Scientists taking this new approach to restore salmon habitat along the railroad in Whatcom
The railroad that runs along Whatcom’s shoreline is a fixture of life in the county. Serene walks along the water are punctuated by the rumbling of freight cars, and train horns regularly echo through the streets of Bellingham.
So rhythmic is the railroad’s presence that one can often forget there was a time before its existence, more than a century ago. Streams ran directly from their inland origins to the sea, allowing the region’s iconic salmon to migrate unhindered between the ocean’s depths and their freshwater spawning grounds.
Since 2017, a team of scientists has been coordinating plans to restore these critical salmon habitats without disrupting the railroad, which serves as a major pillar of the region’s bustling port economy. The team includes members from environmental consulting firms Environmental Science Associates and Confluence Environmental Company, as well as the Tulalip Tribes. Their work is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
It’s an incredibly complex undertaking with high stakes: Puget Sound Chinook are a species “in crisis,” according to the 2020 State of Salmon report, and habitat degradation is one of the main drivers of the fish’s decline. The railroad not only blocks access to streams, it also reduces the size of estuaries and impedes the natural delivery of sediments and large wood to the shoreline.
Sites in Whatcom
There are about 73 miles of shoreline between Olympia and the Canadian border impacted by the railroad.
The team’s initial steps entailed prioritizing which sites should be restored first, and Bellingham’s Squalicum Creek was determined to be one of the three highest-priority sites in the state. The other two sites are Japanese Gulch Creek in Mukilteo and an unnamed creek on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Prioritization is based on the likelihood that juvenile Chinook salmon use the stream and the quality of upstream habitat.
“At Squalicum Creek, there’s been such an investment already in the watershed, so much effort in improving the habitat upstream,” said Paul Schlenger, principal fisheries biologist at Environmental Science Associates. “Having a partial barrier at the mouth is a real limitation of those investments.”
While fish can move up the railroad crossing at Squalicum Creek, there is a large jump and very shallow water when streamflow is low, he said.
There are 24 streams that cross the railroad along the Salish Sea in Whatcom County. The team designated five stream mouths in addition to Squalicum Creek as high- or highest-priority restoration sites, including Little Squalicum and Padden creeks.
Each stream mouth will require a different treatment, with some needing larger culverts and others demanding more intensive construction. The Squalicum Creek stream mouth is the most complicated of the three highest-priority restoration sites, Schlenger said.
The railroad of concern at Squalicum Creek is actually a dead-end “spur track” that diverges from the railroad’s main line. It serves the Port of Bellingham and its tenants. The area is home to legacy contaminants, and the railroad bridge is from the early 1900s, requiring its historical importance to be considered. Plus, restoration will require work to be done on two other bridges upstream.
“What we are talking about is not just replacement in place,” Schlenger said. “If we are going to do this, our aim would be to improve the estuary by making it larger, and that means longer bridges. This is a highly urbanized area with economic implications.”
Ground will likely not be broken on any of the restoration sites until at least 2025, as the team is still coming up with designs and figuring out how to fund these costly projects.
Railroad restoration
It’s been known for decades that the railroad tarnishes shoreline habitat, but it’s been a “long, slow slog” to do anything about it, said Todd Zackey, marine and nearshore program manager at Tulalip Tribes Natural Resources Department.
Restoration efforts along the railroad are different this time, Schlenger said. That’s because the team prioritized collaboration with BNSF, the company that operates the railroad.
“It’s going well,” Schlenger said. “We are coming at a different angle, with grant funding and a non-regulatory, collaborative approach.”
BNSF has been involved in the planning process from the first days of the project, with company representatives serving on a technical advisory board, Schlenger said. Restoration involving a company’s infrastructure is a delicate issue, since it invites potential impacts on its operations, said Phil Bloch, senior ecologist at Confluence Environmental Company.
“BNSF is a critical piece of national freight rail infrastructure,” Bloch said. “There are very narrow opportunities for track closures for construction activity.”
The company expressed interest in conducting multiple restoration projects simultaneously, rather than one at a time, Schlenger said. This could minimize the amount of time tracks are closed.
“These are diverse and complex projects, and each one is a little different,” BNSF’s media team told The Bellingham Herald in an email. “Our goal is to work in partnership with the state and others to make progress towards enhancing these areas while still delivering the benefits of freight rail (which include lower emissions, less traffic, fewer trucks on the road, safe and efficient delivery of multiple commodities and household goods).”
It is yet to be determined whether BNSF will help fund any of the restoration, Schlenger said. The team will work collaboratively to pursue private and public funding, Bloch said.
“It all needs to work together if it’s ever going to result in turning dirt,” Schlenger said.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
