How does the fish cross the road? We’ve got a program that might help

Before (left) and after photos show how a culvert replacement in Whatcom County opened up this tributary to Kendall Creek to more fish. Photo: DNR/DFW/RCO/Project Sponsors

Do you have roads with stream crossings on your forestland? The DNR Family Forest Fish Passage Program wants you to know there is funding available to correct your fish barrier.

Many miles of stream in Washington State are inaccessible to fish because of barrier culverts or other in stream structures. The program’s goal is to help restore declining salmon and trout populations by replacing culverts with new structures that allow fish to migrate upstream and gain access to quality habitat.

Since the program began in 2003, 232 fish barriers, usually road culverts, have been eliminated on non-industrial timberland, returning some 500 miles of stream habitat to migrating salmon and trout. The opportunity to get help with removing these barriers has been popular with many landowners. (Stop by DNR’s Facebok page to see what satisfied forestland owners are saying about the program.)  

DNR’s fish barrier removal program

A contractor installs a 22-foot-span bottomless arch culvert over Miller Creek near Hoodsport. It replaces a 12-foot-wide culvert that blocked fish passage to habitat in the creek’s upper reaches. Photo: Jason Mettler/DNR.

Lack of access to good quality stream habitat has contributed to declines of salmon and trout populations in Washington State. In 2012, DNR removed 134 fish barriers from forest streams on state trust lands, opening an estimated 67 miles of stream to salmon and other fish. Since 2000, DNR has removed 1,184 fish barrier culverts associated with streams on state trust lands. Sometimes, they are replaced by bridges, but other fish-friendly structures include bottomless arch culverts.  

The department’s ongoing project has opened nearly 600 miles of stream for fish habitat. About 276 fish barrier culverts under forest roads on state trust lands remain for DNR to remove by October 31, 2016, when the state’s Forest and Fish Law requires landowners to complete improvements.

Many private forestland owners also are affected by the deadline. Because removing these blockages — usually culverts — and installing more fish-friendly structures isn’t cheap, DNR offers small forest landowners help to replace those barrier culverts. Since 2003, nearly 200 small forest landowners have taken advantage of funding from the legislatively funded Family Forest Fish Passage Program to replace 232 barriers and open more than 485 miles of stream for salmon and trout. But many have yet to apply for the state program—Family Forest Fish Passage Program—which pays nearly all of the costs for landowners

Watch a video about the Family Forest Fish Passage Program and learn how just applying to the program can help small forest landowners deal with regulatory burdens around the culvert removal requirements. The program is administered by DNR’s Small Forest Landowner Office.

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Rock Island mine site reclamation deemed ‘success’

DNR surface mining specialist Bryan Garcia inspects a former surface mine at Rock Island, Washington. Photo: DNR.

A successfully reclaimed mine site in Rock Island, southeast of Wenatchee, now has a beautiful second life as an orchard. DNR surface mining specialists performed their final inspection of the former sand pit in early December 2012 and determined that it met the reclamation standards of the state’s surface mining law (RCW 78.44). Now it is an especially nice orchard overlooking the mighty Columbia River.

DNR regulates mine reclamation,  which includes reviewing plans and issuing reclamation permits under the state’s Surface Mining Act (approvals of mine sites and operations are under the jurisdiction of local governments and other agencies).

Read more about geology and earth resources in the Washington State Geology News published by DNR.

Locate active surface mines and other earth resource operations on an interactive state map.

 

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Sometimes it takes a horse to get the job done

Horse teams are still in use for logging in special situations, such as small timber or in environmentally or aesthetically sensitive areas. Photo: DNR.

Washington State’s forest practices rules (administered by DNR) guide the use of ground-based harvesting systems. Ground-based systems are generally used on slopes less than 35 percent in Western Washington and less than 50 percent in Eastern Washington. The rules also set skidding distances (how far logs may be dragged) and other important activities.

Among the various ground-based systems is one that is fully non-motorized, but has plenty of horsepower: horses, that is. Horse-drawn harvesting can be useful where the timber is small, there will be only partial harvesting on level ground, and the area is aesthetically or environmentally sensitive.

To help small forest landowners, loggers and natural resource professionals — and the public — understand the rules governing forest practices, DNR publishes the online Forest Practices Illustrated. This publication is an overview of the forest rules that protect public resources as well as water, fish, wildlife and state and municipal capital improvements.

