HEALING WATERS VETERANS COLLABORATE TO HELP THE EAST FORK
Desperately needed cover for protection against predators of juvenile salmon and steelhead was installed Thursday (August 6) in the large long pool at the outlet of Manly Road Creek where it flows into the East Fork Lewis River about 3/4ths of a mile below Daybreak Park Bridge.
The discarded old Christmas tree cover was installed by a collaboration of Friends of the East Fork and Salmon Creek Fly Fishers, which are local Clark County based non-profit conservation minded organizations.
The Fly Fishers are a local group within the “Healing Waters” war veterans association. The project, set up by Dennis Potter (conservation coordinator for Fly Fishers) and Dick Dyrland (President of Friends of the East Fork) used about 75 discarded spruce Christmas trees minus their needles. These were previously donated by the Boy Scouts, stored for a year on the Dean Swanson farm on the lower East Fork, and are ideal for the densely branched woody material needed to provide high quality protective cover from predators of juvenile fish as well as newly hatched salmon and steelhead fry.
The two groups have worked together previously on other East Fork related conservation and stream stewardship programs and projects and have developed a backlog of projects that they intend to find time and means to implement.
Project needs are based on information from WA Dept. of F&W and other state agency stream management reports and long-term management program plans for the East Fork and tributary streams. Quite a few members of the two groups have special technical and other skills, these are put to full use in developing and implementing the projects.
Friends of the East Fork Lewis River and Salmon Creek Flyfishers