OFCO'S Field Monitoring Program

Bonnie Phillips
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

OFCO has received a grant from the Horizons Foundation for a monitoring and outreach program which will focus on both our federal and state lands on the Olympic Peninsula. Below is a description of our federal program. We can use your help. Here's what we will be doing.

This summer and fall OFCO will be conducting a walking survey of undrivable federal roads in the South Fork Skokomish watershed.

The "Skok" probably has the greatest visibility of any watershed on the forest. A history of abusive logging has led to a severely aggraded bed and chronic flooding along the lower river floodplain, non-federal land which is home to private residents and to the Skokomish Tribe. The Skok is the most important river to flow into Hood Canal, and its freshwater contribution is vital to the aquatic health of the entire Canal. Historically, it had the most significant anadromous fish runs on the Canal. Re-establishing these imperiled runs is a priority for the Skokomish Tribe and for Hood Canal restoration efforts. The Skok's visibility has made it a magnet for aquatic restoration dollars and for restoration planning efforts. Over the last five years, a high proportion of the Olympic National Forest's (ONF) road decommissioning and aquatic upgrading expenditures have gone there.

Against this background, our field surveying will focus on two sorts of roads: 1) roads which have been decommissioned as part of ongoing Skok restoration efforts and are no longer system roads; and 2) system roads which are not currently drivable, either by intent (level 1 "storage" roads) or by neglect (level 2 roads, which are officially drivable, high-clearance roads).

Although the Skok is arguably the most studied and monitored watershed on the ONF, the parts of the extended road system that cannot be reached by automobile are in fact still under-monitored. Walking roads is time consuming, and the ONF has few "boots on the ground." We hope OFCO can help fill this knowledge gap. Significant aquatic risks often lurk undetected on undrivable system roads, and our system road surveying will focus on those which, by virtue of their landscape position, are likeliest to conceal such problems. On decommissioned roads, we will be most interested in those segments which have been tested by at least one big winter flood. We will be looking for any evidence that the decommissionings were not done properly, or were not successful in reducing sediment delivery into streams to natural background levels. Recent road removals on the ONF have generally been done to fairly exacting standards, but some earlier work does not meet modern standards.

Mike Haggerty, the fisheries hydrologist who is under contract to OFCO for work on state lands, will be collaborating with Kevin Geraghty on a protocol (survey form) for the monitoring work. On May 17, five OFCOites went out in the field to test the survey form. The photos on this slideshow are from that trip.