Tony Overman/The Olympian
Josh Larson (left) of Port Orchard and Brian Jaske of Shelton carry rebar Wednesday afternoon as workers in the background pour concrete weirs to create a gradual incline on Goldsborough Creek near Shelton.

Goldsborough Dam removal opens door to fish run revival

Dam, earlier structures had blocked passage since 1885

JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published August 16, 2001

SHELTON -- Goldsborough Dam is long gone, replaced by tons of concrete, rock and tree trunks friendlier to fish.

And if all goes as planned, fish will be welcomed back to Goldsborough Creek early this fall, just in time for migrating salmon.

The dam owned by Simpson Timber Co. was one of the first in the state to be removed for the benefit of fish.

By most accounts, it won't be the last. A much larger dam on the Elwha River near Port Angeles is set to come out in 2004 to improve salmon runs.

"This is good training for the Elwha Dam," said Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who toured the Goldsborough Creek restoration project Wednesday. Dicks' district includes Mason County.

"There are thousands of these nonoperational dams in this state that would be beneficial to remove," said Leslie Kaye, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Served no purpose

The $4.8 million project began in earnest in May when the stream was diverted and the dam dismantled.

The obsolete, 32-foot-tall dam and earlier structures had blocked fish passage since 1885 on the stream that feeds into Oakland Bay. It served no purpose after 1996, when floodwaters knocked out a piping system that used to transport creek water from behind the dam to company mills on the Shelton waterfront.

The timber company, city officials, environmentalists, the Squaxin Island tribe, and federal and state agencies all supported the dam removal project.

Once the stream bed is reshaped, some 14 miles of spawning and rearing habitat will be open to several species of salmon and cutthroat trout.

Habitat upstream

On Wednesday, crews continued construction of 35 concrete weirs spaced across a 1,700-foot-long stretch of recontoured creek bed.

The low-slung walls of concrete will slow floodwaters and help fish pass up and down the stream.

The weirs, huge rocks and tree trunks placed in the creek bed will provide some fish habitat.

But the real value of the rebuilt section of stream is that it serves as a gateway to prime fish habitat upstream.

On time, on budget

Simpson Timber Co. and the state chipped in $1.1 million each, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is picking up the rest of the bill.

"The project is on time and on budget," corps project manager Michael Padilla said.

If all goes as planned, water will be slowly returned to the reshaped creek bed beginning Sept. 21, a process that will take a week to 10 days.

"This is money well spent," Dicks said. "This is what we should be doing to restore salmon and meet the challenges of the Endangered Species Act."

John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444.

On the Web

Inter-Fluve, Inc.: Goldsborough Creek Dam Removal and Stream Channel Restoration (http://www.interfluve.com/projects/Structure/Goldsborough.htm)

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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