Any body notice the change?
Some locals change the river!

WFDW
Army Corps
Snohomish County
US FOREST Service
NOAA

It's time to show your colors, and get the local guy!

Violations:

Wild and Scenic River Act
Federal ESA listed fish
Building and Critial area codes
Hydraulic permint requirements
And many more!

Lets put this on every TV and Radio station and news paper!
This guy should be put away for YEARS!

Don't let this one die!
Wild Steelhead are haveing a bad time already

This is what Brian is talking about...

was that a recent bulldozer job?
looks like the area that took a few boats last year, kid sauk posted a photo of it.
cant beleive that someone would think that they could get away with that?

Homer 2..

I don't know the Sauk well, but I don't live far from it either.

Can you tell me more accurately where that area is located? I'll be glad to run out there and take a few pics...

Mike

FishDoctor

Two weeks ago!
I will be up there the next two days

Homer2Handed,

Have you seen that with your own eyes?

It looks like a side channel in the picture.

That might be Kid Sauks new boat launch. Nothing like having a nice gentle chute to warm up your arms before hitting the main water.
Not to worry! It's strictly legal!

Is it excavation or did it change from the floods?

This is part of an email I received about this

Then on a lucky stab, I decided to send a copy of all the e-mails on it
to Dave Pflug, the fish bio for Seattle City Light, when I heard that
some SCL land was recently purchased in the same vicinity within the
last year or so specifically for fish habitat mitigation for the upper
Skagit dams. BINGO! They flew over it the next day and went ballistic.
Appears the rogue inchannel work by the landowner on the opposite bank
may have taken out a logjam along the SCL property (one of the good fish
attributes they bought it for) because they thought it was deflecting
flow against their bank, and they then put big rip-rap in to harden
their own bank and to attempt to get the river to go back the other way.


The river had been gradually drifting that way for 20 years according to
an aerial photo SCL (and sent one to me) showing how the river has kept
developing a long point bar upstream gradually consolidating two
channels around an island gravel bar into one main channel. The big
Oct. flood completed the job of vacating the one smaller channel on the
SCL side of the river from the property owner. The cat and trackhoe
work extensively dug out that smaller channel again hoping to divert the
river back into it.

Of course, this time of year chum, pinks, and chinook are all coming out
of the gravel and are in migration downstream. Potentially ESA listed
chinook redds were in that very area. Chum are known to have spawned in
that area by the thousands this fall as well as pinks. Whatever
survived the flood is toast now. An extensive length of river was
channelized with the big equipment running all through it. Bull trout
and juvenile steelhead were likely impacted as well.

Jerry,

If what you say is true (and I have absolutely no reason to doubt it) then are the Authorities preparing charges against the landowners?

Mike

Just a stab in the dark here but...

Has anyone considered that the landowners are probably the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe?

Lots of accusations and inuendo flying about this excavation but very few facts are being presented. I would suggest getting ahold of the Darrington Ranger Station and asking them about the situation.

I floated the upper Sauk a couple of weeks ago and saw the berm in the picture. It is located near the Sauk Prairie. The farm in the background has lost a few feet of bank each of the last 3 or 4 years. When I floated it the mai river channel was still to the left in the photo and none of the main river area had been altered so any of the reds in that area shouldn't have been damaged. With the flow at around 4.5 there wasn't any water flowing down the "new" channel. I don't think that the land belongs to the tribe as this area is upriver a few miles from the res.

Plunker:

I'm not wanting to be argumentative, but can you give some clarification on your comment, below:

"Has anyone considered that the landowners are probably the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe?"

If it was the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, and the damage to the redds was as Jerry Garcia has suggested, then would they (Tribes) have any justification for doing the damage they did?

If it was the Tribe, would/should/could the Federal Government have any legal recourse for the damage done to these fish stocks?

I don't give a rip who did the damge, if it has seriously damaged the potential recovery of these fish then some action must take place in response.

Mike

WDFW is taking the lead on the ivestigation!

It is 2 miles south of TRIBAL LAND!

I talk with WDFW and SCL today there taking to the air and taking more pictures.

What I've seen of it they drove across the river to do the work, and that what WDFW told me!

The S-S Tribe is pretty unhappy about this situation, too.

Fish on...

Todd

ITS NOT THE S-S TRIBE!

It's up river of them!

The best way to see it, is to FLOAT IT!

It's all private land all around it!

Very interesting stuff here. I haven't heard anything about that up that way. Where is the whole story? Right there in my neck of the woods, but wasn't my bulldozer....mine's broke down

I'll go up there and check it out, but it looks like it's upstream from my place. The floods really screwed things up on the Sauk. The upper float is screwed for a while that's for sure!

kid sauk,

2 river miles below Darrington bridge!

When I wrote this is was mad, I didn't do it justice.

Heres part of and E-mail I got yesterday!

" Investigations are currently being conducted by the
enforcement branches of WDFW, Army Corps, and Snohomish County. WDFW is
taking the lead on the investigation right now, since the primary damage
was to state lands (i.e., the active river channel). I received a call
today from the enforcement division of NOAA Fisheries, who will be
looking into Endangered Species Act violation The Forest
Service has also been involved due to violations under the
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The excavation has violated county building
and critical areas codes, state hydraulic permit requirements, federal
dredging permit requirements, as well as federal ESA and Wildlife and
Scenic River regulation. "

I hope they nail his (the offenders) arse to the wall...

Sad part of it is, no matter what fines or penalty the idiots pay, it won't bring back those fish.

Crap.

Mike

Mike,

You got it!