A remote northeast Washington creek is getting its groove
back after more than a century, following removal of Mill Pond Dam.
A pedestrian walkway now marks the site of the Mill Pond Dam, which
was removed over several months in 2017 and 2018.
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Deconstructing a dam
“Sometimes we’re lucky enough to be involved in projects
that challenge our preconceived notions and require creative thinking,” said
Ecology Project Manager Jacob McCann. “The end result is a win for the Sullivan
Creek watershed and a testament to the power of collaboration.”
Once Mill Pond was drained, engineers designed and constructed a route
for Sullivan Creek to follow. The channel is expected to move over time.
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Reconstructing a riverbed
Last fall, a flushed out Mill Pond reservoir left 64 acres
of fertile, silty soil primed for a botanical comeback. Seattle City Light has
since been working to prevent invasive weeds and establish thousands of native
plants and saplings in various clusters across the site.
“Nature doesn’t plant things on eight-foot centers. It
deposits seeds in particular places at particular times,” said Lloyd Dixon, the
Seattle City Light project manager entrusted with site restoration. “We tried
to use nature as an analog as much as possible to create that system of a
coniferous forest with a riparian corridor dominated by willows and alders.”
A riparian corridor is the section of floodplain closest to
the creek channel. At Sullivan Creek, it’s a work in progress. Engineers first
sifted through 100 years of accumulated pond sediment to try and rediscover the
original channel and imitate its outlines as closely as possible. They
installed logjams along the channel to create scour pools and other features
for fish habitat. Woody debris was then scattered across the surrounding
floodplain, ready to move with the next high flow and help gently reshape the
creek over the coming years.
Moving into the future
“I don’t want to be so pompous as an engineer to say, ‘I’m
going to build a channel and it’s going to stay here in perpetuity.’ We know
the creek is certainly going to move over time,” Dixon said. “There’s a
temporal component to everything that we see out here. But essentially, the
stream will mature and the views that we have today will probably be
nonexistent in 15, 20 years because of the forest that’s going to grow up
around us.”
Guided by nature, and a lot of engineering, Sullivan
Creek is learning to make itself at home. Learn more about the project at
www.millponddam.com.
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