SRFB has accepted the grant proposal that the SIRC submitted to fix Steelhead Heaven Landslide. The project will be finished in the summer of 2006!

Clean water......here it comes!

Great news, now if they could catch the guumbahs netting the Chum to egg them and just leave them on the road.

Some people kids. I blame the parents.

This is Great news! This river currently turns to puke at the slightest rain. Can't wait as my cabin is five minutes away from the stilly.

The slide is on the NF and heck, above the slide it holds color for quite awhile. Love that river. Now below the slide....forget it!!!

Montague Creek and the small creek that hits the river about 200yards below the slide both contribute a lot of silt so I wouldn't expect the river to be crystal clear yet.

I'm with spartan, driving up C post road you will drive on more than two dozen chums laying in the road,gutted for the eggs. Someone needs to really get slapped hard for this one, hope they catch the SCUM that did it.

Right on, I love fishing the stilly and have for about 30 years. I don't think It will take much to make it fishable, at least after it starts clearing But the way it is now it takes forever to clear below the slide. Been a tough river the last couple years, hope its better this year.

rip a lip

same river different topic. i have walked up the hatchery creek and noticed multiple fish obstructions debree and crap. in low flows some of these are impassable by fish trying to get up. last yr i seen 1 dead bright fish wedged under a root wad. should this be fixed or are they calling this structure or protective cover?? if so i think it could be better. i have done several stream improvements and wetland midigation jobs and a few fish ladders. and they were all better than what ive seen up there. just wondering what others thought. FISHON

Whitehorse is not a hatchery, it's just a rearing facility. All of the fish reared there come from Reiter on the Skykomish.

The south fork also turnes to muck with any rain from a slide up in Robe Canyon so I don't know if cleaning up a slide on the north fork will do a whole lot of good.

Gunnar

We (SIRC) are working on a proposal for Gold Basin slide.
We where going to try to get both fixed at the same time but decide not too. $$$


Fishon Garhn

Come to a SIRC meeting and share you’re concerns we have 25 minutes every meeting for question from anyone that is there.

Here is the SIRC web-site:

http://www.co.snohomish.wa.us/publicwk/swm/salmon/stillyplan/index.htm#description

Meeting schedule: Typically held the second Wednesday of the each month from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm.

Meetings are held at Peace Lutheran Church in Silvana here are the directions
Take I-5 to exit #208 (the Silvana/Arlington exit). Go west on Pioneer Highway.
Go about two miles (through the town of Silvana) and turn left onto Larson Road. The church is on the right (north).

Homer,

I would like to attend. I actually love this spot the way it is now. I love the way it effects the river below it......color, and lots of it. Almost like an Oly Pen river I know.......

I don't believe it's endangering any homes on either side of the river. The eagles definatley seem to prefer it.

I've stood there for hours contemplating stabilization or other possible fixes.....I would love to see what has been proposed/decided.

For those of you who have never seen this slide, it looks like one of the Oak Harbor flyboys accidently dropped a bomb here. If you fish there for a couple of hours you will be startled by the noise of TONS of earth spilling into the river, shaking the ground beneath you. On an average day the river is gin clear above the slide and unfishable, for most people, below it.

I love it below the slide because I know how little vis it takes for a steelhead to see/smell/feel a rag/shrimp combo. Not to mention the very light fishing pressure.

Ike

is that true what Preston said about just rearing facility??? if so im confused but whats new lol. i will try to make one of those meetings i live 5 min from silvana and never knew that hmmm... thanks Homer

'tis true.
I might be totally wrong here, but it may have gone from a hatchery to a rearing facility when they were threatening to shut it down due to funding. Maybe around '99 or so?

Edited to add the pic.
This was taken last February. I couldn't fit the whole thing the picture.

So far as I know it's been a rearing facility only for many years. Reiter has been the source of hatchery stock for the Green (Palmer- Kanaskat Rearing Ponds), Skykomish and Stillaguamish and possibly others. I'm not sure whether the Tokul Creek facility on the Snoqualmie is still used as a hatchery or just as a rearing site.

What are they going to do to fix the problam, a homeowner told me 3or 4 years ago they were going to change the course of the river.

What are they going to do to fix the problam, a homeowner told me 3or 4 years ago they were going to change the course of the river.

Where are going to move the river back into the OLD channel. Move the river 500 feet away from the toe of the hill. With LWD the same way they did in the Nooksack River.

http://www.co.snohomish.wa.us/publicwk/swm/salmon/StillyPlan/minagn/2004/sircmin021104.htm

Tracy Drury of GeoEngineers in Bellingham, WA

Designing for Geomorphic Processes: The South Fork of the Nooksack River.

Tracy gave a presentation on the design and implementation of engineered logjams on the South Fork of the Nooksack River. Geo Engineers’ approach to such projects is to place structures that cause a desired reaction in the stream channel. The project objectives included increasing: holding pool habitat, channel length and complexity, wood and sediment retention, suitable spawning gravels, and floodplain connectivity. The structures also were used to attenuate deep-seated landslides, channel incision and peak flows.
Engineered logjams were inserted at mile 20 on the South Fork Nooksack. Over 1800 feet of side channel were reactivated as a result of this project, and a collecting area was created to contain the landslide sediment as it stabilized.
The long-term design of this project plans for channel migration in the future. Expected outcomes are already being met as the project:

•Set the stage for high flows to develop side channel habitat.
•Provides structure that scours pools and redefines the riverbed.
•Retains landslide sediments and allows for reestablishment of an adjacent terrace.
•Sorts sediments and creates spawning areas
•Enhances floodplain connectivity.
•Reverses channel down cutting.

I,ve been hearing that slides gonna be fixed for years so I'll believe it when I see it.

I cant really see it making for clearer water either because the reason that slides so volatile is there's two little feeder creeks undermining the banks. If they move the river over those little feeders will still get into the river, just a little more downstream.

It's funny how if you fish there even just one season every homeowner there will tell you all about it, You can even complete their sentences and they'll just keep on ramblin.

It will happen, and be done late summer of 2006.