United States Department of Agriculture
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Highlights in Conservation icon

Fish Gain Habitat

Completed culvert with submerged bottom will help restore sensitive fish habitat.

Completed culvert with submerged bottom will help restore sensitive fish habitat.

Location icon
Snohomish County

Project Summary icon
Culvert Replacement

Conservation Partners icon
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Skagit  Conservation District and The Pilchuck Tree Farm

Resource Challenges icon
Sensitive fish habitat

Conservation Program Used icon
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offered by NRCS.

Innovations and Highlights icon
Task Order

Results and Accomplishments icon
The Pilchuck Tree Farm has begun the process of improving stream crossings to allow fish passage to valuable upstream habitat. This process is long and arduous, with permitting, design, and construction complexities that are both difficult and time consuming.

Gale Mayer, the NRCS planner for this EQIP contract, says “Despite the need for input from specialists, engineers, and other agencies, this project has been successfully installed.” Two crossings were improved, two with new culverts to replace the existing culverts.

The project was designed by engineers with the Snohomish Conservation District under a contribution agreement task order. “This task order allowed for experienced non- NRCS engineers to complete designs with overview from NRCS. Erica Fifer, NRCS engineer, states “the conservation district engineers did a great job and saved me time that I could use to work on other projects.”

Contact icon
Gale Mayer, Lake Stevens Field Office, (425) 334-2828 ext. 105

NRCS, Fall 2007

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