| WDNR Community Forestry Grant Restoration/ Biological Monitoring Project
This project involved sixty Enumclaw High School students, their teacher, Michael Buck, project coordinator Ben Brown, field technician Monica Molina landowner Greg Savitsky, the Mid-Puget Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group, Maple Valley Boy Scouts and local citizens in a B-IBI monitoring/tree planting project made possible with a $7,500 grant from WDNR. This section of Newaukum Creek is critical spawning habitat for coho and steelhead salmon. The site suffers from gouging due to an inadequate culvert upstream, organic pollution from the landowners fowl (sorry Greg), as well as sedimentation, severe runoff and extremely erratic stream flows and discharge due to extensive clearcuts nearby in the upper watershed. Restoration took place in the form of riparian plantings (500 native trees and shrubs), placement of larger woody debris (cedar tops), and creation of a natural hedge (nootka rose) to minimize ground cover loss from feeding fowl. Work will also be undertaken to replace the culvert with a larger one or a bridge pending another grant. The success of this project will be montitored beyond the millenium by Enumclaw H.S. who have collected their own chemistry data and have been trained in the methods of the B-IBI. Special thanks to Wabash Farms of Enumclaw for donating native trees and the Utah State University Bug Lab for processing nine bug samples for only $300
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