Return to Archive

Canyon Creek

One of the largest tributaries in the Nooksack watershed, Canyon Creek is also one of the most productive spawning grounds for endangered North Fork early chinook. In addition, pink, coho, chum, sockeye, steelhead, and sea-run and resident cutthroat trout also use the creek.

The Canyon Creek drainage is primarily forested, with some residential development along the lower few miles of the stream.

In the last few decades, forestry practices in the upper part of the creek’s watershed have worsened natural landslide and erosion problems. Large amounts of sediment , including rocks and other debris, wash down into the stream. The sediment load both degrades salmon habitat and feeds an alluvial fan that has formed where the creek joins the North Fork Nooksack. Active alluvial fans pose a particular flood hazard because they create unpredictable paths for floodwaters.

After three serious floods in 1989 and 1990, the Whatcom County River and Flood Division altered Canyon Creek in an effort to reduce flood damage, routing the flow over a series of bedrock ribs and boulder cascades. After this work, which occurred in 1994, salmon could still swim upstream.

However, as the stream adjusted to these changes and to new floods, it has not stayed in the 1994 channel. Through the past decade, obstructions to fish passage have been both created and eliminated at various points along the creek. The ever-changing conditions highlight the need for returning Canyon Creek to a state where natural channel-forming processes can take place, without increasing flood risk to nearby property owners or creating future barriers for spawning salmon.

Return to Archive