When a section the northern reach of Highway 101 – the main arterial for Washington’s Olympic Peninsula – was closed for 12 hours due to flooding in 1996, local, state and tribal agencies were spurred to action. But instead of building culverts and flood control devices to further restrain Jimmycomelately Creek, they decided on a more radical plan: to allow the lower stretch of the creek to flow unimpeded back in its natural floodplain.

Jimmycomelately Creek – or “the Jimmy” as it is known – was moved uphill from its original location over 100 years ago by farmers looking to cultivate the fertile valley soil. Out of its floodplain, the creek cannot naturally dissipate during high flows, inconveniencing people and decimating salmon habitat. Once this project – the largest creek meander restoration effort in Washington – is completed, threatened summer chum salmon will once again have access to prime creek and restored estuary habitat.

“We like to call it an ‘undevelopment’ project,” explains Sam Gibboney, project coordinator. “The goal is to pull back the human development that has occurred and give the creek and the estuary a chance to move and do its thing naturally. That’s a driving philosophy behind the restoration project; we are not really in the business of trying to create habitat so much as we are in the business of giving some room in form and function and letting the habitat recreate itself.”

But before work could start, there were a few details to work out, particularly since the original floodplain at the mouth of the creek was pretty well filled in and built up, with two roads, a log yard, a dance hall, and even an RV park where wetlands and the estuary used to be. The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe had its eye on the log yard for over a decade because of their interest in salmon and shellfish harvests in the tidelands.

Sam has a contract with the Tribe, but she works for and with all of the project partners. “The property acquisition phase really took a lot of creativity,” she explains. “The Tribe was able to purchase the old log yard, which is quite an extensive piece of property, with funds from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife partnered to purchase several other properties in the area including the old RV park.” At first negotiations did not go as well with the owner of the old dance hall, but the Washington Department of Transportation stepped in and was able to acquire that key piece of land.

Sam explains, “The Tribe has a dual role in this effort. They are a project partner and also an affected property owner. They have allowed the project to happen on property they could use for other purposes. The Tribal council believes strongly in this project and has been a driving force.”

A high level of cooperation and coordination has been required to put the Jimmy back where it belongs. The Tribe’s previous natural resource director used to have a saying in her office: “It’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t worry about who gets the credit.” Everybody – agencies and individuals – have kept their eye on the end goal of the project and that has kept things moving forward. Sam contends that private landowner participation has contributed to the success of the project. A key landowner is John McLaughlin, who allowed a conservation easement to be placed on his land. John also acts as a representative for the landowners. Says Sam, “Having John talk to his neighbors about ongoing issues rather than agency people has helped facilitate local cooperation.”

The project includes removal of over 100 creosote pilings in the bay, along with a column of contaminated sediment around them, in the hope that tribal shellfish harvesting will eventually resume. In addition to removing structures, septic systems, fill dirt, utilities, and roads, there is one significant piece of human engineering that is being built: a new Highway 101 bridge that will span the restored creek and its entire 100-foot floodplain.

Designing three-quarters of a mile of restored creek bed has been part science and part politics; an 1870 coastal survey has been a useful reference. “While there are a lot of biological principles that drive this project, it is also within the context of current land use,” explains Sam. “A channel design team met once a month for close to two years, and looked at everything from location to function to how much wood was going to be placed in the channel, and came up with this design based on land ownership and willingness to cooperate.”

Sam explains, “We are not putting it back into the exact place where it was before. That would be impossible. But it fits within the landscape now, and we are adding a lot of sinuosity back into the channel to make it function better.” Where the RV park stood, there was some question as to whether that area was historically salt marsh. However the design team came to the conclusion that salt marsh is at such a high premium in the Puget Sound right now, that it was okay to depart slightly from a pure restoration philosophy to try to create as much salt marsh as possible because it is so important to not only salmon but to other species and habitat.

As project coordinator, Sam spends her time both in the office assuring the funding – currently 18 different government sources – and permits are in place, and visiting the various project sites in hardhat and waders. “While the project was long in forming from conception through acquisition,” Sam says, “once we actually got to design and construction we have had a very aggressive schedule.” A lot of what drives that is the fish. Volunteers have been capturing some of the summer chum that return to the Jimmy each year and artificially spawning then releasing them, but everyone is anxious for the salmon to spawn naturally.

 “Working on a landscape scale is really exciting,” comments Sam. “Not just doing band aid fixes on different part of the creek, but really looking at it on the broader scale of how this fits into Sequim Bay. One of the best things about this project is how much land will be held indefinitely in a natural state.” This project is unique in that it links a restored creek bed to its estuary, taking riparian restoration to a grander scale which the Tribe hopes will serve as a model for other projects. For her part, Sam is looking forward to the moment when human undevelopment – with all the backhoes and trucks it requires – gives way to something else. “We are getting all the pieces into place – or actually out of place – so we can just let her rip.”