For Fish & Farms - Kodama Restoration Project
Reinvigorating a creek within a reimagined farm.
Survey work and planting of an edible hedgerow - the future boundary to the riparian buffer - have already commenced among the day-to-day operations of the farm.
The Scope of the Kodama Project
Kodama Farm is located along the Beaver Valley, with the East Fork of Chimacum Creek flowing through the property.
Kodama farmers construct a new greenhouse. The East Fork of Chimacum Creek lies along the bottom of the valley, just beyond the greenhouse.
Chimacum Creek
Chimacum creek lies in the heart of a rich agricultural valley, home to many small farms that support the local economy.
The salmon of Chimacum Creek also have significant importance to the community -- a community that came together to restore the run of summer chum on the creek from extinction. Learn more about this inspiring success story in the link below!
The restoration of the creek to bolster salmon habitat presents a unique opportunity to bring together the interests and needs of both local farmers and fish -- two parties that have historically been at odds. The restoration project at Kodama Farm and Food Forest seeks to show the way these two parties can not only coexist but thrive.
Footage courtesy of John Gussman.
Together with the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Kodama Farm and Food Forest seeks to protect the farmland, forests, and fish.
The Project at Kodama
Diving into the transformation in progress...
Kodama Farm and Food Forest 2021 - Photo courtesy of Torin Blaker.
Getting Oriented to the Project Site
Orient yourself: notice North is pointing towards the right side of the image. The farm operations are on the east side of the creek, along the bottom of the image.
1 - East Fork of Chimacum Creek
The East Fork of Chimacum Creek runs south to north along the farm. Currently, the creek flows in a straightened, channelized, ditch with full sun exposure.
Nate Roberts, Stewardship Coordinator, and volunteers discuss the riparian restoration plans next to Chimacum Creek at Kodama Farm. They are standing in a patch of the invasive reed canary grass. The grass crowds out native species, but dies back in the winter, allowing exposed soils to easily erode away.
2 - Eastern Tributary
The eastern tributary to the East Fork of Chimacum Creek has also been straightened and flows through a channelized ditch.
3 - Completed Edible Hedgerow
The first phase of the project to be implemented was the planting of an edible hedgerow. It extends along both white lines. Look carefully for the circles of freshly exposed soil in two straight lines.
The hedgerow will provide a transition from the farm operations to the revegetated riparian area adjacent to the creek. Creekside of the hedgerow will eventually be planted with native species as part of the riparian restoration. It will slow and filter runoff from the farm, helping to ensure the water stays clean and clear for the salmon.
NOSC Volunteers plant various edible berries to create the edible hedgerow.
The hedgerow will also produce various unique edible berries for the farm, including:
- Aronia
- Blueberry
- Elderberry
- Currants
- Gooseberry
- Quince
- Hazelnuts
Learn more about Kodama's farming practices by visiting their website!
Diving into the Designs
Orient yourself - notice Chimacum Creek (light blue) is flowing North towards the top of the image and the farm operations are along the east side of the creek on the right side of the image. The map has rotated 90° from the aerial photo.
The project contains several main features:
- Remeandering the main channel
- Building a side channel
- Remeandering the lower Eastern Tributary
- Creating a beaver pond
- Installing engineered log jams in main and side channels
- Revegetating a riparian buffer along the channels (shaded green areas)
This will result in numerous improvements in habitat value.
Estimated improvements to habitat. Natural Systems Design
What Does Remeandering Do?
In a wide valley, a natural stream meanders back and forth across the entire floor of the valley. Humans have straightened streams for many reasons - to build houses, roads, or in the case of Chimacum creek, to optimize the amount of usable land for agriculture. Remeandering takes a straightened stream and recreates the natural bends and curves by excavating a new channel.
An example of a remeandered stream is shown on the left. The blue line shows where the straightened creek flowed prior to the restoration. Salmon Creek was remeandered as part of a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Jefferson County Conservation District project in the early 2000s.
A meandering channel increases the length of the stream over the same distance - this allows water to slow down, reducing erosion and incision. It also increases the streams resilience to flooding, as there is more space for the water to flow, before overtopping its banks.
A meandering channel also adds complexity to the stream, allowing for fast moving water along the outside of the bend and slow moving water and eddies along the inside of the bend.
Sections of slow moving water are important nursery habitat for juvenile salmon. Less erosion and slower water ensure clearer water with less suspended sediment preventing salmon redds from being suffocated by sediment.
What is the Purpose of a Side Channel?
Side channels provide additional area for the volume and energy of the creek to spread out. Just like remeandering, building side channels adds length to the creek over the same distance, increasing available habitat while further slowing flood waters.
