Fish Tale: Project on Cowlitz Promises Improved Salmon Prospects, but Residents See Fish — and Quiet— as the One That Got Away

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Bernie Rodgers lives along the Cowlitz River in a tucked-away corner on the northeastern fringes of rural Toledo. He’s called the secluded slice of land home since retiring and moving away from Adna years ago. 

The river courses just a few dozen yards from his home and a natural island, formerly cloaked in trees, acted as a buffer from the main channel. It was the bucolic nature of the place and its proximity to a prime fly fishing channel along the south side of Otter Creek Island that lured Rodgers in and set the hook. 

Now, though, a wholesale renovation of Otter Creek Island, located just upriver from the trout hatchery on the south side of the river at mile 42.5, has Rodgers casting doubt from the shore, rather than wooly buggers.

“There wasn’t any notice. They just started working,” said Rodgers.

The Toledo resident noted numerous times that he’s not looking for trouble. He just wants to know why there have been three excavators, numerous dump trucks, a pile driver and a rock crusher giving the three-quarter-of-a-mile-long island a crude facelift in recent weeks.

The project began about a month and half ago but has hit full swing in recent weeks. 

“They work on Saturdays. They work on Sundays. You’ll hear them down there dealing with the rocks at 7 p.m.,” said Rodgers.

The project, it turns out, is a multi-agency effort to rehabilitate and create additional salmon habitat in the Cowlitz River. The list of groups involved is extensive and includes the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Tacoma Power, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Ecology.

As it stands today, though, Rodgers can’t see how the drastically altered landscape will be an improvement over the natural outcropping that already existed, and provided him with so many plucky trout.

In order to redirect the flow of water and create an improved ecosystem for both adult and juvenile fish, the island has been slated for a complete transformation. Currently Otter Island, just upriver of Blue Creek, has been denuded of nearly all its once-thick vegetation. Heaping piles of river rock dot the banks and heavy machinery chugs and grinds back and forth. Giant white tote bags stuffed with heavy debris line the shore as a buffer, creating slack pools of river water and dry areas for the crews to work.

“They have moved so much rock. It’s just a mess to see. It used to be quite a sight to see with all the bushes and trees. Now it’s just a mess,” said Rodgers, who harbors fears of shoreline erosion behind his home during winter high water events due to the project.

The Otter Creek Island Restoration Project, as it is officially known, was the brainchild of the Cowlitz Tribe as part of their effort to be one of the leaders in habitat restoration projects in Southwest Washington.

“The primary goal of this project is we’re looking at converting the Otter Creek side channel into a perennial side channel that has year round flow,” explained Peter Barber, a restoration biologist with the Cowlitz Tribe.

Barber noted that the Otter Creek side channel drained empty during the dry summer months and created conditions that were likely to leave fish stranded on dry rock bed.

The project will cut a 1,900-foot main channel through the right-center of the island, and create 28 intentional logjams, a nutrient-rich gravel bar, and the free flowing side channel between the south shore of the island and the south bank of the Cowlitz where it connects with Otter Creek.

“There was already a high flow flood channel and we’re just kind of opening that up and excavating it out,” explained Barber, who noted that the project will require 25,800 cubic yards of material to be shuffled around. 

Besides preventing fish strandings during low water conditions, Barber says that the log jams and nutrient gravel bar will introduce much needed fine particulates into the Cowlitz River.

“This is a system that’s relatively gravel starved because of the dams upstream. So this material is needed in the system and its staying within the system. Ultimately it will enter the stream during high water events,” explained Barber.

Surveying the project site on Wednesday afternoon, Rodgers was not convinced that the grand plan will ever come to fruition. He dismissed the whole project as a “waste of money.”

“It’s going to take a long time for it to come back to any semblance of what it used to be,” forecasted Rodgers.

Barber insisted otherwise, stating he is 90 percent certain that “We’re going to see a large amount of spawning in that gravel nutrient bar and that side channel,” almost immediately.

He noted that the spoils of the excavation portion of the project are the “perfect size material for spawning” and the log jams are “really attractive for spawning grounds for all species; fall chinook, coho salmon, winter steelhead, summer steelhead and spring chinook.”

Right now, though, it takes an imaginative eye to see how the pile of rocks on Otter Island will draw in any fish.

“It’s a work in progress, for sure. Our end-water work date is Sept. 30,” admitted Barber. “But I’m expecting by the end of October there’s going to be a ton of fish spawning in that side channel. It’s going to be one of those things. If you build it, they will come.”

