The 96th Street Oxbow Project is sponsored by the Puyallup
Indian Tribe and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement
Group (SPSSEG). The Trustees contributed approximately
$61,000.00 from the Restoration
Account toward the project to enable construction
to occur in 2004. The design objectives include: enhancing
the intertidal area for juvenile salmonid migration, establishing
marsh vegetation, and protecting the site for natural
resources.
The site is bounded by the Puyallup River, straddles
a street intersection, and lies beneath a high tension
right-of-way. A small (four-acre) wetland on-site has
perched drainage (10 feet above summer flow) to the river
and is choked by vegetation, which provides no functions
directly beneficial to fish. The wetland is almost entirely
covered with dense Himalayan blackberry which limits habitat
function and use. Excavating the bottom of the wetland
outlet five feet (150 cubic yards) will provide more frequent
inflow from the Puyallup River and allow fish passage.
Flushing would allow for export of primary production
and a limited degree of flood storage will become available.
Clearing the invasive vegetation and increasing the flood
frequency in this wetland will provide backwater habitat
for juvenile salmon over-wintering and rearing. The shallow
water in the emergent wetlands will provide for predator
avoidance and foraging habitat. Overall, the participants
in this project believe that this new habitat will thrive
with its increased plant diversity, invertebrates and
new salmon habitat.
Restoration Activities
The Trustees partnered with the South Puget Sound Salmon
Enhancement Group (SPSSEG), a non-profit conservation
and restoration organization committed to restoring South
Puget Sound salmon habitat, to implement this project.
The project reconnected the oxbow and associated wetland
to the mainstem of the Puyallup River by replacing the
12" diameter culvert with a 72" diameter aluminum
culvert and excavating and widening a 190-foot channel.
The culvert and roughened channel provides juvenile salmonid
access to the oxbow during most flood levels and creates
beneficial habitat for juvenile coho and chinook salmon
and steelhead and cutthroat trout.
Related Documents
Handout on 96th
St. Oxbow Project. Proposal from SPSSEG . 02/04.
Handouts (newsletter/brochure)
about the SPSSEG. Fall 2003.
