The Salmon are Spawning - Terrell Creek Restoration Success

News from the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) - Recent stream channel restoration projects to remove all fish passage barriers on Terrell Creek have paid off. NSEA, in partnership with Bellingham Technical College (BTC), conducts annual fall salmon spawning surveys on Terrell Creek. This year, BTC students have seen more than 50 coho salmon in Terrell Creek to date. The fish have been active and spawning in the reach along Blaine Road below Grandview Road and between Aldergrove Road and the new fish-passable dam structure at the outflow of Lake Terrell. One redd (salmon nest) has been documented in the lower end of Butler Creek, the main tributary to Lake Terrell, that until this September had been blocked to anadramous salmon since the late 1940s by the old dam.

See a video of two coho in Terrell Creek taken today, November 30th, below. Learn more about the Lake Terrell Dam Channel Restoration Project completed this fall that now allows salmon to access habitat above Lake Terrell by visiting the Chums of Terrell Creek website. Other fish passage projects on Terrell Creek include culvert replacement projects at Blaine Road and Grandview Road by the Washington Department of Transportation in 2009 and 2011 and a channel restoration-fish passage improvement project at Kickerville Road completed by NSEA with assistance by BBWARM in 2011.