Side channels are important parts of the stream ecosystem. During high flows they provide refuge to juvenile fish from the strong currents in the mainstem. Here fish can feed, hide from predators grow large enough to make the journey to the ocean. While returning adults rest here on their upstream journey or may choose to spawn if conditions are right.
Design plans show the path of the remeandering and side channel. The straight vertical dotted line shows the current path of Chimacum Creek. The implementation of this project will add 300 feet to the main creek channel and 650 feet of side channel to the current length of Chimacum Creek.
As water levels rise with rain and flood events, side channels provide additional area for water to flow prior to overtopping the banks of the river. This will help to mitigate flooding on Kodama Farm and areas downstream.
Flooding is currently a common problem for farmers along Chimacum Creek. Here, the creek flowed over its banks at Kodama Farm in 2021.
The newly constructed side channel on the left will create new rearing habitat for juvenile salmon on the Dungeness River. This side channel project was completed by the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and NOSC will be revegetating the riparian area in the winter and spring of 2023.
A Farm-Friendly Beaver Approach
Ponds behind beaver dam provide crucial rearing habitat of deep cold water for juvenile salmon year round, especially coho and steelhead who will spend 1-2 years rearing in the stream before making the journey out to sea.
While beavers are good for fish habitat, the flooding they create does not always intersect so well with agriculture! On the Kodama project we will be excavating a pond to create habitat where beavers and juvenile fish will be attracted to reside. Farm operations have been set back from the active floodplain to minimize conflicts with the inevitable habitation by beavers here in Beaver Valley! Beaver exclusion fencing will also be used to keep beavers out of areas where we are working to establish new riparian forests. They’ll find their meals in other areas of the project purposely designed to be less sensitive to their browsing.
What does a Riparian Buffer do?
A riparian buffer provides numerous services to the stream that help to improve salmon habitat including:
- Providing shade to the stream, to help keep the water cool. In warm water, salmon's metabolism speeds up, causing the fish to burn more energy. Cold water helps spawning salmon conserve energy to be able to successfully reproduce. Mature trees, especially tall conifers are excellent sources of shade.
- Stabilizing banks to reduce erosion. Tree roots form spiderweb-like nets throughout the soil, helping to keep the soil stable and in place even during flood events. Reducing streambank erosion helps keep fine and suspended sediment levels lower. Fast growing and wet-tolerant plants like alder and willow are especially great at stabilizing soils quickly.
- Filtering toxins. Root networks of plants filter water as it moves through the soil to the stream. This can capture excess nutrient runoff from animal manure other farm operations. It can also filter out other pollutants from nearby roads.
- Creating complexity by adding large woody debris to the stream. Over time, as trees grow and fall into the creek, the riparian buffer will create new sources of large woody debris. Woody debris in the river helps create pool habitat for juvenile fish to hide and feed in and for spawning adults to rest along their journey back. Mature coniferous trees provide great long-term woody debris in streams as they are slow to decompose in water.
- Providing habitat to support a diverse insect population. A diverse array of native plants helps to support a healthy insect population - an important food source for growing fry!
Lexi Wagor, WCC NOSC Individual Placement 2020-21, performs surveying work at Kodama Farm among the current predominant creek-side vegetation - invasive reed canary grass.
How are Engineered Log Jams (ELJs) Installed?
On a much larger scale, the construction of ELJs at Morse Creek can help us understand the engineering process behind their installation.
Plans for ELJs to be installed at Kodama Farm - a type appropriately sized for Chimacum Creek. Click on design to expand.
The restoration of the creek will include the installation of dozens of ELJs. These must be securely installed so they are not washed away during high flows.
At Morse Creek, this involved driving logs deep into the banks and streambed.
Layers of logs and rock secure the ELJs in place.
Rocks and sediment are used to bury the logs back up to the level of the streambed.
As natural large woody debris is swept downstream, ELJs help to capture and hold the wood. This further builds the logjam and helps build complex habitat!
Learn more about the Morse Creek Restoration project:
When completed, the section of Chimacum Creek flowing through Kodama Farm will be transformed into a rich and vital habitat for salmon.
Sketch of what the Kodama Farm property will look like when the restoration project is completed.
Want to be a part of it?
Volunteers are a crucial part of the execution of our restoration projects. Riparian plantings are enormous undertakings and require a lot of human-power!
Visit our website to find out how to get involved.
Not everyone can give their time, but you can still support our restoration work by contributing financially to the work we do.
Our community of volunteers and donors make this work possible.
