North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center students revisit Morse Creek for Restoration work

High School Students get to experience the first high flow at Morse Creek - November 1

Morse Creek NOPLE Tour

Moving Rivers.....Restoring an Ecosystem

Project Manager, Kevin Long, looks back at the new channel filled with water.
Thanks Kevin for all the hard work and time you put in to make this project a success!

Lower Elwha S'Klallam and Jamestown S'Klallam tribal members and staff helped NOSC relocate fish to the new stream channel.

Proud netters of an adult pink salmon.

The first signs of success, adult steelhead occupying the new channel.

Morse Creek Newspaper Article

Check out this article on in the Peninsula Daily News discussing the Morse Creek project.

Morse Creek Photographs

Follow the link below to pictures of the Morse Creek Restoration taken by Tiffany Royal of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwifc/sets/72157624698475822/

Volunteers needed at Morse Creek!

Keep your calendar open from the 23-25th of August because NOSC, in partnership with the Lower Elwha Tribe, will be relocating fish from Morse Creek. During this week, water from Morse Creek will be diverted into the newly constructed channel, so the fish downstream from the diversion will need to be picked up and moved down below the blockages. We will need strong, hardy volunteers who are willing to carry buckets of fish and water along the streambank in a timely manner. If interested, please RSVP Sarah Doyle, Americorps Intern: intern@nosc.org or (360) 379-8051

Images from Project Construction

A view down the future stream channel

Drilling the log pilings into the stream bed

Beginning to build the log jams along the new stream channel

Project Manager, Kevin Long, gives a tour of the

restoration site

Log pilings mark the beginning stages for the creation of a log jam

Morse Creek Channel Restoration Under Way!

The Morse Creek Riverine Restoration Project aims to re-activate 1700 feet of channel and floodplain as it existed around 1930 prior to installation of a dike which pushed the river against the valley wall. The project, on Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife property, will restore mainstem, side channel, and off-channel habitat in a stream reach which has been been severely degraded by human impacts. Currently, the stream is channelized, confined, over-steepened, diked and extremely energetic and paved with large cobbles and boulders resulting in extremely poor fish habitat conditions for all life stages.

Project Site Overview

Restoration work will include:

Removal of portions of 1,100 feet of dike
Restoration of the 1939 stream channel, reconnection of the stream with 9.3 acres of floodplain
Construction of two substantial engineered log jams and instillation of additional wood habitat features

Improvements will benefit ESA-listed steelhead, bull trout, pink salmon, coho salmon, chum salmon and out-planted Elwha Chinook.

Pre-Construction Image of Morse Creek Channel
Notice the limited spawning gravel and mainly large cobbly substrate
that is unsuitable habitat for salmon