Cherry Creek Floodplain Restoration

Historically, Cherry Valley, western Washington State, was a vast shrub-scrub wetland, with beaver ponds and patches of wooded wetlands (not unlike the remnant one remaining on a portion of the WDFW property in Cherry Valley) offering a diverse variety of salmonid rearing habitat and access to spawning habitats. During the early part of last century, Cherry Valley was significantly modified to support agricultural practices. To create pasture land, the mainstem Cherry Creek was ditched, straightened, and a levee and pump house were constructed to reduce flooding. These changes severely compromised salmon habitat in the Cherry/Snoqualmie floodplain, reducing the availability of off-channel high-flow refuges, juvenile rearing areas, and adult spawning grounds.

Through its 2001 Salmon Recovery Board-funded feasibility study, Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) prioritized actions to improve salmon habitat in Cherry Valley while meeting stakeholder drainage requirements. To reconnect the present-day mainstem Cherry Creek with its historic channel five connections between the ditched mainstem and the historical mainstem were excavated, lowering the bed-elevation and increasing salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Engineered Log Jams (ELJs) will be created at the upstream and downstream extents of the reconnected historical channel to control potential bank erosion and provide additional fish habitat. Finally, a bridge was installed to provide access to service the existing pump station.