The Fennel Creek floodplain is about to receive a major makeover.
After flowing through Bonney Lake and over Victor Falls, Fennel Creek winds its way through the valley and joins the Puyallup River as it rushes toward the Sound, providing a major spawning area for all types of salmon.
This past week, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded a $393,225 grant to restore the creek’s floodplain on more than 40 acres of land owned by Pierce County near the mouth of the creek.
“That creek is amazing,” said Pierce County Environmental Biologist Tom Nelson. “Every species of salmon we have use that creek.”
Though the fish do not make it past the 100-foot drop of Victor Falls and into Bonney Lake, Nelson said Chinook, steelhead and bull trout are among the species that use the lower creek for spawning.
But the creek has been degraded by past agricultural practices, including the building of dikes to hem in the creek.
Nelson said the grant will be used first to help restore the natural run of the creek, including the removal of rip rap and barriers that will allow the creek to migrate into what is now an old field approximately two miles downstream from the falls, though Nelson said it would be a slow process.
“We don’t expect a quick migration,” he said.
In addition, crews will plant tress in the floodplain in an attempt to further slow erosion, as well as restore the area to its original state.
“We’re just trying to make it a natural forest again,” Nelson said.
The plan is for the land to become a public area, but more like a preserve than a park, Nelson said.
Nelson said the secondary benefits of the project will be to provide flood capacity, potentially protecting areas downstream by diverting the water and providing excess flow storage.
“It’s not just for fish,” Nelson said.
Nelson said a secondary function of the grant will be to complete design work to remove old dikes built by farmers and place trees, wood piles and other areas for animal habitat to the area. Design will begin next year and Nelson said the county hopes to receive a second grant in 2012 to complete the work.
Marion Betzer, who facilitates the Fennel Creek Preservation Group in Bonney Lake, said she was pleased to hear of the restoration work, but hopes the county remembers that much of the Fennel Creek’s eight-mile watershed is upstream from the falls.
“To protect the Fennel Creek Watershed, we must remember to embrace the watershed as a whole, from it’s fragile headwaters, along all reaches of the watershed through Bonney Lake and to the valuable salmon spawning areas of Fennel Creek located below the natural barrier of Victor Falls,” Betzer said.
In addition to the money provided by the state grant, Pierce County will contribute $69,392, bringing the total project to $462,617. Work on the project is scheduled to begin next year.
