Local News

<< Previous   of   Next >> Mark Mulligan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Llyod Sleasman gazes across the Sauk River at a former fishing hole he frequented before the river shifted to its present location. Sleasman and his wife, Patti, agreed to sell their 1.9-acre lot adjacent to the river to Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe. (click to enlarge) Mark Mulligan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Patti Sleasman talks with her Chihuahua, Bella, as she leaves her home adjacent to the Sauk River. Mark Mulligan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Bud Sleasman crosses a piece of property adjacent to the Sauk River where he used to fish. The tribe, with funding from a grant, is helping residents whose homes are affected by the shifting river relocate. "I thoroughly love this piece of property. I love this river. But you don't know where it's going to be next year," Llyod Sleasman said.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Sauk River will run its course again By Krista J. Kapralos Herald Writer DARRINGTON -- When the rain comes, Patti Sleasman, 66, stands in the scrubby grass expanse in front of her mobile home and stares down Bryson Road, a rural gravel lane that ends at the bank of the Sauk River. Sometimes, there's nothing. Other times, the water flows onto the gravel, lapping up too close to Sleasman's home for comfort. "It scares the weedinkers out of you when you see that," she said. After three years of watching and worrying, Sleasman and her husband, Lloyd, readily agreed when the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe offered to buy the 1.9-acre lot. By this time next year, tribal leaders hope the area that is now Sleasman's front yard will be flooded. When that happens, a host of other problems, including erosion that threatens tribal homes about a mile away, may simply stop. With more than $1 million in state grant money and help from Skagit County, which for years has monitored and repaired flood damage to the eastern end of Bryson Road, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe plans to remove more than 400 feet of rock dike, known as riprap, and let the river flow freely. "This is one of those places that has had lots of fighting with the river," said Devin Smith, an ecologist with the Skagit River System Cooperative, the organization that is advising the tribe on the project. "There have been dikes put in over the last 15 to 20 years that have failed repeatedly," he said. "Erosion has continued even though new dikes have been put in." The existing riprap was placed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this decade when floodwaters breached an old rock wall, Smith said. Tribal leaders knew the new dike would fail to contain the river and would shift the water's power in such a way that erosion would threaten tribal homes nearby, said Richard Wolten, director of natural resources for the Sauk-Suiattle tribe. "It's the kind of river that moves around a lot, and it's been steadily moving in this direction," Smith said as he stood near the tribal homes. Tribal homes aren't the only things in danger. Natural fish habitat is eroding as fast as the river's banks, Smith said. When the dike is removed and the river is restored to its historic course, fish are more likely to thrive, he said. The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded the tribe a $1.2 million grant in December to buy the land in the river's natural flood plain and remove the dike. A large area on the western edge of the river, including the easternmost end of Bryson Road, historically was ideal salmon spawning and rearing habitat when the river was allowed to flow naturally, said Marc Duboiski, a senior grants manager with the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. With the dike removed and the side channel filled, salmon are likely to return and thrive, he said. The tribe purchased four parcels -- about 55 acres -- for about $900,000 in recent months, Smith said. Each parcel had one home and several had barns and other structures. One family took its mobile home when they moved off the land. The Sleasmans plan to do the same. The tribe hopes to move the two remaining mobile homes, as well as a few barns and sheds, to tribal land, about a mile up Highway 530 in an area that straddles the Snohomish-Skagit county line. One of the homes will become a tribal police station. Skagit County has pledged about $100,000 for the project and will send crews to remove the dike beginning late this summer, Smith said. The county has been continually forced to survey the eastern end of Bryson Road for flood damage, Duboiski said. "The project is a win for them because they'll be able to just get rid of that end of the road," he said. Crews hope to remove wells and septic systems from the area in October, and the tribe expects to begin restoring native vegetation in February, Smith said. Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.

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