Redesign for Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge

WASHOUGAL — For the past 29 years, Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge has provided some much-needed respite for migratory waterfowl and concrete-fatigued urbanites alike, but things at the site are far from perfect.

“The lake is kind of a closed system encased in reed canarygrass. There’s not much diversity to its habitat and not much diversity to the wildlife,” said Christopher Lapp, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project leader for the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge complex, which includes Steigerwald Lake.

The refuge, some neighboring organizations and the wildlife that depend on it have historically suffered as consequences of the inadequately engineered water management features at the refuge. Now, plans are being laid to redesign Steigerwald in a way that benefits plants, wildlife and people.

“It’s kind of unusual to have a project with so many benefits,” said Debrah Marriott, executive director of the nonprofit Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.

As currently proposed, the roughly 1,000-acre refuge will have its levee along the Columbia River breached; two new levees built at the east and west ends of the refuge; the Gibbons Creek canal and a diversion structure at the canal removed; two culverts and a road removed; its wetlands expanded and replanted with thousands of native plants; and its nature trails rerouted.

“If you connect (Steigerwald) to the Columbia, you create a lot of diversity,” Lapp said. “When you do that you’ll have an incredible diversity of migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, amphibians and mammals that come with it and a much richer ecosystem.”

Breaching the levee

One of the trickiest parts of the project will be to breach the levee that separates the river from the refuge, while still providing flood protection to neighboring properties and state Highway 14.

To combat that, new setback levees will be built to maintain flood protection for private landowners on the east and the Port of Camas-Washougal on the west. There’s also talk of raising the level of state Highway 14 and possibly using Southeast Evergreen Highway as a detour when needed.

The port’s executive director, David Ripp, said during strong rains the current fish bypass system on Gibbons Creek causes the creek to overflow into the port’s drainage system. Some years the port has spent up to $100,000 on electricity to pump the water and prevent flooding on port property.

The port currently maintains a 5-mile-long levee built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that separates the refuge from the Columbia. A 2-mile stretch of the levee will be removed, and the port won’t be responsible for it any longer. Instead the port will manage the two setback levees built at the east and west ends of the refuge.