South Fork Nooksack River Fish Camp Integrated Fish-Flood Project

Herrera worked with the Nooksack Tribe and Whatcom County to develop an integrated habitat restoration/flood risk reduction project in the Fish Camp reach of the South Fork Nooksack River, illustrating the possibility for projects to integrate salmon recovery elements while reducing flood risks to repetitive flood-damaged communities. The project’s ability to reduce flood risk will benefit the town of Acme and surrounding farmlands, while habitat restoration benefits early Chinook and all other Pacific salmon species by addressing the habitat limiting factors in the reach. Herrera developed and evaluated several alternative design concepts and then advanced the preferred alternative to a preliminary design level. The team developed preliminary design details for the placement of large wood structures within the reach to create cool water pools, complex flow patterns, and variable channel bathymetry. Herrera also developed preliminary design plans for improvements to reduce flooding within Acme. This work included baseline data collection, 2D hydraulic modeling, and quantitative geomorphic evaluation of river processes to inform development of alternatives and selection of the preferred alternative based on the project’s ability to create the desired habitat features, geomorphic complexity, and flood risk reduction, while being constructible and cost effective. This completed contract positioned Herrera to be awarded the subsequent contract for continuation of this work through construction, which will be completed in phases by 2028.