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Fire precaution levels rise for workers in the woods, extreme fire danger

The Industrial Fire Precaution Level (IFPL) is increasing in southeast Washington.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced today that the Industrial Fire Precaution Level has increased to a Level III in Zones 609E, 609W, and 675. Level III, or Partial Shutdown, prohibits some activities in the forest altogether, and limits other activities between the over-night and morning hours of 8 p.m. to 1 p.m.  

Those using chainsaws in the forest must follow certain rules:

•  Chainsaws must have approved, working exhaust systems.
•  A one-hour fire watch must follow the last use of a chainsaw.
•  A fire extinguisher, containing at least 8 ounces of retardant, must be in the immediate vicinity of where the chainsaw is used.
•  A shovel must be retrievable in two minutes or less.

To learn more, go the DNR’s Industrial Fire Precaution Level website.

Firewood cutting closed, too
Until the precaution level returns to Level II, firewood cutting is closed for people who hold a DNR personal firewood cutting permit for the Ahtanum and Naneum Ridge State Forests. When fire precaution level allows, firewood cutters also must follow the chainsaw use instructions above.  

Daily updates
Daily updates on burn restrictions are available at 1-800-323-BURN or on DNR’s website at www.dnr.wa.gov, then click on ‘fire information and prevention’ and go to ‘wildfire related maps.’ The ‘burn risk map’ link is in the bottom, right-hand corner.

Statewide burn ban
In an effort to reduce human-caused wildfires, DNR issued a statewide burn ban on all DNR-protected lands, effective July 1, 2012, through September 30, 2012. The ban includes all forestlands in Washington except for federal lands. Campgrounds may have additional burn restrictions in place. Campers should check with their campground host before starting a campfire.

Got ideas for reducing flooding in the Chehalis Basin?

A draft report looking at possible causes and solutions to repeated flooding in the Chehalis River Basin is online for public review and comment by August 10.

The Chehalis Basin Flood Mitigation Alternatives Report — July 16, 2012, Draft, was prepared by the Ruckelshaus Center, a nonprofit set up by Washington State University and University of Washington to promote collaborative problem solving in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. The report uses technical information provided by several other organizations and agencies, including DNR.

The report focuses on 55,000 acres of timberlands in the Willapa Hills, the epicenter of large storms in 2007 that caused up to $500 million in damage in the Chehalis Basin and closed Interstate 5 for four days. Another flood in January 2009 also closed I-5 and produced near-record flooding along several area rivers.

Requested by the 2011 Washington State Legislature, the report summarizes the pluses, minuses, costs, and alternatives to reduce future flood damage in the basin through:

• Water retention projects on the Chehalis River;
• Levee improvements around the Chehalis-Centralia Airport;
• Flood walls to protect Interstate 5 in the Chehalis / Centralia Area;
• Improvement to the US Army Corps of Engineers levee system around Centralia and Chehalis; and
• Other approaches, such as land use management, raising home elevations, buyouts, and livestock evacuation and sanctuary areas.

If you have ideas about which flood hazard mitigation projects should be considered and why, please send them to the Ruckelshaus Center by email to melissa.kuehne@wsu.edu or by mail to: Melissa Kuehne, Ruckelshaus Center, WSU West, 520 Pike Street, Suite 1101, Seattle, WA 98101 by Friday August 10, 2012.

Comments received by the August 10 deadline will be taken into account as the report is finalized and included in an appendix to the final report so they become part of the record of the process. The final report is scheduled for release in September.

Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program is looking for landowners

Since 2002, when funding first became available, 16 easements have been purchased the Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program to protect important habitat.

There’s the old saying that you never step into the same river twice. Then there are those rivers that never stay in the same place — the channel changes every few decades or more often. Things get complicated when the active channel of a river or stream is prone to move over the short term, especially when it is used to designate a boundary or a management zone.

Where these changeable rivers run through wide valleys and have only a modest gradient (a downhill flow of less than 2 percent), they are called channel migration zones. There are several along the Skagit River.

Channel migration zones have other features. They can be rich areas for wildlife, such as spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and other fish species, which is why Washington state forest practices rules do not allow landowners to harvest timber or build roads in a channel migration zone. A river in a channel migration zone adds a lot of uncertainty for landowners who want to harvest their trees. Into the gap comes the Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program administered by DNR.

The Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program is designed to ensure long-term conservation of these river resources and habitats while reducing some of the economic impact on landowners in active forestry. The program buys conservation easements. Two types of habitat can qualify for RHOSP easements: trees within a channel migration zone and trees within critical habitat for state-listed threatened and endangered species (like northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets) in upland areas.

After screening and ranking applications from eligible landowners DNR can purchase easements. What we need now is a show of interest from landowners so the program can find appropriate funding in coming years.

