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Federal, tribal and county agencies
work to restore estuary, stem flooding
By ARLA SHEPHARD tually much smaller in scale (and) we want
arZa,~i~)~nasonco~Jn~y.com to do them now, as soon as we can."
Alternatives include enlarging tidal
channels near state Route 106, engineering
As the largest river flowing into Hood Ca- log jams, stabilizing existing channels, con-
nal, the Skokomish garners the attention of structing setback dikes to keep fish in the
many. river and removing other dikes.
County, state, tribal and federal agencies The Skokomish Tribe has already re-
are eager to restore the river and its estu- moved dikes from Nalley Island at the head
ary, as well as do what they can to curtail of the river, which has helped with the
the river's frequent flooding, which affects flooding downstream, Geiger said.
hundreds of residents in the floodplain. About half of the Skokomish Tribe's
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers heldmembers live on the reservation and are
a public meeting Thursday in Shelton to therefore affected directly by the river's
give county officials and property owners an flooding or indirectly when they travel for
update on the Corps' general investigation work, said the Skokomish Tribe's habitat
study to evaluate ecosystem degradation in manager Alex Gouley.
the river basin. While the focus of the Corps' investiga-
In the past year, the Corps has completed tion is on estuary restoration, not flood-risk
analyses on the existing conditions and fu- management, each of the alternatives pro-
ture of the river if the Corps and others did posed by the Corps and its partner groups
not undertake any projects, will alleviate flooding, Gouley said.
The Corps also identified and screened "We're interested in developing a whole
preliminary project measures and restora- suite of projects," he said. "Our primary goal
tion sites, is habitat restoration, but only if it doesn't
"We wanted to provide an update on the harm anyone's land ... All of these projects
specific results of our hydraulic analysis as will help reduce flooding."
well as some modeling for dredging scenar- Geiger said the conservation district ap-
ios," said Jessie Winkler, project manager plied for grants for five projects last week
for the Corps. "In the past, dredging has near Vance Creek, Hunter Farms and the
been proposed as a sort of solution to flood- North Fork of the Skokomish River.
ing." The projects will help restore the river
If the Corps were to dredge, or remove and consequently help diminish flooding be-
the built-up sediment from areas of the cause "fish don't walk upstream," he said.
river, it would need to remove 2.6 million "Most of these projects are not Corps-
cubic yards of material to provide any sort scale," Geiger said. "We're not going to wait
of flood relief, Mason Conservation District until 2014 to do projects. We want to do
Engineer Rich Geiger said. projects now."
"We'd have to tear up the whole river, all By December, the Corps plans to identify
nine miles of it," he said. its recommended plan for the projects it will
By the end of 2012, the Corps plans to undertake.
identify four or five projects to undertake on In 2013, feasibility designs will be creat-
the Skokomish, while groups such as Ma- ed, and at the end of 2014, the Corps plans
son County, the Mason Conservation Dis- to submit a draft feasibility report and envi-
trict and the Skokomish Tribe have plans to ronmental impact statement.
partner for other, smaller projects. The Corps' projects are subject to Con-
"What we're trying to do is, since the gressional approval.
Corps takes a long time to get approval, we Federal funds expended on the Skokom-
want to identify Corps-scale projects," Get- ish General Investigation Study total $1.9
ger said. "The rest of these projects are ac- million to date.
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
Fourth-grade student Beau Harvey displays a project on lemon and po-
tato batteries at the Fifth Annual Evergreen Elementary Science Fair
on Thursday.
Evergreen students shine at science fair
By NATALIE JOHNSON : :
Evergreen Elementary go~i ~e~ its
students got to show off the!r ~argest ~ut eve~ £hi~ ye~ ~ ~ ~an~s ~ai~
science skills at the schools :Mike~ e~an ~t,h~evo.nt
fifth annual scmnce fair last S~m~ of~m Nere ~eally go~; B~N~d ~N~ We
Thursday. al~ay ~ ~ fe ~xc~lt~nt ~
Science fairs are commonBar~)~ ~id the ~ve~ has ~one on fo~ ~o~e ~
in elementary, middle and 2~ye~
high schools but Evergreen Sko~m ~f~ ~g~ ~ ~e~e fai~ ~ch
Elementary's fair is unique. ~ ~ i~s ~fi ~n ~ty Stu~ent~ fro~
"I think the thing that's re- ~~ ~ ~ighth ~
ally important is the kids are S~ ~ary fun~s ~: ~nt ~th ~ fro~
responsible, for doing it in two
languages, Lake said. }!!i~i~:~ii voi~e~d~byth~iu~ and
At Evergreen, a bilingual~ N~v~ ~oi~nte~s !!i ~ s~
school, all science classes are ~oj~cts ~e ~]_ged in ~ ~a~ego~ ~i0gi~al
taught in Spanish, so every or ~ s~i~ ~ wh~s~ ~oje~s ~ well
student had to submit their ::~out~~mpet~fo~th~~g0~i~
project written in both Span- : : : ; :
ish and English.
"It's good because of the like the fact that they were First- and second-grade
connection ofthetwoworlds," able to explain the differ- students completed group
volunteer judge Enrique Na- ent variables and be able to science projects for the fair.
varrosaid, talk about the variables,"Fourth-grade student
"The whole thing, I think, said Carol Lake, a judge at John Mancuso did a project
is one of the highlights of the the fair, and a teacher at to see whether a sugar cube
year," Evergreen Elementary Mountain View Elementary. dissolved better in tap water
Principal Dr. Steve Warner "These are all experiments or seltzer water.
said. "It integrates not only that they can do." "This is my first one I've
science -- they get language, Fourth-grade student competed in -- it's more hm
mathematics with all theBeau Harvey displayed his than I thought," he said.
charts ... It's a real test of project, which showed the This isn't the end for some
their abilities." differences between batter- of the students' projects. Most
Fifth-grade student Shel- ies powered by lemons versus fifth-grade students also took
by March completed a project those powered by potatoes, their projects to the Mason
measuring a person's subjec- Harvey said he had fun at County Science and Engineer-
rive emotional reactions to the fair and wanted to corn- ing Fair last Saturday spon-
varying colors, pete next year. sored by Skookum Rotary.
"It was actually pretty fun Students submitted a total Warner said grants from
seeing how people reacted," of 132 projects to the science local community organiza-
she said. "I learned a lot." fair. All children in fourth tions fund materials for the
Each year, community and fifth grades submitted school's science fair.
members volunteer to judge a project; some students in "We try not to do anything
the projects, third grade volunteered to do tbat costs our kids and fami-
"I like the projects. I a project as well. lies money," he said.
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Shelton-Mason County Journal
SU
-Thursday,
March
22, 2012
- Page A-3