New Ohop Acquisitions Protect Spawning Beds, Set Stage for Further Restoration
The Land Trust recently executed a rapid series of transactions to advance a two-fold strategy for salmon recovery in Ohop Creek, one of the two main salmon-producing tributaries to the Nisqually River:
Planting native trees and shrubs along Ohop Creek helps restore the spawning area. Ohop Creek is used by all five species of Pacific salmon native to the Nisqually Watershed
One, secure safe passage for salmon by restoring the lower four miles of the creek. (Ohop Creek was ditched over a century ago to drain the Ohop Valley for dairy farming, with devastating impacts to the fish population.) Two, secure the spawning beds immediately upstream of the restoration area to reduce streambed depredation from livestock and residential development.
All five species of Pacific salmonids native to the Nisqually Watershed use Ohop Creek, including Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, both of which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
To secure the spawning beds, we recently acquired 33 acres of floodplain and upland forest along Ohop Creek just outside of Eatonville. The property adjoins 32 acres we acquired in 2016. In total, they contain almost two thousand feet of the creek in the heart of the spawning area.
In turn, these two properties are linked to 160 acres of upland forest owned by the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Together, they form a substantial corridor of protected habitat that is also used by a wide variety of other wildlife, including cougar, elk, black bear, and many bird species.
The purchase was partially funded by the state’s new Streamflow Restoration program and has been ranked for future funding by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. The Land Trust advanced internal reserves to take the property off the market before the remaining grant funds are approved. “It’s a risk,” said Executive Director Joe Kane. “But a bigger risk is losing those spawning beds.”
In October, we added another four hundred feet of Ohop Creek spawning shoreline by acquiring a property auctioned by Pierce County.
Meanwhile, in two transactions downstream, in the lower Ohop Valley, we acquired 90 acres and 1.1 miles of Ohop Creek shoreline from the Pruitt family. The Pruitts are longtime residents and conservation leaders in the valley, and perhaps best known as the owners of the nonprofit Pioneer Farm Museum.
We acquired 90 acres, which includes 1.1 miles of Ohop Creek shoreline, for the next phase of the Lower Ohop Creek Restoration project, one of the largest stream-restoration projects in the state.
We acquired these properties for the next phase of the Lower Ohop Creek Restoration project, one of the largest stream-restoration projects in the state.
In 2015, the Land Trust, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, and a team of local, state, and federal partners completed the first phase of restoration, re-converting 1.6 miles of ditch back to 2.4 miles of meandering, salmon-friendly stream. The $8.7 million project included the planting of 186,000 native trees and shrubs across 180 acres of floodplain.
“The Pruitt family properties will help us set up the next phase,” said the Land Trust’s George Walter, who completed many of the land transactions that made the first phase possible. “It took us fifteen years to acquire the properties for Phase I. We don’t know when Phase II will take place, but one lesson we learned is that you acquire the land whenever it becomes available.”
The properties were acquired with a land donation from one of the sellers, Tim Pruitt, and grants from the state’s Salmon Recovery, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration, and Streamflow Restoration pro-grams. The newly protected land adjoins 72 acres that the Nisqually Tribe and the Land Trust have already secured for Phase II.
