January 6, 2021 - Turtle Lake (Part I)

     The Turtle Lake Project is approved! We are very excited to get started on re-planting this restoration site. Information on this project will be posted as a series, and this first post will focus on providing you with some background of the site and will also detail some of our initial procedures for planting willow trees. 

Background 

    The Turtle Lake planting site that we will be working in is located on State Owned Aquatic Land (SOAL) - which is managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). In 2019, WDNR partnered with CREST, BPA, USFWS, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife - to complete what is known as the South Bachelor Island (SBI) Restoration & Reconnection project. This project removed a total of 120,000 cubic yards of dredge spoil sediment, which created a new half-mile long channel from Turtle Lake (a floodplain wetland), to the Columbia River. To learn more about this project and see photos of the channel - click here! 

    The ultimate purpose of constructing this channel was to restore historically important floodplain habitat for juvenile salmon. In the early 1900's, SBI provided shallow water channels perfect for migrating juvenile salmon and other types of native aquatic & terrestrial species. Historical records indicate that somewhere in between the years 1918 to 1930 - these shallow channels began to fill up as a result of pile dikes getting built near these sensitive streams. Though the exact amount of dredge material deposited over the 1900's was never quantified - it is estimated that over 1.5 million cubic yards now rest along SBI's shores. Restoring a meandering channel in this area is a way to improve natural habitat for the native organisms that call this area home. 

*Historical information was taken straight from BPA's Supplemental Analysis for this project. To view this document & read more detailed information on the project - click here!

Turtle Lake planting site. A view from the western side of the channel. 

More of the planting site is shown here from the west. If you look closely, you can see some willow stakes sticking out along the waters edge. 

Here you can see a line of willows that I planted along the water's edge. The red pin flag, in the left hand bottom-corner of the photo marks the 12 ft. elevation line. The 9ft elevation line is currently submerged. 

The Project 

    As you can see from the above photos, the reconstructed channel is entirely composed of loose-sandy sediment - as a result of originating from past dredge spoils. This type of sediment is not ideal for native plants and animals when compared to the other types of sediments that are found on Bachelor Island, and it is also very susceptible to incidences of erosion. In order to prevent the channel from eroding away, and to create better habitat for native organisms, it is necessary for a vast amount of trees to be planted along this channel - in particular, willow trees.  

    By the tail end of 2020, the Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge were recruited to help with the planting of 6,000 willow trees along the waters edge in this new channel. The proposed designated planting area rests between the 9ft and 12ft elevation contour lines - which are marked with pin flags (see above photo). As of right now, the water levels in the channel are particularly high, and planting of the willows can only be done at low-tide. By the end of this month - we are hoping that the water levels recede, and the rains let up - allowing us to plant willows throughout the day, instead of in the 1-2 hour window that we currently have due to the high water levels. 

I am planting trees with a shovel in this photo. Our goal is to be able to utilize planting poles to plant the willows. However, the water levels are too high to allow us to use anything other than a shovel at the moment. The holes made with a planter pole simply fill right back up with saturated sand, while the use of a shovel allows for the creation of a larger hole that does not fill back up quite as fast. 

All geared up to start planting away! Here, the water was low enough for the planter pole to be effective. 

Processing the Willows

    We have been provided with a large supply of willows to plant from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Headquarters that is located in Ridgefield. The willow stakes were cut last year, and they have been stored undercover for months in vats of  water to keep their root systems active. Because these willows have been sitting in tubs of water for a long length of time - a significant amount of the stakes actually grew green leaves, and they smell quite terrible. It is necessary for us to process the willows and trim the leaves to encourage root growth when we plant them in the near future. 

The trough that we store our processed willows stakes in. This trough is filled with water in order to keep the roots moist. We ended up deciding to make bundles of 50 trees each, and got 20 bundles total to fit within the trough for storage at the Bachelor Island shop.  

A bit more of the processing of the willows is shown here. I placed the larger willow stakes into their own separate piles, because we want to use the more slender willow stakes first! This is because the diameter of our planter poles makes it difficult to plant willows that are larger than an inch in diameter. 

Area where I cut off the willow leaves & branches. This is also where I would set groups of 50 willows to bundle them up with cuttings of twine. 

More of the processing is shown above. I tended to set like-sized willow stakes out in groups of 10 for easy counting. 

*Stay tuned for part 2!