If you own working forestland in a channel migration zone or within habitat for a state listed threatened or endangered species in the upland  that may qualify for a Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program easement, please send us a Notice of Intent online. It’s not an application, just an expression of interest. Find more information, including other ways to indicate your interest in the program, by sending an email to DNR’s Rivers and Habitat Open Space Program.

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New monitoring report samples compliance with state forest practices rules

Correct measurement of streams at their ‘bank full’, or full capacity, widths allows the forest landowner or operator to designate which trees will be exempt from harvesting. Photo: DNR.

Private forestland owners in Washington State are making improvements in some aspects of compliance with state’s forest practices rules that protect fresh water and wetlands, a DNR report finds. The ‘Forest Practices Compliance Monitoring Report, 2010-2011’ summarizes field inspection results from a statewide sampling of projects with approved Forest Practices Applications. The sampling looked at the rate of compliance with state rules for building logging roads and harvesting timber near streams.

The report found that landowners overall were in compliance with required forest practices applications most of the time. Most of the instances of non-compliance with the state rules were rated as ‘minor’ in severity. Road haul route activities were assessed at 96 percent compliant. See the full report for an explanation of the sampling and field protocols used and other information.

The sample found that large industrial forest owners usually had better compliance rates than small forest land owners, an outcome that could be due to the complexity of some forest practices rules. The state’s forest practices rules designate no-harvest (see Tables 5 and 6 in the report) and limited harvest zones of varying widths along streams and waterways.

Failing to making correct measurements was often the cause of a landowner’s or timber harvest operator’s noncompliance with the state rules. For example, failing to correctly measure the width of a stream at its ‘bank full’, or full capacity, distances could lead the landowner or operator to designate too few or too many trees as exempt from harvesting.

In response, DNR has initiated a multi-year education and outreach program to improve the department’s assistance to landowners and operators of timber harvests.

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4th of July and fire season safety on DNR lands

Happy Independence Day! As you head out to celebrate, DNR wants you to remember this message.

Although other states have been experiencing an active fire season for months now, the 4^th of July is typically when Washington’s fire season really kicks off. DNR’s fire incident commander Rex Reed has a message for everyone to consider as the holiday and warm, dry weather approaches.

 

Every year Washington suffers fires started by rouge fireworks. Remember that it is illegal to discharge fireworks on all DNR lands. Also there is currently a state-wide burn ban on all DNR lands.

Stay connected this wildfire season with real time updates on DNR’s Fire Twitter site. Get more info at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ and stay connected with our social media:

Stay connected with DNR’s social media sites:

• “Ear to the Ground” blog

• Flickr

• Facebook Fan page

• YouTube

To get information on wildland fires in other states, visit the InciWeb Incident Information System page.

If you live in an area at risk to wildfires, remember to visit Firewise.org and FEMA for information on protecting your home and your family.

 

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Burn ban on DNR-protected lands starts this Sunday, July 1

Fires like this are required to be in approved fire pits in designated state, county, municipal or other campgrounds during this years burn ban. Photo by DNR

This Sunday, DNR will initiate a statewide burn ban on its protected lands for most types of outdoor burning from July 1 to September 30.

Wildfires are often started by lightning, but many fires are caused by people. Some of the most destructive fire threats to our state’s wildlands and homes in rural areas can be traced to one of three sources: careless campers, escaped debris burning, and indefensible space around homes. It’s time to recognize the wildfire threat and promote action.

This year, there will be another statewide burn ban on all DNR-protected lands, July 1, 2012, through September 30, 2012. This means all forestlands in Washington under DNR fire protection; the burn ban does not apply to federal lands.

Already this year, DNR has dealt with 66 wildfire starts which burned approximately 507 acres — all caused when people allowed flames or sparks from outdoor burning to escape.

The ban will apply to all outdoor burning on DNR-protected forestlands with the following exceptions:

• Recreational fires in approved fire pits in designated state, county, municipal or other campgrounds;
• DNR-approved prescribed fires, which are used to enhance or restore fire-dependent ecosystems and forest health (but only in cases where it’s necessary for the prescribed fire to occur between July 1 and September 30); and
• Gas and propane self-contained stoves and barbeques.

When implemented, the burn ban will take precedence over and supersede all other burn bans currently in effect on DNR-protected forestlands.

DNR has a Wildfire Prevention Tip Card that explains how you can prevent wildfires and keep your home and community safe. Check out the DNR Burn Map to view the fire danger in your area.

Get information about major wildfires and fire conditions in Washington State by following DNR’s Fire Twitter news feed.

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