Seattle Public Utilities’ Millennium Project

Washington Trout has been contracted to help Seattle Public Utilities complete its Urban Creeks Legacy Program for salmon stream restoration within the city limits. WT is performing stream typing and culvert assessments in eight urban streams; Longfellow, Puget Ridge and Hamm’s creeks, tributaries of the Duwamish, Thorton and Taylor Creeks in the Lake Washington drainage, and Piper, Schmits Park and Fauntleroy Creeks, all draining directly into Puget Sound.

SPU is charged with implementing the Urban Creeks Legacy Program of Mayor Schell’s Millennium Project. The Millennium Project is designed to celebrate the Seattle’s natural resources and restore the natural habitats of the urban creeks,through resolving peak storm flows, controlling non-point source pollution, and enhancing riparian areas.

"The city will use data collected by Washington Trout to set policy"

The creeks are part of SPU’s storm drainage system. The city will use data collected by Washington Trout to set policy and build strategies to limit the impacts of SPU operations on the creeks and the fish that use them, and to preserve and enhance salmon and trout habitat in the creeks.

The timeline for this project is tight. The stream typing phase of work was finished in mid July, and the culvert assessments were completed shortly thereafter. The prospect of wild salmon returning to streams within the city limits of the Northwest’s largest metropolis is exciting, and WT is happy to
be taking part.