Black River Waters: Their Past and FutureBy Chris Hawkins In recent history, humans have complicated the nature of the Black River watershed. If we combine the local history of the damages we have done to the Black River's environment with the area's remaining habitat significance, we begin to see the need for repair and protection of what we have left in the Black River watershed. J Roach, a local resident on Black Lake and concerned citizen, has studied issues concerning Black Lake and the Black River for years, and is a wealth of knowledge and insights about working with other people to help improve the quality of the watershed. The Fish Were There... About 25 years ago, Roach saw chum salmon returning to spawn in Black Lake and the streams near his home there. According to the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, chinook, coho, sea-run cutthroat and steelhead salmon species, in addition to the chum, have been present in the Black River system. Today they are gone from Black Lake, except for hatchery stock fish that sometimes circumvent the pens at Percival Cove of Capital Lake and swim up the Black Lake Ditch. Roach says that these chinook and coho spawn in the lake, its tributary streams and even the ditch. But it's not the same. The wild fish are an indicator of the overall health of the streams and rivers. These species are especially sensitive to water temperature, streambed quality, and outright blockages of their passage. Water quantity greatly affects the first two, biologists agree. This is particularly true for the Black River: even though there is ample riparian zone to shade the river and springs that cool it down, the river still heats up too much. Why aren't the wild fish coming to Black Lake anymore? Answering that question requires understanding the history of the area. Geologic History Looked at through a geological lens, the Black River area appears to have drained both north and south, with the latter predominating, over time because it lies in a depression caused by glacial carving and melt during the last major ice age (about 10-12,000 years ago). The lake is in a level low-point in the divide between the Chehalis River watershed and the Puget Sound basin. Evidence of the glaciation is visible in the outwash prairies south of Black Lake and in the types of sediment and geologic formations left behind. According to Steve Yate's Orcas, Eagles and Kings, the Black Hills (from Black Lake to the southwest) were the southern extent of the last major glaciation of the area, and the Black River was the spillway, draining stupendous volumes of glacial meltwater through the Chehalis River to Grays Harbor (at four times the present volume of the Columbia River). Black Lake at that time was part of a much larger glacial lake encompassing the entire Puget Sound area and caused by a dam of glacial ice across the mouth of Puget Sound. That plug of receding ice eventually melted back and out of Puget Sound, at which point the Black Lake area probably also drained out to the ocean via present day Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The lake then dropped to its present level, but the glacial period had a lasting impact, giving the lake its present contours and contributing to its hydrology. Black Lake is largely fed by underground springs (from Capitol Forest groundwater) and spring-fed streams flowing from the surrounding basalt hills of an earlier geologic episode. The low elevation passage formed by the glacial outwash here was an important link for both native and pioneering European peoples to move from the Chehalis River to Puget Sound and vice versa. From the late glacial period until the 20th Century, Black Lake had been draining one way .... down the Black River to the Chehalis. In 1922-23, that changed: the Thurston County government built a ditch designed to control flooding and regulate lake level in conjunction with a bridge project at the north end of the lake. Black Lake began partially draining to the north, down the Black Lake Ditch to join Percival Creek in the ravine near Mottman Road. Recent History In 1952, the County deepened the Black Lake Ditch eight feet below bedrock. Then, in 1966, the former Northwest Pipeline Company (now Williams Pipeline) constructed a pipe across the Black River just south of 88th Avenue SW. The pipeline had the effect of creating a dam, as debris, beaver activity and wetland plant growth combined to choke the flow of Black Lake water. There currently is very little if any water from north of this "dam" going down the Black River, which now has fifty percent or less of its pre-pipeline flow. Black River Solutions Roach contends that chum and other anadromous species could return to the upper part of the Black River if we make the necessary corrections to our own mistakes. Blockages like dams or culverts sometimes change water volume, affecting the salmon's ability to get where it wants to be in order to reproduce. As a resident of Black Lake, Roach's entrance into the water issues of the area is his front yard. He helped found the Association for Black Lake Enhancement about seven years ago, served as its first president and currently serves as a board member. The goals of the group have been to solve pollution problems in the lake with an eye toward improving water quality. Working with the County and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the group identified failing septic systems and fish passage obstacles. In the past five years, the water quality has been improving and spawning areas have been re-opened as the culverts are replaced. Roach describes the way to untangle the tricky and contentious problem of salmon recovery and riparian habitat protection as a partnership process. Having participated in the Chehalis Basin Partnership for the past couple of years, a process in which the many stakeholders in the Chehalis watershed come together regularly to discuss and propose solutions to the watershed's woes, Roach says that he sees things changing for the better. For one thing, instead of blaming and pointing fingers, the process attempts to bring together everyone affecting or impacted by problems in the watershed. The group then moves toward a package of solutions that involves as many of the stakeholders as possible. The major problems for the Black River may be solved in the short term by some engineering fixes, says Roach. For instance, an adjustable weir at the mouth of the Black Lake Ditch, combined with clearing some of the debris at the pipeline crossing, could be used to regulate the flow to put more Black Lake water back in the Black River. This, Roach says, would alleviate the summer deficit of water in the Black River and help slow some of the erosion happening in the Percival Basin, where high flows from the lake and the stormwater of parking lots, streets, and rooftops (from Capital Mall and Westside neighborhoods) scour the ditch and creek. It would return the water unlawfully diverted from the Black River system, which the Chehalis Tribe near Rochester depends on for its fishery. However, solving the water-quantity issue cannot be separated easily from the water-quality issue, says Paul Pickett, an engineer with the Department of Ecology. He did the Total Maximum Daily Load analysis of water pollution in the Black River. Pickett says that the area must be treated in a holistic way that includes looking at the water quality in Black Lake, and managing for the possible excess nutrients in the system, before putting its water back in the Black River. For the long term, Roach sees the need to protect the Black River's riparian habitat with a "Black River National Wildlife Refuge." This will protect the area and allow for passive recreational and educational use of the Black River. The effort to create the refuge is underway. Prospects for the Refuge Jean Takekawa, Refuge Manager with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, said that acquisitions for the Black River unit are going well due to a partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Natural Resource Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation Service). The federal agency's goals to protect, manage and restore the riparian and wetland habitat of the area to benefit fish, wildlife and wildlife-oriented recreation, seem to be a solution for the Black River Watershed. As an added benefit, by having this contiguous area protected as public land, Takekawa said, "the land will be linked up to provide public access." Similarly, Roach envisions the opportunity to connect, for public use, Puget Sound (and the new Cascade Marine Trail) with the Chehalis River and thus Grays Harbor. "Imagine being able to kayak or canoe from the San Juan Islands to Olympia, portage to Black Lake via Percival Creek and the Ditch, and then descend the Black River to the Chehalis and eventually out to the Coast." Therefore, the benefits for both people and wildlife, of protection and recovery, are substantial. Both Roach and Takekawa seem to agree that there is no time to spare in protecting these lands, saying that the window of opportunity is the next five years due to the pressures that growth is putting on the rural areas around the river. "I've seen huge improvements [in the recovery effort] in the past five years," says Roach. "I've been very pleased with how the agencies are working together, cooperating, and looking for citizen participation. With all the players there, if they find the funding, it gets done." It's fair to say that such cooperation, and the efforts of people like Roach, will need to continue if there is any hope for recovery of the Black River and its native wild fish. Chris Hawkins is a community activist and a board member of SPEECH.
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