OHOP — Next summer Ohop Creek will flow through a new channel that is now being dug by the Nisqually Land Trust, the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group and the Nisqually Indian Tribe. “The new channel will increase the quality habitat for salmon,” said David Troutt, natural resources director for the tribe.
“There really isn’t anywhere for fish to go in Ohop Creek right now,” Joe Kane, executive director for the land trust, which owns the project site. “More than a century ago, Ohop Creek was ditched to clear the area for farming.”
The new channel will stay cooler for salmon and include features like logjams that benefit both juvenile and adult fish. “It went from a shallow, meandering stream that was very good for salmon to a straight deep ditch,” Kane said. The Nisqually Land Trust owns the 120 acres of property on which this year’s project is happening.
After the new channel is finished, they will wait a year before rerouting the creek into the new bed. “If we rerouted the creek this year, there would be a risk of everything being washed away in a flood,” said Kim Gridley, project manager for the group. “By waiting a year after digging the channel, creek-side plants will have time to grow and stabilize the bank.”
This summer’s one-mile-long restoration project could be the first step in restoring most of the Ohop Creek valley for salmon and other wildlife. Eventuallyseven miles of Ohop Creek might be restored under a plan being developed jointly with local landowners. “This initial phase will teach us a lot about how habitat restoration might look like throughout the valley,” Gridley said. “Before habitat restoration happens anywhere else along the Ohop, we’ll need to find a way to balance the needs of salmon and people.”
“The landowners in the valley have a huge stake in what happens with the creek,” Troutt said. “Salmon restoration will happen on the Ohop only if property owners are full participants.”
Ohop Creek is one of two major tributaries to the Nisqually River that can produce sustainable populations of chinook. “Because there are only a few places other than the mainstem of the Nisqually River where chinook spawn, increasing the quality of habitat in those places is important,” Troutt said. Nisqually River chinook are part of the Puget Sound chinook population listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.
“We also expect to see a big benefit to coho salmon, which return in very small numbers to the Nisqually watershed,” Troutt said. After a similar project on the nearby Mashel River, coho densities tripled within the restoration area. Ohop Creek also supports pink salmon, and cutthroat and steelhead trout.
“Bringing salmon runs back to the Nisqually means restoring habitat where we can. Restoring habitat is the most imporant thing we can do to recover salmon,” Troutt said. “Ohop Creek is a huge opportunity for us to do a lot of good for salmon.”
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For more information, contact: Kim Gridley, project manager, SPSSEG, (360) 412-0808. Joe Kane, executive director, Nisqually Land Trust, (360) 458-1111. David Troutt, natural resources director, Nisqually Indian Tribe, (360) 438-8687. Emmett O’Connell, South Sound information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, [email protected]
