South Fork Stillaguamish River - Gold Basin silt mitigation project

[Craig Hardt]

Having camped at Gold Basin many times before the closure I have been watching this project closely, and headed up there this week to see for myself if a favorite riffle near the edge of the project are had been impacted.

Sadly that run isn't the same now but still swung up a few spunky rainbows and fish seem to be starting to populate the new channel. The woody debris might make for some decent holding areas once the river settles in and the plant/trees begin to fill in.

And the campsite I used to reserve is gone as that area is now on the other side of the river!



More info on this project that has an aerial photo showing the old and new channel: https://www.heraldnet.com/news/at-gold-basin-a-river-is-moved-to-save-endangered-salmon/. There is an interesting part noting they took the time to trap and move a lot of the fish in the old channel.

 

[Kamishak Steve]

I realize 5.3 million sounds like a lot of money, but in terms of large construction projects, it's really a pretty small budget. Incredible what they were able to accomplish with that. I am hopeful this may help restore the stilly, a river that used to be so incredible but has fallen on very hard times.