This past summer, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe approached the Salmon Coalition to assist in revegetating the site of a newly constructed side channel on the Dungeness River a short distance upstream of Highway 101. The site was acquired by the Tribe in 2017 and is named Caldero after the former landowner. The Caldero side channel project creates nearly 1,000 feet of off-channel habitat for both spawning adult salmon and rearing juveniles.

Side channels such as the one at Caldero are critical refuges for salmon during flood events. This is particularly the case for juveniles, who can be easily overcome by heavy flows. Off-channel habitat can also be important spawning areas for returning adults. In fact, on a visit to the project site, Salmon Coalition staff members observed several adult coho salmon utilizing the new channel!

We have several thousand plants to get into the ground and we’ll need your help! If you would like an up-close-and-personal view of the site, we’d love to have you join us at a planting event.  Thanks to our January volunteers and stalwart Washington Conservation Corps Crew we are about 25% of the way to our goal of planting nearly 12,000 native trees and shrubs.  Our next planting weekend is February 18-19.  If those dates don’t work for you, check our website or social media in the coming weeks for more planting events in early Spring!

Outline of a planting day with NOSC: