PORT ANGELES — After 71 years confined to a narrow channel, Morse Creek has been set free.
The North Olympic Salmon Coalition and its partner agencies last month reactivated 2,400 feet of the channel and floodplain as it existed in 1939, before a dike was installed that pinned the creek against the valley wall and cut off the large stream from 9.3 acres of floodplain.
The Morse Creek realignment is intended to restore salmon and trout habitat upstream from U.S. Highway 101 near the S curve east of Port Angeles.
The straight and narrow streambed damaged salmon habitat by scouring the sediment and gravel that salmon use for laying eggs.
“It was like an express lane, and it took all the good habitat with it,” said Kevin Long, North Olympic Salmon Coalition project manager.
“There is still good habitat in the historic channel, so all we had to do was realign the creek.”
Water from Morse Creek was diverted into the newly constructed channels. Fish in the old channel were relocated by volunteers.
Engineered logjams
Crews installed 19 engineered logjams in the historic, meandering path of Morse Creek.
The logjams were placed to create new habitat for juvenile and adult salmon. Logjams will slow the current as runoff pours from the Olympic Mountains.
“I can see it now, the water coursing through there, bouncing off each jam and the flow going downstream,” said Rebecca Benjamin, executive director of the North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
Morse Creek has pink, coho, steelhead and chum salmon. Chinook that historically used the creek are locally extinct, wildlife officials said.
The old creek bed has been plugged up, forcing the water to go down the new main channel and three new side channels.
The side channels allow the creek to flood naturally during big rain events and allow salmon access to existing good habitat.
The North Olympic Salmon Coalition has been working in partnership with the Lower Elwha Klallam and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes.
Additional partners include the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Clallam County, Department of Ecology, Fish America, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program and National Association of Counties.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
