BATTLE GROUND — After a decade in the making, crews broke ground last week on Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership’s major habitat restoration project on the East Fork Lewis River.
Getting to the construction phase hasn’t been easy. It’s taken hundreds of hours of planning, design, writing grant applications, getting permits, speaking with area residents, as well as coordinating with local, county and state officials and staff, businesses, and environmental groups.
“First and foremost, it took Clark County’s vision for restoring the river. They have acquired strategic properties throughout this area and recognized that this river is a recreational, environmental gem for Clark County,” said Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky, public affairs manager for the partnership. “We wouldn’t be here if the county had not prioritized the restoration of this river for salmon, flood and erosion risk protection, and recreation.”
The restoration project covers a 3-mile stretch of the river impacted by past gravel mining operations, as well as development. One main area of focus is the Ridgefield Pits, nine abandoned pit mines about 4 miles upstream from La Center.
A map from the mid-1800s shows this area of the river once included numerous channels off the main stem of the East Fork Lewis River winding through low-lying wetlands. By the 1960s, the river had been constrained to a single channel to allow gravel mining operations.
Zimmer-Stucky said the goal is to return the river, as much as possible, to how it looked pre-development. That means a river that is “very braided, very broad, not a single confined channel,” she said.
Heavy rains in 1995 caused the river to overrun its levees and flood the former gravel pits. The water has remained trapped in those pits, creating warm water detrimental to juvenile and spawning salmon and blocking access to the upper portion of the watershed.
To restore the river habitat, the project will remove berms and levees used to constrain the river, create new channels, and regrade about 300 acres of floodplain.
“We’ve got a west floodplain channel, an east floodplain channel and then some extra little side channels to connect. Between those, we expect (to have) wetlands,” said Kari Dupler, a member of the estuary partnership’s science team.
Dupler said the floodplain and side channels will help divert energy from the main stem of the East Fork Lewis River, which will reduce erosion along the river.
“By opening those areas up to those winter floodwaters and higher (water) events, we’ve increased the flood capacity of the region,” Dupler said.
Crews will use material taken from the levees, berms and channels to fill in the mine pits, a decision the estuary partnership said makes the most financial and environmental sense.
“That includes the trees, too. The actual earth and rock and everything will be used to fill the pits, but then the trees … will be used to build habitat structures,” said Chris Collins, program lead for Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.
While most of the structures will go in the water, Dupler said some will be in the floodplain to slow the water down during high-water events.
“The reason this is so important is because these floodplain habitats are incredibly productive and rich and vital to a whole host of native species, including salmon and lamprey. So restoring habitats like this is one of the best ways that we can help recover salmon runs,” Collins said.
With a total project cost of $15 million, funding for the project has been another challenge for the partnership.
“There are nine different funding sources for this project. So that’s been a significant effort to cobble all that together,” Collins said.
Project funding has come from the state’s Floodplains by Design program and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other sources.
Construction is expected to take two years to complete with in-water work done between April 15 and Oct. 15 each year. With heavy equipment in the area and temporary bridges placed across the river, the East Fork Lewis River is closed to boaters and other river users for 3 miles downstream from the lower portion of Daybreak Regional Park. During the closure, river users upstream of Daybreak Regional Park will be required to take out at the park’s boat ramp. They can reenter the river downstream from the project area. The closest public launch downstream is the John Pollock Water Trail Park off Northwest Pollock Road in La Center.
