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Illahee CreekBlog entries about Illahee Creek from December 07 through the present From Illahee Community Plan, Chapter 4:
Illahee Creek is one of only a few salmon streams in Kitsap County with the entire watershed in an Urban Growth Area. In spite of this fact, as of 2000, the watershed still retains rural characteristics, with just 15 percent of the surface area impervious and more than 65 percent forested. Illahee Creek supports a rich variety of plant and animal life. The stream and its tributaries are deeply incised into steep slopes, which remain largely forested with an extensive understory of native vegetation. Illahee Creek provides freshwater habitat for coho and chum salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. The Illahee Creek watershed provides habitat for a variety of mammals including fox, raccoon, bobcat, deer, and possibly black bear. Numerous species of birds live in the area with at least one bald eagle nest along the stream. Illahee Creek is fed by seeps, springs, and shallow, perched ground water in the main channel and three secondary channels (or forks and tributaries). The North Fork begins in an area north of McWilliams Road. It travels south to meet the South Fork, which flows north from an area east of Perry Avenue, midway between Sylvan Way and Riddell Road. The joined streams flow east from the confluence and are joined by While Illahee Creek has many natural amenities, it also has some significant challenges. The first of these is the problem of excess storm water resulting from early developments in the area. The second is the presence of pollution found in the creek. The third is low baseflow, which is covered in Section 4.4, Aquifer Recharge Areas. Illahee Creek must now handle the excess storm flow in the watershed that is not absorbed back into the ground water system, primarily because of the creation of impermeable surfaces and the lack of mitigation requirements for early developments. Unmitigated storm water flows, arising from property development at the upper reaches of the North Fork, have resulted in excessive sediment deposits downstream. In addition to the storm water problems, high levels of fecal coliform bacteria have been found in Illahee Creek in 7 of the last 10 years of monitoring. Community members are currently working in partnership with the Kitsap County Heath District to try and identify the source(s) of the fecal coliform bacteria. ILLAHEE: A culvert runs through it By Julie McCormick, Sun Staff Wild salmon may return in larger numbers now that their passage has been made easier by humans. Frank Richmond brought his two young granddaughters, Morgan and Kaylee, to watch the spectacle this week at Illahee Creek as a new culvert was built to enhance salmon runs. The project has become a cause for many neighbors near where the creek passes under Illahee Road just south of Roosevelt Street. Local salmon restoration enthusiasts have been planting fish for five years, said Irwin Krigsman, who with wife Judith lives next to the little creek. They use fry raised in pens at the nearby Port of Illahee dock, hoping to rebuild coho and chum runs. ""When I was a kid, I used to fish the creek,"" Richmond said, and someday maybe Morgan and Kaylee will be able to say the same. When contractors diverted the creek through a temporary pipe before laying the new culvert, neighbors discovered a few young wild coho in remaining puddles. It's the first sign that efforts to restore the run have been successful, the Krigsmans said. Presence of the young fish means they hatched from upstream spawning. But returning coho never would have made it through another year. ""The fish would have really struggled this year because of the condition of the other side of the old culverts,"" Judith Krigsman said. Within days, the new 5-foot-wide culvert will be functioning, allowing water to flow evenly without scouring gravel - and fish eggs - away during heavy flow. The $240,000 project addresses the 14th of 37 fish barriers identified in Kitsap County by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Estimates are that the county owns about a third of all problem areas, with remaining problems like driveway culverts and unfenced cattle grazing attributed to private practices, said Jon Brand, a fish biologist with the county's Public Works Department. The local Conservation District works with private landowners to correct problems on their property. Every year since the Kitsap County Surface and Stormwater Management Program was established in the early 1990s, property assessments have helped pay for corrections to drainage and waterway problems on county property, Brand said. Last year, all county projects on Dogfish Creek were completed. Contractors must be done with their work before the fall salmon season begins in mid-September. Then, Illahee neighbors may be able to see first-hand what all the effort has meant, with more fish expected to make their way past Illahee Road, just 180 feet from Puget Sound, and back up into the shaded, meandering waters of Illahee Creek. They may make it all the way to spawning areas near McWilliams Road. ""There's a lot of really nice habitat up there,""Brand said. Copyright 1999 - Kitsap Sun
A "culturally modified" cedar tree, located approximately one mile upstream on Illahee Creek. (click on image for full view)
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Friday September 10, 1999 Sun
