Fisher Slough Restoration

Efforts

Efforts describe the goal-oriented activites of workgroups

• Knowledge Creation
  • Adaptive Management
  • Arts and Crafts
  • Lessons
  • Monitoring
  • Research
• Protection
  • Acquisition
  • Green Infrastructure
  • Regulation
• Restoration
  • Beach Nourishment
  • Engineered Log Jams
  • Fish Passage
  • Revegetation
• Social Change
  • Advocacy
  • Coordination
  • Education
  • Funding
  • Integrated Ecosystem Management
  • Legislation
  • Planning

Effort References

• RCO's PRISM Project Search
• Salmon Recovery Portal
• Ecology's Administration of Grants and Loans
• USACE Regulatory In-lieu Fee and Bank information Tracking System

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Fisher slough is a freshwater tidal marsh restoration project on the South Fork Skagit Delta. The Nature Conservancy of Washington collaborated with local partners to restore the 60-acre site. The project design was guided by co-equal objectives, which were to:

• Restore the processes, structures and functions that support habitat for target species, such as Chinook salmon.
• Restore and improve freshwater tidal rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon.
• Restore passage for coho and chum salmon to access spawning habitat in the watershed.
• Improve flood storage and protect adjacent farm uses.

Activities included a levee setback, relocating and updating drainage infrastructure, installing fish-friendly tidegates, excavating channels and planting native vegetation.

Key Outcomes:

• More than five times more area is flooded regularly by the tides after restoration, providing habitat for salmon.
• There are 10 times as many juvenile Chinook salmon in Fisher Slough after restoration.
• The restored area provides almost five times as much flood storage capacity, reducing the risk of floods to neighbors.

Funding was provided by:

• Dike District 3
• Drainage and Irrigation District 17
• Fish America Foundation
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• NOAA/Restoration Center
• Private donors and foundations
• Skagit County
• Puget Sound Partnership/Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• RCO's Salmon Recovery Funding Board
• WDFW/Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program

Resources

Overall project information

• Summary of the project context, approach and outcomes. File:TNC 2017 fisher slough restoration summary.pdf
• Presentation about the project background, approach and detailed project outcomes. File:Fisher ESRP Webex 20170724 final.pdf
• Grant report to NOAA, which provided $5.7M in funding for design, implementation and monitoring. Report includes detailed information on project background, inclusive and transparent approach, parties involved, design and construction, socioeconomic benefits, lessons learned and monitoring. File:NOAA FISHER SLOUGH FINAL REPORT.pdf

Monitoring Information:

• Fisher Slough Monitoring and adaptive management plan File:Parametrix 2010.pdf
• Fisher Slough Site monitoring results 2009-2015 File:Henderson et al. 2016 Fisher Slough Monitoring Report Final small.pdf
• Fisher Slough Fish monitoring results 2009-2015 File:Beamer et al. 2017 Fisher Slough Fish Monitoring.pdf
• Fisher Slough Floodgate monitoring report for final year/WY2015Henderson and Beamer 2016 Floodgate Report
• Monitoring lessons learned File:Boyd 2013 fisher slough monitoring lessons.pdf
• File:Greene et al 2012 effects of tidegates on fish.pdf and File:Lyons & Ramsey 2013 tide gate synthesis.pdf describes a Fish and floodgate analysis for several sites including Fisher Slough and is an important case study in the tide gate effects on salmonid passage and utilization topic.
• Weinerman et al 2012 - Economic benefits analysis of the Fisher Slough restoration project.

Other Notes

• Beamer 2016 provides a summary of fish effectiveness monitoring (fish and site monitoring through 2013 and floodgate monitoring though 2015), and links back to all previous Fisher Slough monitoring reports.
  • Observed rearing capacity based on density measurements are higher than predicted by the current Skagit model.
  • The details of SRT operations stongly affect fish access to the site.
• Fisher Slough was enabled by an unusually large NOAA award that was enabled by the ARRA stimulus funding.
• Fisher Slough was an early action within a portfolio of "multiple benefit" projects, an approach to restoration further advanced by The Nature Conservancy under the Floodplains by Design initiative.
• Following Fisher Slough and Port Susan Restoration, perhaps due to the scope and scale of these efforts, TNC reduced its focus on direct project implementation.

Related Links

• This is a link to the state contracting record for Fisher Slough Tidegate

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