Manly Road Creek Low Summer Stream Flow Issues & Salmon Survival:
Over the past 15 years Friends of the East Fork (FOEF) and Fish First along with Clark County and other collaborating conservation organizations have done a lot of restoration, monitoring, and maintenance work on Manly Road Creek. This is a tributary creek of the East Fork and is located just south of and to the west of the Daybreak Park Bridge over the East Fork Lewis River.
The latest restoration results show that spawning salmon have moved almost a mile further up the creek — but were blocked by a new very large high beaver dam. Older much lower beaver dams have “Beaver Deceiver” pipes in the dams which allows for water flow to escape downstream while still maintaining the pool above for the beaver occupants. These pipes were installed in the past by Fish First, FOEF, and Clark County collaboration to prevent low summer flow loss of salmon fry and juveniles in the Manly Road Creek fish rearing pool located in the stream channel at the lower end of the creek near the Grace Lodge structure.
December 2023 Photo of Spawned Out Salmon
People need to understand that there are beaver dams located where they enhance the stream and watershed, but there can be others that can detract from or cause damage by either blocking T&E listed salmon migration, or in some cases restrict water outflow and cause critical downstream fish rearing habitat to “dry up” and lose salmon fry and juveniles during the very dry low flow summer months. This happened last summer in the key fish rearing pool at the lower end of Manly Road Creek near Grace Lodge. The much further upstream new beaver dam was not detected soon enough and the damage occurred.
2023 Manly Ck. Salmon Pool Dry Up Caused By Stream Flow Cut Off At New Beaver Dam
A thousand or more coho salmon and possibly some chinook fry were lost before the large, high, new beaver dam was discovered and treatment could be installed to insure continuous balanced outflow from the new beaver dam while providing the beavers with a continuous adequate pool.
Installing “Beaver Deceivers” is a common practice used by Fish & Wildlife Departments in many states in the USA. Getting them installed early where beaver dam location could or is creating a problem is the challenge. But the actual mechanics of installing a deceiver pipe is relatively straight forward and basic design/installation information is readily available.
FOEF Volunteer Surveying Lost Salmon Rearing Fry Pool Due to Upstream Water Flow Problems
With the help of Friends of the East Fork and other Volunteers, upstream conditions on Manly Road Creek, and particularly beaver dams, need to be monitored year around to insure continuous stream flow to fish rearing sites downstream.
A Beaver Deceiver Installed on Beaver Dam — Manly Road Creek
Other East Fork Lewis River New Issues – 2023/2024:
An anthropogenic (man-made) situation in the East Fork about two miles above Daybreak Bridge resulted in a major stream avulsion cutting a new river channel (change in stream location) and the creation of thousands of cubic yards of bed-load sediment which flowed down stream. This flow has destroyed stream banks as far down stream as Daybreak Bridge, caused the loss of some County Park buildings, and heavily damaged fish habitat.
As the sediment bedload which is made up of large gravel and large cobble rock, continues to move downstream, more damage is expected. The need for monitoring by Volunteers and others will be helpful for future stream restoration treatments to be designed and implemented. Up and downstream photo documentation, both ground and air, along with hydrologic in-stream data, will be most helpful if taken by Volunteers this winter and summer of 2024.
Join or notify us by emails as a potential “volunteer” to get on the late winter and 2024 Summer Projects and Issues list so we can alert you for various kinds of stream restoration and monitoring opportunities.