The Kitsap Conservation District will kick off a project to correct years of erosion and remove barriers along Dickerson Creek.
Most of the $2.5 million project is funded by grants from the Recreation Conservation Office and the Brian Abbot Fish Barrier Removal Board.
Weirs were installed in 1995 to maintain fish passage up to the navy railroad culvert, but erosion around those weirs have caused some major barriers for fish. The project will eliminate those barriers by gradually raising the stream bed on four private properties, something that will control the stream elevation.
Bernie Fleming is one of the property owners who noticed salmon getting stuck in the shallow water.
"We watched the fish ever since we came in here migrate up to this point," Fleming said. This is as far as they can go and that's it. Then they all die. Sometimes they spawn, sometimes they don’t, and it all gets washed downstream. There's a little bit less every year is what we notice."
Chum, coho, cutthroat, and steelhead salmon are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. They all use the stream for spawning and rearing habitat, making it crucial for conservationists to find a solution.
"Historically, populations have greatly declined and a lot of people around the state are working to build our salmon populations back up again and it is critical to support our stream environments, clean water, and air," said Carin Anderson, with the Kitsap Conservation District.
The project is expected to get off the ground in 2020 and completed in 2021.