Bertrand Creek Levee Setback

Bertrand Creek is one of the major tributaries in the lower Nooksack River watershed, with the lower creek flowing through primarily agricultural and rural residential lands. Until this summer, the creek was tightly constrained by levees, particularly near its confluence with the Nooksack.

During the winter, the lower Bertrand Creek levees inhibit the downstream movement of floodwaters in the right bank floodplain. The levees were prone to damage, requiring nearly annual repair and maintenance work.   When they failed, it was often a significant breach, with the floodwaters strewing debris across adjacent fields.

Canyon Creek Fish Passage

The lower 4.5 miles of Canyon Creek, a major tributary to the North Fork Nooksack, are important spawning habitat for North Fork early chinook, which are listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act. (At river mile 4.5, there is a natural waterfall that prevents further migration upstream.) The creek is also considered a priority area for a second threatened species, bull trout.

Larson’s Bridge Log Jams

The South Fork of the Nooksack River is considered the highest-priority area for South Fork early chinook, a run that is threatened with extinction. Among the habitat problems in the reach are fine sediments from landslides, particularly in the upper watershed, that clog spawning gravels and smother salmon eggs. Near Larson’s Bridge, one 100-foot landslide alone added an estimated 210,000 cubic yards of fine sediments between 1995 and 1998.

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a Federal-State partnership that focuses on establishing wooded stream buffers on agricultural land. In Whatcom County, the program is directed by the Whatcom Conservation District. The district works with landowners to design vegetated buffers along streams on their property. Once a buffer is established through CREP, that land area is removed from production and grazing under a 10-15 year contract. The buffer zones can improve water quality and habitat conditions in streams where riparian habitat is a significant limiting factor for salmonids. The program especially targets potential and historic chinook habitat due to their listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. For land to qualify under CREP it must have the required cropping history, be able to support trees and shrubs, and include an eligible stream. Almost 500 miles of streams and rivers in the lowlands and rural areas of Whatcom County are eligible.

Terrell Creek Restoration

Terrell Creek once supported viable runs of chum and coho salmon, as well as, coastal cutthroat and steelhead. Over the last 50 years, these populations have drastically decreased. Growing community interest in the quality of the creek sparked the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) to begin an evaluation of current conditions and how it might be affecting the wild salmon and trout populations. In 2000, NSEA used smolt traps to count young salmon leaving the stream and completed fish habitat assessments, including water quality and flow measurements, to determine fish habitat conditions.

Whatcom County Fish Passage Barrier Inventory (culvert inventory)

Human made barriers such as road culverts, tide gates, and dams prevent fish, including endangered and threatened salmon runs, from accessing over 600 miles of stream habitat in Whatcom County. Removing these barriers is one of the easiest and most cost-effective means for improving fish habitat.

Squalicum Creek
Riparian Restoration

In 2003, the City of Bellingham was awarded a state grant to improve fish habitat in and along Squalicum Creek, one of three major creeks in the city. Several salmonid species, including coho, steelhead, cutthroat, and chum, use the creek. Catfish, lamprey, and muskrat have also been found in Squalicum and its tributaries.

Middle Fork Side Channel Improvement
Project Contact: Steve Seymour, WDFW

The Nooksack basin is laced with side channels--old riverbeds or stream meanders that are a valuable element of fish habitat. One new channel was created during the 1995 Veterans Day flood, when the Middle Fork Nooksack abruptly changed course downstream of the Mosquito Lake Road bridge.

Tenmile Creek Restoration - The Tenmile Creek Watershed Project is a grass-roots effort to improve water quality in streams and ditches while preserving farming as a viable way of life in the Tenmile Creek drainage, a primarily rural watershed encompassing 65 miles of creeks and streams that flow into the Nooksack River near Interstate 5.

Land Acquisitions Along the South Fork Nooksack River - One of the biggest obstacles to the recovery of salmon runs in the Nooksack watershed is managing land along streams to benefit, or at least not harm, salmon.