Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area
Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area
Acres Preserved:
78
Year Conserved:
2002
Category:
Facilitated Project
Natural Features:
The story of Lower Chimacum Creek is still evolving and there’s always more land to protect and more work to do. A long-term restoration and preservation effort like that being done along Chimacum Creek is possible only with the support, partnership, and involvement of the whole community.
- Sarah Spaeth, Director of Conservation and Strategic Partnerships, Jefferson Land Trust
A Birds-Eye View
Jefferson Land Trust’s Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area comprises several small nature preserves scattered along the lower reaches of Chimacum Creek. Also located along lower Chimacum Creek, the Land Trust’s Illahee Preserve, is open to the public each day from dawn until dusk and is a popular spot for salmon viewing where the Land Trust often hosts outdoor education field experiences for local public school students.
In the preserve area, the creekside forests contain Douglas-fir, western redcedar, western hemlock, grand fir, and in damper areas, bigleaf maple and red alder. Below the trees lies a dense cover of sword fern and salal with trailing blackberry, rhododendron, salmonberry, and Oregon grape scattered throughout.
These creekside forested areas provide cooling shade, erosion-preventing roots, and other elements necessary for maintaining Chimacum Creek’s viability as fish habitat. The estuary at the mouth of Chimacum Creek also provides very important fish habitat. There, young fish are able to feed and grow, gaining the strength to survive for years in the open ocean before returning to the same exact waters where they were spawned.
Hood Canal summer chum salmon spawn exclusively in the lower portion of Chimacum Creek where the Lower Chimacum Creek preserves are located, and many other fish spawn in the upper portion of the creek, including fall chum, coho, and pink salmon, and steelhead and cutthroat trout.
The upland forest areas provide shelter and nourishment for local wildlife. Coyotes, bobcats, river otters, and deer are often seen in the preserve area. And birds that frequent the area include Bald Eagles, Pileated Woodpeckers, American Robins, and occasionally, Belted Kingfishers and Great Blue Herons.
All of the small preserves in the Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area are near heavily populated sections of Irondale and Port Hadlock, and many individual parcels make up each small preserve.
Working in Partnership to Protect Salmon
Chimacum Creek has long been the focus of a significant community effort to bring back salmon. In 1987, during summer chum salmon spawning season (when egg-laying is in full swing) a large storm washed out a culvert under Irondale Road, filling lower Chimacum Creek with so much sediment that the creek was ruined as a spawning ground for Hood Canal summer chum salmon, which were already in decline in our region.
In the mid-1990s, in an effort to restore the summer chum salmon run at Chimacum Creek, volunteers from an organization called Wild Olympic Salmon, the predecessor of North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC), collected summer chum eggs from nearby Salmon Creek. The volunteers reared the eggs at a small homemade hatchery high in the Chimacum watershed before releasing them near the creek’s mouth. This community effort was successful and in 1999, after spending several years in the ocean, 38 summer chum salmon returned to Chimacum Creek to spawn. Happily, this number has continued to grow over time.
In 2001, the plight of the threatened summer chum salmon run inspired Jefferson Land Trust, Hood Canal Coordinating Council, NOSC, and more than a dozen other nonprofit and governmental agencies to unite as the Chumsortium Collaborative, with the goal of working together to coordinate the protection and restoration of local salmon habitat.
The Chumsortium now works together on salmon projects throughout East Jefferson County with a focus on Chimacum Creek, Salmon Creek, Snow Creek, and Discovery Bay. Their work on Chimacum Creek is considered one of our region’s most successful salmon recovery efforts.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) owns and protects much of the creek corridor and estuary. DFW has removed mills and other structures at the estuary, and Jefferson County and other organizations and volunteers have worked to restore the land and creek to its natural rich state. One such restoration effort was a massive project to clean up the old log dump at the estuary. The restoration of the beach was a huge success, with Jefferson County establishing Irondale Beach County Park at the site of the former mill.
The Preservation Story
Creating the Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area has been a long-term effort. Using salmon recovery funding, Jefferson Land Trust made its first land acquisition on lower Chimacum Creek in 2000. Over time, additional parcels have been received as donations from generous landowners or purchased using community donor support and grant funding from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Jefferson County Conservation Futures Fund Program.
Protecting this important creek is and will remain an ongoing effort. Like many areas of Port Townsend, the lots along Chimacum Creek were densely platted back in the 1880s. Luckily, we still have the opportunity to make a difference by working with willing landowners to protect as many of the remaining undeveloped creekside forest and bluff properties along Chimacum Creek’s lower main stem as we can to sustain and improve salmon runs.
The Protected Property Today and Tomorrow
Chimacum Creek has been restored as a healthy thriving habitat for salmon and other wildlife thanks to the long-term efforts of many dedicated individuals and groups. Salmon still struggle, though. As the Earth’s climate changes and human development of natural areas increases, it will be more and more challenging to maintain the cool water temperatures and low sediment conditions that spawning salmon need.
At the small preserves in the Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area, our stewardship staff, with the help of committed preserve stewards and other volunteers, regularly care for the land, monitor wildlife, and keep improving habitat conditions by removing harmful weeds.
Every 5-10 years, the Land Trust also conducts habitat health assessments on the properties. These assessments, carried out with the help of volunteers, allow us to evaluate the ecological integrity and functions of forests and streams within the preserve and track the progress of our land management goals.
Our care of the land also enhances its natural resilience to withstanding potential fluctuations and events, such as climate change, flooding, and winter storms.
In addition to caring for the land, we’ll continue to work with partners and willing landowners in this area to protect additional properties over time.
Visiting the Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area
The Lower Chimacum Creek Preserve Area is protected as wildlife habitat. The properties that make up this preserve area are cared for and managed by the Land Trust to be a quiet refuge for local flora and fauna — a place where fish, birds, reptiles, insects, and animals can forage, shelter, and thrive — forever.
We try to keep this place peaceful and safe for wildlife, so there are no trails, parking, or other amenities necessary for recreation. To experience this preserve area, we invite you to join us as a trained volunteer as we care for this special place by removing harmful weeds and monitoring the health of the preserve’s habitat to ensure the land continues thriving.
We also welcome you to visit several Land Trust preserves that have the infrastructure (parking lot, trails, etc.) necessary for visitors to safely explore the trails while the surrounding space necessary for wildlife to safely live is left undisturbed. Learn more about them here. (Link to visiting Land Trust Preserves page.)
Hot tip: You can experience the beauty of the Lower Chimacum Creek area by visiting Jefferson Land Trust’s Illahee Preserve, which is open to the public daily from dawn until dusk.
