Good comments, and an interesting topic--one that lands firmly in the realm of resource management more than anything else.

Having caught fish both above and below the Stilly's color line, I'm not averse to a planned reroute, but to think it'll solve all the river's ills is like thinking a band-aid will solve cancer.

The mass wasting occuring in this stream cannot be attributed only to the slide; neither can the sedimentation. As logging (...hello? can you say Deer Creek?...) and agricultural practices take their toll, the river will be blessed with higher flood levels and lower non-flood norms resulting from the loss of (wetland) biomass. No secret there--seen it in plenty of ruralized watersheds. For some reason this slide has been a bone of contention...perhaps it deserves it, but there are other issues here, and throwing some LWD around will not cut the chocolate cake the river becomes after a good rain.

StillyD has a good point: there are two small feeder creeks that flow through that slide, and gurgle and puke slops of mud like mini-lahars. LWD and rip-rap will not stop them.

Can we mitigate the liver spots this river is showing? Maybe in the short term--but the prognosis becomes more and more bleak with every tree chopped in that watershed.

I applaud the SIRC and the SFRB, because I do believe they have all of our best interests in mind, but the crank in me snorts...pfft--I'll believe it when I see it. Please please prove me wrong.

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No Problem fishkisser99

Have you been up on Little Deer Creek lately?

We are replacing culverts that where choke up with rocks, dirt and wood and adding new culverts where they weren’t any before to help with the slide problems in that area and sediment problem. Little Deer Creek was dumping a lot of the sediment into Deer Creek.

We are in the mist of the 20 – 25 year syndrome, it takes that long for the stumps and tree’s to rot and make the hill side move (land slide) like Boulder Creek, Squire Creek.

Getting back to Steelhead Heaven, the creek on top of the slide is getting closer and closer; if they meet on top there will be a huge slide like we never seen before. We had GeoEngineers (out of Bellingham) come and look at it (2001) and make a proposal on how to fix it, we went and look at what they did on the Nooksack and it’s working there and we don’t have as many slides as they do.

I was up there earlier this year when there was a little slide; it went out 200 feet out from the toe of the hill and about 15 – 20 feet high which block the river (dam) for a while. The river blew though it in an hour, the Stillaguamish has been filling up with sediment for years now because of the slides (and Gold Basin Slide) might be a factor in the flooding in the lower Stillaguamish.

A friend and I have talked about going up to see the slide on the Boulder that is puking it out, but haven't made the trek yet. We don't even know how far up it is.
Squire Creek? You talking about the slide on Jumbo Mountain? That one was mostly rock and large debris that really doesn't wash into the river.

I was up in a plane looking at both slides, I'll have to scan some pictures and post them (that was before I got the digital camera).

Before the slide on Jumbo, Squire Creek would run clean, no matter how much rain. Drove over it a couple of times yesterday and it was high and muddy. It still cleans up fairly quick, faster then most streams up the valley but the slide did have some effect on it.

Fishkisser99's post reminded me about the great information contained in one of the books I read for a course in Hydrology. Fluvial Forms & Processes A New Perspective by David Knighton. This book gives into fairly technical detail, but there are quite a few basic ideas that can be had from reading it. In particular, the first couple chapters can give you some pretty good insight into what is going on with that slide in terms of erosion processes.

However, be forewarned, this would probably be dry reading for most of you, but an interesting read on a day when all the rivers are brown and you wonder why...

Preston they dont trap winter fish at reiter. they get their fish from the snoqualimie. they only trap summers there. they have closed reiter to trap when other rivers are struggling tho. this info comes straight from thr reiter hatchery manager. FISHON

Point of clarification regarding Whitehorse hatchery/rearing pond -
The facility usually takes winter steelhead eggs for there its own program (as I recall they took over 200,000 winter steelhead eggs last season -exact numbers available in the hatchery escapement report at WDFW's web site). It is rare that many summer eggs are taken at that site.

On years of low runs or low water (the returning adults seem to be reclucant to run the creek the needed winter eggs are supplemented from the Snohomish system. On years of good fish abundance winter steelhead eggs on the Snohomish are taken at Tokul Creek (Snoqualmie) and the summer eggs at Reiter (Skykomish). On years of short returns either facility is capable of supplementing the other.

Regarding the Boulder Creek slide - there is a slide that is periodically active located about 7 miles upstream of the creek's mouth. It should be noted that slide area is located in a wilderness area. Much of the Stillaguamish Basin has been cursed with large areas of geological lake sediment deposits (those awful blue clay areas) that casue high turbidities in the basin.

A successful control of the Steelhead Heaven slide would be a boon for anglers as it should reduce the amount of time the river is un-fishable below the slide. However it should be stressed that the project will do little to increase the productivity of the North Fork to produce wild steelhead or chinook. This slide is actually contributing relatively little of the sediment that is being inputed into the system. The 3 major habitat factors that are limiting successful salmonid production in the basin include: 1) elevated stream temperatures, 2) unstable spawning gravels and 3) lack of complex rearing habitats. These habitat failings are due to the lack of stream physical processes that have little to do with the slide.

Bottom line projects such as this slide fix is just a very small baby-step in the long road of recovery.

Tights lines
S malma

Well, there I go again, shootin' off my mouth with a lack of hard facts to back it up. Thanks for clarifying it Smalma, I must have been thinking of the summer run program. I take it then that the Tokul Creek hatchery is still up and running?

Preston -
Another example of how valuable this internet thing is - there is no way that we each individually can keep try of all the various details involved in steelhead biology, management, and fishing but collectively we as group can bring a lot to the table.

Yes the still are taking eggs at Tokul Creek. That station is the most consistent source of winter run steelhead eggs in Puget Sound and often is used to back fill shortages at other Puget Sound hatcheries.

Tight lines
S malma

thanks for all the help smalma. i agree we collectively are a great resource. i learn somthin new everyday even if its what NOT to do lol FISHON