Where the wood for the Ohop Creek project came from

posted in: WRIA 11 Nisqually | 0

Interesting story! The Olympian covered the transfer from Alder Lake of some of the wood pieces that will be used in the project this summer.

Logs and other woody debris delivered during winter storms to the reservoir behind Alder Dam are a safety hazard for boaters and a headache for Tacoma Power maintenance crews in this popular recreation area near Mount Rainier.

But that same assortment of wood is a blessing for salmon habitat restoration projects in the tributaries of the Nisqually River, including Ohop Creek near Eatonville.

So the Tacoma utility and partners in a major Ohop Creek restoration project teamed up last week to move about 100 logs from Alder Lake several miles down the river valley to ground zero of the Ohop Creek project.

They put their trust in the team of Eatonville contractor Max Swick and log truck driver John Zizer, who carefully negotiated a loaded truck across the narrow causeway atop the 1,500-foot-long dam, flanked by the lake on one side and the Nisqually River 330 feet below the dam on the other side.