Japanese Gulch Fish Passage Story: An Environmental Restoration Project

The Japanese Gulch Fish Passage Story An Environmental Restoration Project by Paine Field Airport City of Mukilteo & Edmonds Community College

Project Location

Paine Field Airport

Boeing

Japanese Gulch

Project Site

City of Mukilteo

How the Story Began Paine Field identified 4 seasonal, non-fish bearing streams that would need to be filled for future development of the airport. Department of Fish & Wildlife required mitigation for the “fill” PF and WDFW agreed to a mitigation cost of $150,000.

Paine Field / Mukilteo Partnership for Meaningful Mitigation Project Area

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Restore Fish Passage vs. “Pay & Go”

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PF & Mukilteo ILA to mitigate stream impacts on airport land: $150,000

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ILA identified the Mt. Baker Street culvert as the fish improvement project.

Using LIDAR technology the team was able to identify historic stream channels.

Project Components Four phases: ➢ Phase 1: Add a combination of baffles and boulders in existing culvert to concentrate and deepen the flow of water ➢

Phase 2: Install a “stacked culvert” fish ladder to provide access to the perched culvert under the Boeing RR Spur.

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Phase 3: Divert the creek from the existing engineered channel to the historical channel.

➢ Phase 4: Install a fish ladder from Japanese Gulch Creek to the wetland

Phase 1 Fish Passage Improvement To Existing Culvert Existing culvert condition was too steep and too shallow water; fish could get “stuck “ in the culvert.

Existing

Proposed

Phase 1 Baffles Completed

Plan Design Culvert w/ Completed Baffles And Rock for Fish Passage Culvert Before Fish Passage Project

Finished July 23, 2010

Light flows: water creates a channel and pools for fish to swim through

Heavy flows: water flows over the baffles and rocks

How Is the Culvert Functioning for Fish Passage?

Phase 2 Fish Ladder

Phase 2 Stream Channel

Perched BNSF Culvert

Phase 2 - Stacked Culverts

Design

Completed Project: October 19, 2010

Phase 2 – Stream Enhancements

1. Addition of large woody debris and river rock to the stream bed and 2. Enhancement of stream bed with sand, river rock, LWD, and pools

Results

12”-13” long Coho caught in the top pool of the ladder on Oct 13, 2010. What is more telling is that the little fish in the photo is a coho and it got into the top pool.

Fish Counts: September 24,2010: (1) 8-12 inch cutthroat trout, (5) 2-4 inch coho, and (1) salamander. September 27, 2010: (2) 2-4 inch coho, (3) 6-8 inch cutthroat, (11) 3-6 inch cutthroat.

Phase 3 Relocate Stream to Natural Channel

Phase 3 Design – Historic Channel Lower Connection Point

Historic Stream Channel

Upper Connection Point

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Habitat Improvements: •Add Cobbles, LWD, Plantings

Japanese Community in Mukilteo ➢

With the start of Phase 3 – Stream Restoration – Japanese American artifacts were found in the construction area

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Work stopped immediately

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Hired AMEC for Cultural Resource Recovery

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Worked with the Corp of Engineers on Permitting

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Partnered with Edmonds Community College to help with the archaeology recovery efforts

History of Japanese Gulch ➢

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Japanese workers arrived in Mukilteo with construction of the Seattle and Montana, part of the Great Northern Railway, in 1891 35 Japanese hired by Mukilteo Lumber in 1903, eventually grew to about 100 Japanese workers after it was renamed Crown Lumber in 1909 Lived in company housing, along with families, on the hill and in the gulch Crown Lumber closed in 1930, community dispersed, mill burned in 1938

Significance of Japanese Gulch ➢

Japanese mill workers and their families occupied a number of unpainted, one-story dwellings aligned along a plank and dirt road leading up the gulch.

Other buildings: Men’s Dormitory, Community Hall, Boys Club, and Playground

Phase 3 Stream Restoration Complete October 2012

Fish Return to Japanese Gulch Creek!

November & December 2012

Phase 4 – Stream / Wetland Connection Japanese Gulch Creek Creek Wetland

Tribal Requested Habitat Improvement: Install a natural log stepped / notched fish ladder at the mouth of Japanese Gulch Wetland where the outfall flows into Japanese Gulch Creek.

Phase 4 Archaeology Recovery Work

Phase 4 Complete October 2012

本日大 “Dai Nippon” = The Japanese Empire ( 1868-1947 )

起死 “Kishi” = rise from (the brink of) death!

回生 “Kaisei” = return to life!

寶丹 “Houten” = Vermillion Pills Morita’s Houten •Medicinal shop in Tokyo est. 17th C. •“Cure-all” balm popular with soldiers and emerging middle class MEDICINE

中

忠

“Naka”

“Cho”

Common in Japanese Family Name

Confucian Value

•“Nakamura”

•Could be part of a quote or saying

•Center, Middle, also refers to China

•Honesty, Loyalty, Devotion

NAMING, VALUES

瓢箪 “Hyotan” Lagenaria siceraria var. gourda

•Sliced and braised •Dried into a vessel

•Believed to imbue medicinal benefits •Often used as a container for alcohol

ORNAMENTATION, SYMBOLS

Budget ➢

WDFW estimate to eliminate the first fish barrier at Mt. Baker Crossing Culvert: $650,000.00

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Project costs to eliminate 4 fish barriers, reconstruct stream channel and do archaeology work: $375,000.00

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EdCC shared cost for archaeology: $10,000

By creatively working together we significantly expanded the project & saved $265,000.

Questions?