods of high water — about 35 days a year, according to Rosenblum. When flows recede in the summer, the connection to the main stem is lost, leaving hundreds of fish stranded.

“They would just be stuck in here. It would dry out so low, whatever salmon were in here, they wouldn't make it,” said Senior Habitat Project Manager Aaron Rosenblum, citing poor water quality, lethally warm temperatures and anaerobic conditions.

The work being done on the side channel aims to extend that connection to last 50 percent of the year. The channels will be connected to the groundwater beneath, adding another source of cool water in the summer while temperatures rise in the Wenatchee River. In the winter, the deep pools will remain warmer than the main stem, resulting in higher metabolisms and bigger fish, said Rosenblum.

“We know that fish that are bigger when they go to the ocean have a better success rate of returning home to spawn, so the bigger we can grow them here before they leave, the better,” said Rosenblum.

Before Cascade Fisheries started the project a few weeks ago, they had to remove the fish in the side channel and relocate them to the main stem. They found several hundred Chinook, steelhead, coho, dace, suckers and Pacific lamprey — all of which would have struggled to survive in the shrinking channel as summer progressed.

“Hopefully next year they'll find their way back in here — the ones that don't go to the ocean — and this will be an awesome place for them to live come the end of the summer,” said Rosenblum.

Projects like the Goodwin Side Channel are funded primarily through mitigation dollars intended to offset the impacts of hydroelectric dams on salmon and steelhead populations, according to Lundgren, with a small portion coming from state and federal allocations.

Construction for the project is about $1.8 million, using funding from the Bonneville Power Administration, Recreation Conservation Office, Upper Valley Salmon Recovery Board and the Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP) Tributary Committees. Cascade Fisheries expect to complete the project by mid-August.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media