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Canyon Creek Fish Passage
The lower 4.5 miles of Canyon Creek, a major tributary to the North Fork Nooksack, are important spawning habitat for North Fork early chinook, which are listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act. (At river mile 4.5, there is a natural waterfall that prevents further migration upstream.) The creek is also considered a priority area for a second threatened species, bull trout.

Large floods and landslides created blockages and destroyed habitat in the 1980s and early 1990s, and the stream channel has been unstable since then. Of particular concern are the lower 0.9 miles, historically the most productive reach for early chinook and other salmonids. At this point, Canyon Creek exits a narrow canyon and creates an alluvial fan--the area where a stream deposits its sediment load--where the stream bed can change dramatically during a flood. There are also flood levees that constrict the channel in this reach. Returning adult salmon often cannot find suitable holding and spawning habitat and are blocked by manmade waterfalls.

One step towards habitat recovery is land acquisition. Whatcom County has worked in partnership with the Whatcom Land Trust to acquire properties from willing landowners in the areas that have already been damaged by floods or are most at risk. The voluntary program protects human life and safety, as well as creating opportunities to restore healthy habitat functions.

In 2006, Whatcom County Public Works was awarded a Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant to develop a long-term restoration plan for lower Canyon Creek. The plan will examine several options for providing long-term, more stable passage for fish and for restoring natural river processes. The end result will be one or more projects that restore the creek’s ability to form and maintain quality fish habitat.

A previous grant to the Whatcom Land Trust and a contribution to Whatcom County from the Nooksack Indian Tribe will also help fund an interim measure to restore fish passage at a blockage near the mouth of the creek, while long-term solutions are being considered.

Both the interim and long-term fixes are being carefully designed to not cause any additional flood risks to the nearby property owners, although in general, areas of the Canyon Creek alluvial fan are at high risk for flooding. A copy of the Canyon Creek Alluvial Fan Risk Assessment is available for download (PDF).

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