A Decision Framework for Managing the Spirit Lake and Toutle River System at Mount St. Helens (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 Institutional Setting: Developing a Common Understanding
3 Institutional Setting: Developing a Common Understanding
Pages 83-126
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owns and administers large parcels of land in the region, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) manages key areas along the North Fork Toutle River.
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MANAGING THE SPIRIT LAKE AND TOUTLE RIVER SYSTEM FIGURE 3.1 Areas under public management within the study region. SOURCES: Map by authors; base map: @OpenStreetMap and contributors, including the USGS's The National Map: National Boundaries Dataset, 3DEP Elevation Program, Geographic Names Information System, National Hydrography Dataset, National Land Cover Database, National Structures Dataset, and National Transportation Dataset; U.S.
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Areas within the GPNF boundary serve as the headwaters of more than a dozen significant rivers and streams, including the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers, which are the focus of this report. Prior to the 1980 eruption, individual management plans had been established for different management units within the GPNF.
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Forest Service, with Gifford Pinchot named as its first chief. In 1907, the forest reserves were renamed National Forests.
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.7 LAND OWNERSHIP IN THE BROADER TOUTLE RIVER VALLEY CIRCA 1980 Most land in the Toutle River valley outside the GPNF boundary was privately owned prior to 1980. Following the arrival of European trappers in the region in the early 19th century, Fort Vancouver was founded in 1825 on the north bank of the Columbia River near present-day Portland, Oregon, as the first permanent European settlement (Wilma, 2005)
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Towns downstream of the GPNF include Toutle (near the confluence of the North Fork and the South Fork Toutle Rivers) ; Castle Rock (on the Cowlitz River just below its confluence with the Toutle River)
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The relevant management responses with respect to Spirit Lake and the Toutle River system within the first decade following the eruption are reviewed here because they provide context for understanding the current management situation. A number of management actions were taken in the immediate aftermath of the eruption to address perceived threats to human safety and economic concerns.
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Several of these provisions with potential relevance to the decision framework are excerpted here: (a) he Secretary acting through the Forest Service shall administer the Monument as a T separate unit within the boundary of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in accordance with the appropriate laws pertaining to the national forest system, and in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
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area of the North Fork Toutle River drainage. Off-trail travel is by permit only14 to protect ongoing and future research opportunities in this most heavily impacted portion of the 1980 blast zone.
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Helens area and sent a letter through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to President Reagan requesting that "an emergency be declared for Washington State as a result of the flood threat" ( SACE, 1982: 3)
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As an immediate response, in early November 1982, the USACE constructed an emergency pumping station that began to transfer water over the debris blockage and into the North Fork Toutle River, which allowed it to regulate the level of Spirit Lake until a permanent, stable outlet could be constructed. During the summer and fall of 1981, the USACE had also constructed outlet channels to control the levels of eruption- reated c impoundments in nearby Coldwater and Castle Lakes, both of which also drain into the North Fork Toutle River (USACE, 1983)
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. After consultation with other agencies, however, the eventual decision was to drill a gravity-fed drainage tunnel through Harry's Ridge and into South Coldwater Creek and thence to the North Fork Toutle River.
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. In an early effort to control sediment from the Toutle River, the USACE constructed small debris retention structures on both the North and South Forks in 1980 to 95
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limit sediment flow into the main stem Toutle River. The structure on the North Fork Toutle River was intended to be in service through 1985, but of necessity it was breached by the USACE in March 1982 to prevent uncontrolled failure of the structure while the South Fork Toutle River structure was removed in November 1982 to facilitate fish passage (USACE, 2012)
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. The lands necessary for the SRS and its sediment retention area were condemned through actions of the Washington Department of Transportation, and the SRS was constructed from 1987 to 1989 on the North Fork Toutle River (USACE, 2012)
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ONGOING MANAGEMENT SETTING (1990-PRESENT) The Toutle River valley has relatively few residents living in the unincorporated communities of Kid Valley, Riverdale, Toutle, and Silver Lake.
