Restoration at Judd Creek set to create healthy habitat for salmon

Published 4:34 pm Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The possibility for robust salmon runs on Vashon was strengthened last week when King County took the lead in enhancing fish habitat in several hundred feet of Judd Creek.

Along a stretch of stream in the 90-acre Paradise Valley Preserve that the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust owns, workers placed logs in the creek to create pools and protected areas for salmon.

While many people — ranging from loggers to landowners — pull dead wood from streams, those logs are essential for salmon to thrive, according to Paul Adler, the project manager for King County’s Small Habitat Restoration Program, which is overseeing this project .

“Woody debris is a key element,” he said.

Work at the creek was made possible by a vehicle called a spyder hoe, an excavator that is designed to go where other heavy equipment cannot. Given its unusual design, it is able to walk over land, instead of roll across it, and leaves a much smaller footprint behind than other vehicles its size.

Adler said he believes there are only two such vehicles in the state of Washington and that this is the first time one has been used on Vashon.

Using such a nimble piece of machinery was important both in the stream and on land, those involved with the project said, as it was transporting logs that had been thinned from a stretch of overcrowded woods and carried  over a distance of a few hundred yards.

“We want to make sure the impacts of the project don’t outweigh the benefits,” Adler said. “It’s really about having the right tool for the job.”

Adler called this work a “nuts and bolts” project, but it is part of a larger effort that Tom Dean, the executive director of the land trust, calls a “rolling restoration project” at the large swath of land near the center of Vashon. While the land trust owns the property, Dean said, King County has a conservation easement to it, meaning that it can do conservation projects there, but is not required to.

It’s an agreement that works well for both parties, Dean said.

Islander Greg Rabourn, Vashon’s basin steward for King County, was also involved and lined up the project after walking Judd Creek last year and seeing — in what he called the “ground truth” — just how little wood there was in the stream.

Many projects are difficult, Rabourn noted, but this one, in comparison, was relatively straightforward and required a simple direct action to bring about the desired benefits.

“This stream needs wood. Let’s do it,” he said, recounting his decision-making process.

Also helpful, he said, is that Judd Creek is a large enough system that he can fairly easily direct money for improvements to it.

Since purchasing property there over a period of several years beginning in 2004, Dean said they have spent a great deal of time and energy removing weeds and planting conifers, and in particular they are trying to establish more conifers near the stream. They are looking to the future, he said, and are planting trees now for the creek’s health years down the line.

“We want conifers to grow and fall into the stream 300, 500 years from now,” he said.

Indeed, there is much worth protecting there, Dean said. Judd Creek is home to the island’s most stable salmon runs and rare freshwater pearl shell mussels, and Paradise Valley has the best songbird habitat on Vashon.

Future plans include tearing down old homes that are too near the creek and would not be permitted today and, hopefully, developing a loop trail in the area, which would go through an open meadow and the woods and run near the creek as well. Dean noted he is working on a grant for such a trail now, and it would give access for work crews in their ongoing restoration efforts and provide enjoyment to islanders.

“Recreation is really important. We think people should see it, touch it and experience it in ways that do not damage it,” he said.