Dateline – 1995, Bakerview Park Creek, eastside Mount Vernon, WA

Wasteland to Wilderness

Stream may one day teem with salmon

So said the Lead Headline in the Skagit Valley Herald newspaper, Oct. 21, 1995.  Page A1, above the fold. Definitely where you want to have your restoration group’s story, maximum coverage and pictures on the front page of Skagit County’s largest circulation newspaper.  Everyone reads it, then, including mayors, city council people, county commissioners; farmers, landowners big and small, everyone. No useful on-line news sources, or social media, or recognizable modern cell phones, then, – 26 years ago.

And another headline:

Governor comes to ‘listen and learn’

Locke checks out salmon project  (he saw hundreds of juvenile coho in the creek while he shoveled gravel)

He says, “If we can do it here, we can do it all across the state”

-Lead headline in Skagit Valley Herald July 3, 1997, Page A1 above the fold. 

 And yet again:

Fish Restoration Group praised by Governor

“A Skagit County fish restoration group (SFEG) so impressed Gov. Gary Locke last summer that he decided to single out its members during his annual legislative address yesterday”   (Those of us who were there, at his invitation, remember what a big deal that was!  TV, a packed state capitol chamber, and the food at the governor’s mansion was tasty, too.)  

1997 – Project named Wash. Dept. Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Project of the Year

1997 – John Hocking (owner of project site) named WDFW Landowner of the Year

He donated the 12-acre wetland/stream restoration site to be added to the adjacent Bakerview Park.  He also donated project engineering, permitting, and major funding for construction costs.  All free.  He sought no compensation.

SFEG was 4,5,6 years old at those times.  So, who was this fledgling, little known local group, and what were they trying to do anyway?  And why were people saying “Hmmm, how do I get a hold of these guys to come take a look at this problem I have on my place, so maybe they can help me out?”  Those are exactly the kinds of questions and intense local interest generated by this project.  Never underestimate the importance, and value, of good press reports.  This kind of reporting – detailed, accurate, and enthusiastic was “cultivated” by SFEG and has paid dividends for years and years.  This and many other early projects generated community good will and helped a lot with landowner acceptance countywide.  SFEG was becoming trusted, and not instantly suspect.  The crew was learning how to restore creeks, and salmon.  Fast.

So what was everyone getting so excited about anyway?

Bakerview Creek, so named by Kevik (a long-time SFEG restoration tech), had been thoroughly beaten up before SFEG stepped in.  This small tributary of Nookachamps Creek, itself a tributary of the lower Skagit River, flows through a small part of east Mount Vernon. It now flows through the City’s Bakerview Park.  It didn’t always.  Some time in the last 125 years the land was cleared, leveled, and drained to support local farming, the last being a chicken farm, I hear.  Bakerview Creek had been reduced to one of these farm drainage ditches.  Very typical.  The lower creek section also had become a ditch alongside Waugh Road.  Also typical.  For maybe 150 feet of the upper reaches of the creek north of Fir Street, there were still a few coho salmon and cutthroat trout spawning in what little gravel was left.  Things were in sad shape.  Then along came an out-of-town real estate development company and made it worse.  They totally tore up the 12 acres of wetlands and creek in a week of hard work with heavy equipment, big crews, and long hours.  They did it to build 54 homes, by filling the wetland.   By knowingly flaunting federal wetland Regulations (yes, even way back then there were such things, and they knew it, being lawyers), the out-of-towners got shut down by the Army Corps of Engineers, permanently.  After awhile, John Hocking, a local home-builder, bought the land knowing its status and moonscape condition.   It could not be made worse.   Now the fun begins. 

Very few companies were doing stream or wetland restoration then. Few do now.  Fewer groups like SFEG were doing major stream relocations, or total stream and wetland makeovers.  But that is exactly what SFEG did at Bakerview, with some help.  The brand new SFEG crew, and project manager (all newly hired displaced timber workers) were able to relocate and totally build a new creek channel, one half miles worth, a rearing pond, and to regrade and restore the bombed wetland.  With some templates, alignments and grades provided by the engineer, guidance by WDFW, and funding from both Mr. Hocking and the new state funding program – Jobs for the Environment, – SFEG went to work.  It was a seat of the pants, get a lot done on a shoestring budget, scrounging most materials, design and build as you go, totally fun kind of project to build.  SFEG did a few of these major creek makeovers back then; a half mile here, a mile plus over there….very willing and enthusiastic landowners let this kind of work happen. This kind of project is not even contemplated anymore.  And certainly not for $150K.

It is worth hearing from the men who built Bakerview Creek:

John Hocking – landowner – (then) – “It just made sense (doing the project).  Either that, or it would just grow up to be thistles” He considered the creek and wetland as an amenity to his development.  And it is. 

Doug Schwind – engineer – (then)  “When playing with Mother Nature, you make your best guess.”  (now)  “I had no experience designing creeks, but we all worked well together and it came out fine.”

Harry Taggart – SFEG project manager – (then)  “I hope this new healthy habitat draws salmon like bees to honey.”

Dave Holt – SFEG crew boss – (now)  “I love to fish and hunt.  This project needed to be done; it was the right thing to do.  It was in town, and kids and others would have easy access to it and could learn about creeks and salmon.” 

Kevik Rensink – SFEG environmental tech – the greenhorn new kid  (now) – “We were busy back then!  It was fun work, really fun!  It was not so much the paycheck, it was the pride we took in what we were doing. And we did it on a shoestring.”

Rick Harkness – private contractor/excavator operator extraordinaire, having built many SFEG projects over the years – (now)  “I enjoy the challenge of that kind of work, it makes me a better operator, and it’s good for the fish.  On Bakerview, I had the freedom to build it the way I wanted to, build it until you’re happy with how it looks.  Make it fishy. We were the only ones doing this kind of work, so others learned from us.  And we got to use ugly wood, twisted, bent, lots of nooks and crannies, sometimes a little punky. And stumps. Lots of stumps.”

Kurt Buchanan – WDFW fish bio – (then)  “ It’s trained a lot of people in how to do this right.” (and now) “I told them to go build a creek they could be proud of.  And we did.”

Now, 25 years later, the creek still has maybe 1/3 mile of suitable (for an urban creek) coho and cutthroat spawning area.  Generations of fish have now used the “new” Bakerview Cr. for spawning and rearing, and they still do.  The zillion trees and bushes planted by SFEG volunteers and others are now big, totally shading the creek.   This was the first major SFEG project. They were learning by doing, learning fast, and they did it well.  

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Blog post contributed by Kurt Buchanan

Retired WDFW fish biologist

former Skagit Fisheries Board Member