Lake /Cedar/Sammamish Watershed (WRIA 8) Project Implementation Update

Presentation to the WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council November 17, 2016 Important Recovery Strategies in WRIA 8

• Protect and restore floodplain connectivity • Protect and restore channel complexity • Protect and restore riparian vegetation and forest cover • Restore lake shorelines • Reconnect and enhance small creek mouths (along lakeshore and marine nearshore) Key Accomplishments

• Over 1,500 acres of land protected • Floodplain reconnected to river – 75 acres (mostly on Cedar River) • Riparian invasive plant treatment – over 500 acres • Riparian plantings – 325 acres • Lakeshore armoring removal & enhancement – over 6,500 linear feet

Salmon Run Nature Park Stream Restoration – City of Issaquah

Salmon Run Nature Park Stream Restoration – City of Issaquah • Project Objectives: Enhance rearing, resting, and refuge habitat by restoring instream, riparian, and floodplain habitat on Issaquah Creek. Benefits Chinook, coho, and kokanee salmon.

• Funding: – Cooperative Watershed Management Grant Program: $655,000 – City of Issaquah: $150,000 – Total Project Cost: $805,000 Salmon Run Nature Park Restoration

video Side Channel City of Bothell Sammamish River Side Channel Restoration – City of Bothell

• Project Objectives: Provide off-channel rearing habitat by reconnecting a historic side channel to the Sammamish River and enhance riparian and wetland vegetation. Benefits Chinook and . • Funding: – Salmon Recovery Funding Board (WRIA 8): $483,356 – Acquisition and Restoration (WRIA 8): $356,872 – Cooperative Watershed Management (WRIA 8): $315,114 – King Conservation District (WRIA 8): $40,000 – City of Bothell: $178,909 Sammamish River Side Channel • 1960s – Corps of Engineers straightens and dredges the Sammamish River • Length reduced from ~30 miles to ~14 miles • Classified as a Flood Control Facility Sammamish River Side Channel

From the WRIA 8 Plan: • Restore juvenile salmon habitat along Sammamish River • Improve out-migrant survival • Increase life history diversity • Reconnect river to floodplain Sammamish River Side Channel • Excavated 1,180 ft of side channel – Installed 35 wood pieces in 5 pools • Installed two box culverts under Sammamish River Trail • Planting ~35,000 native plants • Excavation spoils used on site to enhance wetland habitat

Sammamish River Side Channel Lessons and Challenges • It takes a small village to make it all work • When is a river no longer a river? – When it is declared a Flood Control Facility • Difficult to design around (not alter functions) and to incorporate it biologically into habitat restoration. • It can be a significant hurdle (time and $) during permit process. PROJECTS UNDERWAY

Wayne Golf Course City of Bothell / Forterra / King County

Enhancing Riparian Habitat Along River & Stream Corridors • Bear Creek Watershed Riparian Improvement – Similar efforts underway on Cedar River & Issaquah Creek – Basinwide noxious weed survey conducted in September and October – Knotweed treatment to begin in summer 2017 – First private property planting in winter 2016 / 2017 – Comprehensive riparian enhancement program now in place in all Tier 1 sub-basins

Riverbend Floodplain Restoration King County Note: Location and extent of project features is illustrative only. Actual layout will be determined in the design phase.

Lower Taylor Creek Restoration Seattle Public Utilities

Willow Creek Daylighting City of Edmonds

Meadowdale Beach Shoreline Restoration Snohomish County

Existing pocket estuary Restored riparian buffer Widened creek meander and Freshwater wetland enhanced habitat conditions connection to creek Proposed 4-span railroad bridge

Tidal marsh pocket estuary Existing creek with enhanced instream structures & riparian vegetation Ballard Locks