North Fork Johnson Creek is a cold water tributary of Johnson Creek. As climate change continues to impact water temperature in some reaches in the watershed, cold water tributaries become increasingly important to salmon reproduction. Eight years ago, JCWC surveyed and prioritized 275 fish passage barriers in the Johnson Creek Watershed. Seven barriers were identified along North Fork Johnson Creek, and after the prioritization, all seven barriers were addressed.
Recently, we discovered a fish passage barrier that was overlooked in the original survey. This barrier – a rusting legacy culvert from an abandoned road on a privately-owned farm – was plugged years ago. Over time, the creek eroded the outlet by approximately five vertical feet.
This project will remove the culvert and associated road debris. A roughened channel will be created with imported stream sediment to restore a more natural channel gradient. This is the final barrier in this cold water tributary and will fully open approximately 0.65 miles to salmonid passage. As a result of eight Council projects , 2.0 miles of North Fork Johnson Creek will soon be open to spawning.
