OLYMPIA — Initial surveys by state biologists have found that last month’s flooding severely damaged or washed away salmon-spawning habitat in the Chehalis and Willapa watersheds.
More than 90 percent of the fall chinook, 100 percent of the fall chum, and up to 40 percent of the fall coho had spawned before the storm in both of the southwest Washington river basins.
Biologists with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said that the combination of habitat and salmon eggs scoured away by floodwaters or buried under silt means that adult chinook, coho and chum salmon returns to the storm-damaged rivers and streams could be greatly reduced when they return to spawn in the next few years.
The heavy river flows created new side channels and abandoned others in the Puyallup and Nisqually rivers, which left some salmon egg masses, known as redds, high and dry.
However, the increased flows will benefit coho adults that enter the streams after the floods or survive the floods because they will be able to penetrate deeper into the watersheds, seeding larger areas with new fish.
Meanwhile, storm damage to a scenic state park about 10 miles west of Centralia and Chehalis reached $6.5 million, much worse than previously estimated, legislators have been told.
On Wednesday, during a tour of damage from the fierce winds and drenching rain in early December, lawmakers were told that damage to Rainbow Falls State Park amounted to $6.5 million, including $1.8 million to repair a vehicle bridge and adjacent footbridge.
Less than two weeks ago, State Parks and Recreation officials estimated total storm damages to 40 parks at $5 million. Rainbow Falls is in the upper Chehalis River Valley, where some of the worst damage to homes, farms and businesses occurred.
Other damage at Rainbow Falls included heavy siltation from flooding in restrooms and the park manager’s home. Inmates from the Cedar Creek Corrections Center were working to remove some of the mud during the tour.
J. Paul Malmberg, southwest regional parks manager, said it would take at least a year to obtain permits and rebuild the bridges.
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