Port of Chehalis staff meets with an archeologist with Archaeological Investigations Northwest at the restoration site along Berwick Creek.
Port of Chehalis CEO Randy Mueller gives port commissioners an update on the Berwick Creek restoration project at a virtual meeting last week.
The Port of Chehalis has been working to restore a section of Berwick Creek that is adjacent to the Chehalis Generation Facility, a natural gas power plant.
There are two purposes for this project. The first is flood damage protection, and the second is habitat restoration, as the creek is becoming overrun with invasive species. The project aims to remove invasive vegetation — including Himalayan blackberry bushes and reed canary grass — to make the creek a healthier, free-flowing waterway that is more hospitable to fish and wildlife.
“(Berwick Creek) has been pretty man-altered over the years … We’re really trying to restore this creek so that it flows freely and the invasives are out. And also, keeping the creek in the creek channel to avoid flood damage to neighboring properties when waters get high,” said Port of Chehalis CEO Randy Mueller.
In 2019, the Port of Chehalis received a grant of $410,629 through the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority to complete the restoration work, which must be completed by the end of this year. Berwick Creek is not on port property and the section the port is working on is owned by the Industrial Commission.
“There aren’t really grant programs available for private landowners like there are grant programs available for government agencies,” Mueller said. “There’s a pot of money for flood projects from the flood authority that the port was able to apply for, and it’s a good use of the funds.”
There are a couple of archeological sites around the restoration site that need to be avoided when completing the restoration work. The Chehalis Valley is rich in archeological sites where artifacts from Native American settlements could be found.
“The process has been delayed extensively due to back and forth with the core of engineers and the tribes. The Quinault Indian Nation wanted to see some additional work there. That finally got resolved and the archeological plan got approved,” Mueller told the Port of Chehalis commissioners at their last meeting.
The next step is getting the archaeologists out in the field to dig holes to begin looking for archeological material.
The crews were out on the Berwick Creek site early last week, but the creek is high and water is about a foot deep, making the archeologists’ work infeasible. Mueller anticipates Archaeological Investigations Northwest starting the archeological dig in the spring.
“We’re still hoping to do all of the construction this summer,” Mueller said. “This is a community project with an environmental benefit.”
