Current Projects

Cottonwood Island Slough Restoration Design

Cottonwood Island

In December 2009, Skagit Conservation District’s engineering program received a grant from the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB Grant No. 09-1443N) to complete a preliminary engineering design for restoring river flow from the Skagit River into Cottonwood Island Slough. Cottonwood Island, which is located just upstream of the Skagit Forks, is part of WDFW’s Skagit Wildlife Area. A century ago, a large side channel meandered around the island and reportedly provided high quality rearing habitat for out-migrating juvenile Chinook and other salmon. Today, the channel only fills with water during floods.

SCD’s engineering study will build upon two previous hydrologic and habitat assessments that were commissioned by the Skagit Watershed Council to design modifications to the existing channel for optimizing rea ring conditions for Chinook smolts. The design parameters for the present study will focus on ensuring a specific range of water velocity and depth conditions in the channel during the crucial March through June period when juveniles are migrating into the delta, while preserving other existing land uses, such as public fishing access and flood protection.

SCD and our partner organization, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, are excited about the prospects of this project for making a significant contribution to achieving the Skagit River Watershed’s numeric production goal for wild Chinook smolts, which is mandated under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for recovering threatened Puget Sound Chinook Salmon. SCD anticipates that the project will run from approximately January 1, 2010 to March 30, 2011. Selected project documents can be accessed from the list below. The list will be updated with new material during the course of the study. For more information about this project or to receive periodic project updates, contact Tom Slocum at email tom@skagitcd.org .