Salmon farming

State aims to save fish and protect rural Tualco Valley

By Susanna Ray

Herald Writer

The state wants to spend nearly $1 million to protect and copy a unique salmon-saving project along the Skykomish River in Monroe, one that was promoted nationally during the presidential campaign last year.

And the project would preserve thousands of acres of farmland and a busy state highway between Monroe and Duvall.

These two appropriations appear safe despite continued disagreement over the two-year budget, said Oak Harbor Rep. Barry Sehlin, the Republicans’ chief budget negotiator. The state Senate wants to spend $60 million more than the House thinks is prudent.

Skykomish River projects Washington state plans to spend nearly a million dollars on two Skykomish River programs. One will encourage more salmon recovery projects on farmland along the river opening up old sloughs and channels – as was done with Haskell Slough – to give salmon more rearing habitat. The other is a project to reinforce the riverbank near Monroe to keep it from changing its course and protect the Haskell Slough, farmland and a state highway from being swept away.

But Sehlin said Wednesday legislators recognize the statewide importance of the two projects: $618,000 to build barriers along the Skykomish River near Monroe to make sure the waterway doesn’t change its course, and $250,000 to develop plans for salmon restoration on 12,000 acres along the lower Skykomish River.

The first allotment is in the state’s proposed capital budget. It would be spent to fortify the area where the Haskell Slough joins the river, a spot just a couple of miles east of where President Bush stood during his campaign last year to unveil his environmental policy promoting public-private partnerships.

The slough, which is on Angus beef farmer Dale Reiner’s 300-acre farm in Monroe, was a highly successful undertaking in which private volunteers and public money helped reconnect 11 ponds along the river, restoring a rearing habitat for endangered salmon.

Reiner said studies have shown that the Skykomish River is trying to change its course. If it succeeds, it would not only ruin the poster-child slough, but it would take over numerous family farms and wipe out Highway 203, doing more than $40 million damage. Many Snohomish County commuters use the highway to get to Redmond and the Eastside.

"Obviously, spending $618,000 so you don’t have to spend $40 million makes sense," Reiner said.

The funding has been a priority for local lawmakers "to make sure, in case we get high water and floods, we can protect the work that’s been done," said freshman Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe. As former U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf’s special assistant for natural resources, he has worked on behalf of the slough project for years at the federal level.

John Sayre, whose Northwest Chinook Recovery worked hard to restore the slough, said the barrier would be built several hundred feet back from the water’s edge. That would allow the river to ebb and flow and move a little, but not drastically alter the course it has followed for nearly a century.

"There is some controversy in that some people think that letting the river go back to where it was 100 years ago is the best way to help salmon, and that may be. But you have thousands of people living in the floodplain, so what do you do with them?" Sayre said.

The state needs to move quickly to build the barriers and keep the river from moving, Reiner said, because there hasn’t been a major flood in several years, so another one is due soon.

"The Tualco Valley and all of its residents are in dire jeopardy," Reiner said. "It may already be too late."

The second Skykomish River-related budget item would help a group of six landowners who farm about 2,000 acres along 15 miles of the river. The plan is for the landowners to work with the federal government to come up with a habitat conservation plan to restore salmon and keep farming at the same time.

It will be a pro-active agreement for a specified number of years, said Phil Trask, with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. As long as farmers abide by fish-friendly practices with federal environmental agencies, the government won’t sue them for limited harm their farming activities cause fish. Likewise, they can’t later sue the government for requiring too much of them.

"The bottom line is, this is going to be a cooperative effort between the government and farmers that will put more fish in the river and give farmers more security," Dunshee said. "It gets us out of the suing mentality."

The finished plan will likely involve opening up a number of sloughs and river channels for spawning, just as was done with the Haskell Slough project, Sayre said.

It will encompass an area of about 12,000 acres from the mouth of the Sultan River in Sultan to the spot near Monroe where the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers merge to become the Snohomish River.

It’s expected to cost $500,000 over the next two years for the initial planning and development processes, then possibly more money after that for land compensation. The state will likely agree to give $250,000, and the group is seeking private and federal funds.

While it will be a federal agreement, the state wants to help out. It has a vested interest in helping local farmers keep their farms and helping salmon keep their lives, Trask said.

The new efforts are on the "cutting edge of salmon recovery," he added, so specifics are still being worked out.

Habitat conservation plans are nothing new, but they’ve always been done by large landowners, such as timber companies or local governments. Officials say this is the first time a group of small landowners has come together to form one, and it could be held up as a model for other farmers if it works well.

"If we get it right here," Dunshee said, "this could work across the state."

You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 360-586-3803

or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.