Note: In June 2007 LLTK returned management responsibility for the Wishkah River Hatchery to the State of Washington. These pages exist as an archive of LLTK's 20 years of work on the Wishkah River. Our December 2007 Year End Report features a story about what we learned from our two decades operating the Wishkah Hatchery.
Posted November 30th, 2007
our hatcheries - wishkah river
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, ORCAS ISLAND | LILLIWAUP CREEK, HOOD CANAL | WISHKAH RIVER
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Wishkah Hatchery Road Paving Complete At Last In 1994, at the prompting of LLTK’s Wishkah Hatchery manager Terry Baltzell, Grays Harbor County and the private timber companies that own the road nearest the Wishkah Hatchery protected a portion of the river from severe sediment loading by paving a 1.5 mile stretch of Wishkah Road. Run-off from Wishkah Road had resulted in sediment loading five times that found in other western Washington rivers. This sediment had been a significant contributor to salmon habitat degradation as it clogged and destroyed precious salmon spawning gravels and suffocated juvenile salmonid fry. Paving the section of road near the hatchery resulted in decreased sedimentation immediately surrounding our facility but only served to alleviate a small portion of the problem, as much of the remaining 20 miles of Wishkah Road were still unpaved. In May of 2005, LLTK wrote a letter in support of the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force’s request for funding to complete its Wishkah River Sedimentation Reduction Project, which proposed to pave the remaining section of the road, as well as making improvements to dilapidated culverts and cross drains, and erosion caused by intense truck traffic and heavy rainfall, in order to better salmon habitat in the entirety of the watershed. In 2006, the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force organized a collaborative effort with Grays Harbor County, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, and private landowners, to make the necessary improvements on the three roads concerned with the sedimentation problem. In June of 2006 the project was complete, and it has dramatically reduced the impacts of sediment loading on the river’s natural production capacity for wild salmon. |
 Uncontrolled sediment run-off from Wishkah Road has led to the deterioration of critical salmon habitat |
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 Newly paved Wishkah Road has dramatically decreased sediment loading into Wishkah River. |
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 Coho Spawning in the Wishkah River |
