BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – A pilot project is underway to improve conditions for salmon and other native species in the Yakima River. Crews are working to combat water stargrass, a plant that has taken over parts of the river.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Yakama Nation Fisheries and the Benton Conservation District are among the organizations involved in the effort.
Troy Maikis from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife explained the issue.
“Water stargrass is a native plant to Washington and to the Yakima River. It likes clear, slow-moving water. So with the clearing up and slowing down of the water in the Yakima River, it’s allowed to have a foothold.”
Marcella Appel, Benton Conservation District manager, said the water stargrass problem was first noticed about 20 years ago.
“This water star grass issue affects many different intersections. It’s irrigation, it’s our public health, it’s our fisheries, it’s our recreation,” Appel said. “And so we have formed a watershed coalition and brought together many partners coming together. It’s federal, it’s state, it’s local. It’s taking everybody together and figuring out how can we come up with a solution to a problem that we don’t really know how to solve yet?”
Crews will use excavators to rake the stargrass from the river, dry it on the riverbank and then haul it away. The project is scheduled to continue through Sept. 30 at the latest.
Michael Porter with the Yakama Nation Fisheries highlighted the impact of the thick grass mats on salmon.
“Then it slows down the river so much that it actually raises river levels. So it’s impacting fish in so many different ways, that it’s becoming hard for us to recover our natural populations,” Porter said.
Last summer, water stargrass contributed to a significant salmon die-off. As water levels drop and temperatures rise, oxygen levels decrease, creating dead zones for fish.
The effort is part of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, which brings together tribal, federal and state partners to protect water resources. The goal is to restore balance to the ecosystem and allow salmon to thrive once again, not to remove water stargrass completely.
“The cross your fingers and hope is that we get salmon redding in these areas again pretty soon,” Maikis said. “But the indicator to start is a reduction in water stargrass that will allow for more flow to go through. It’ll clear out the bed down to gravel again, and we can continue moving forward as a more natural system.
More information about the project can be found here.