As much as the nutrient bar and the perennial side channel will improve conditions for fish, Barber believes the logjams will prove to be paramount to the effort. The Cowlitz Tribe intends to install 28 log jams at intervals beginning on the north end of the island. The logjams will be created using tree stump root balls locked between tall fir timbers that have been driven vertically deep into river bed. 

“Those log jams are going to be really attractive spawning grounds for all species of salmon,” said Barber. “It’s going to be creating complex cover for the juveniles and adults.”



The origins of the project are as convoluted as the path of a single mountain raindrop flowing to the ocean. Similarly, the project has nearly as many contributing parties as the Cowlitz has tributaries and feeder creeks.

Gus Melonas, the media spokesman for BNSF, explained that the railroad got involved with the project earlier this year in order to fulfill a fish habitat reparation requirement connected to their rail expansion project next to the Columbia River in Kalama. That project will add a third north and south main line 4.5 miles in either direction extending from Kalama. 

Originally, BNSF was supposed to conduct a culvert enlargement project in order to facilitate fish passage. It was ultimately determined, however, that the proposed culvert work would not have enough impact. That’s when the railroad started looking for shovel-ready projects in the area to fund. 

“It was agreed upon collaboratively that this was the best fit,” noted Melonas.

The railroad company and the Cowlitz Tribe were put into contact by the WDFW and the rest of the funding process went by like water under the bridge.

“The project is intended to create some habitat offset for some of the impacts during that rail project,” explained Barber.

Barber added that the Cowlitz Tribe already had funding in place to begin the Otter Creek Island project at a later date, “but the railroad came in and said, ‘If you just want to build it right now we’re ready to fund you.’”

The Cowlitz Tribe quickly accepted the $1.8 million in funding and the big bump forward for their fish project timeline.

Because both projects are on time constraints the associated permitting process was fast-tracked through numerous agencies in order to keep the fish project and the railroad schedule on time.

“Quite honestly, the permitting on this project would take a minimum of two years, but we had it fast tracked and it took about six months,” Barber said. “Everybody had to push our application to the top of the stack.”

With the paperwork out of the way and the project rumbling along toward its completion date exactly one month from today, Melonas says that BNSF is “really pleased with the progress and what will be the end result. From restoration to wildlife enhancement in the area.”

Again though, as well intentioned as the project may be, some of the locals and river regulars are dismayed that the project seemed to pop up out of nowhere without notice. 

Barber said there were efforts to alert the residents of the Blue Creek Homeowners Association and said notices were posted at boat launches at the Cowlitz River trout and salmon hatcheries.

“We’ve just had our heads down grinding away to get things gone,” admitted Barber. “We’ve been talking to any fishermen who’ve pulled in to talk about it and any of the homeowners who’ve walked in from the upper river access point.”

Barber made a point of mentioning the Cowlitz Tribe’s gratitude to the Blue Creek Homeowners Association for allowing access to Otter Creek Island from their neighborhood.

“If they would have told us no, this project would have been done. That’s been key to getting access to the site,” said Barber, who noted that the members of that neighborhood were invited to a pre-project blessing ceremony.

Just one month away from the project’s deadline the excitement is palpable in Barber’s voice. “This is definitely one of the biggest undertakings and one of the largest in-stream restoration projects that the Cowlitz Indian Tribe has taken on,” he said.

Like the project itself, though, the upstream neighbors outside of the Blue Creek Homeowners Association still need some time to come around.

Scott Attridge, a regular angler of the Cowlitz, walked down to the construction site from his house last week and offered his two cents on the happenings.

“If I’d had my druthers I would have said leave it alone, but only time will tell. I honestly think this could be — the operative word being could — this could wind up working out,” said Attridge. “For now, I’ve got to go with let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and see what happens.”

Attridge chatted with Rodgers, his fly fishing neighbor, on the shoreline and told him that if the salmon do indeed flock to the island all of their consternation will have gone for naught. 

Rodgers, though, was not easily convinced, noting that he caught plenty of trout on his fly rod before the big machines came rolling in.

“It’s an interesting project, whether good or bad,” said Rodgers. “It’s just that I preferred the quiet and solitude.”

Come Oct. 1, it’s likely that Rodgers will have that peace and quiet once again while he watches and waits for the fish to return to Otter Creek Island.