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Their continuing involvement is an expedient way for the Forest Service to maintain on-the-ground knowledge for this structure. There have been two recurring problems associated with operation of the Spirit Lake outflow tunnel, the first of which has involved the need for tunnel repairs, particularly in the area where the tunnel cuts across what is known as the Julie and Kathy L
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. The main feature of this plan was the SRS on the North Fork Toutle River (USACE, 1985)
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The result was that a significantly larger amount of sediment began passing the structure, the coarser sandy fraction of which was deposited downstream in the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers where it had the potential to increase flood risk and affect shipping. In response to bathymetric survey data indicating that accumulated sediment had begun to impact the authorized levels of protection for Longview, the USACE dredged the lowest 5.7 miles (9.2 km)
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Access Spillway Road Stored Sediments Eastern Edge of Sediment Dam FIGURE 3.3 (Top) Aerial photo showing the sediment retention structure (SRS)
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. Three alternatives were deemed capable of maintaining the a uthorized flood risk levels along the Cowlitz River: (1)
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in 2012 to increase its sediment storage capacity, additional management actions have been deemed necessary by the USACE to manage downstream flood risks. To this end, the USACE conducted a limited reevaluation of sediment management alternatives in the North Fork Toutle River, including a "no action" alternative, a dredging-only alternative, a one-time raise of the entire SRS spillway by 43 feet (13.1 m)
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constructing a new Fish Collection Facility at the location of the existing facility and establishing a new fish release site or (2) upgrading the existing Fish Collection Facility to meet current design criteria and establishing a new fish release site on Deer Creek, a tributary of the upper North Fork Toutle River upstream of the SRS.
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taries throughout the South Fork Toutle River watershed and tributaries of the North Fork Toutle River except those draining the landslide debris flow areas within 5 years of the eruption. Anadromous salmon populations below the SRS have grown due to returns of ocean-rearing individuals that were not affected by the eruption, straying from nearby populations, and reintroduction efforts by the WDFW (Liedtke et al., 2013)
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The design of the SRS is too high to include a fish ladder, and the SRS is a barrier to upstream volitional fish passage, preventing migration of species back into the North Fork Toutle River and its tributaries. As defined by the USFWS,19 volitional means that fish are able to migrate around a dam or structure through an upstream fish ladder or downstream bypass system as opposed to being trapped and hauled around the structure or attempting to move through hydropower turbines where many would be killed.
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use information from hatchery and genetic management plans to evaluate hatchery impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act in an effort to devise biologically based hatchery management strategies that provide for sport harvesting while ensuring the conservation and recovery of these species' populations.a Both the WDFW and the NMFS are focused on helping stocks of wild fish recover because they are believed to be more resilient than are fish raised in hatcheries. The WDFW formally adopted a Statewide Steelhead Management Plan in 2008 that proposed the develop ment of a network of wild steelhead gene banks, and the North Fork Toutle River and its tributary the Green River have been cited as potential wild steelhead sanctuaries.b As with other conservation-centered issues, the debate over hatchery-raised anadromous fish transcends biological issues to involve cultural and economic values as well as competing political goals, with passionate advocates on both sides.b It is even possible to support conflicting values and goals: for example, valuing the intrinsic worth of wild-raised fish as components of natural ecosystems, yet acknowledging that hatchery-raised fish have long been a significant and necessary part of the Toutle River system, particularly following the depletion of native stocks due to unsustainable com mercial and recreational fishing more than 50 years ago.
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Currently, upstream volitional fish passage is blocked downstream of the SRS by the barrier dam at the FCF as well as by the head cut at the base of the spillway channel (USACE, 2017) , while upstream migration from the North Fork Toutle River into Spirit Lake is completely blocked by the debris avalanche and the Spirit Lake tunnel.
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. If restoring volitional fish passage in the North Fork Toutle River system is identified as a management objective for this project, then decision makers and managers will need to assess how different actions, either at the SRS or Spirit Lake, affect fish migration.
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"providing the highest quality wintering elk habitat in the North Fork Toutle River drainage while allowing public viewing and limited recreation" (Calkins, 2006: 42)
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While the regulatory and management concerns and responsibilities of responsible agencies may be assumed a priori on the basis of their statutory foundations, understanding the range of concerns of other interested and affected parties that need to be considered during decision making requires empirical efforts. Such efforts may include studies to identify the parties' concerns, sometimes called stakeholder analyses; participatory processes that allow the parties to express their concerns directly to responsible agencies; or combinations of these approaches.
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as well as stake olders from h the private sector; these are described in the following sections. Federal Agencies Federal agencies beyond the USFS and the USACE might be considered interested and affected parties with respect to the management of the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system.
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Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) , which has primary responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater organisms, and the Commerce Department's National M arine Fisheries Service, which has primary responsibility for marine wildlife, including anadromous fish such as salmon and steelhead,26 both of which are historic components of the Toutle River system.
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of the Monument were officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its significance as a Traditional Cultural Property.30 The Cowlitz Indian Tribe provides services related to housing, health, and transportation to about 4,100 tribal members, many of whom live in southwest Washington, including in areas protected by lower Cowlitz River levees (USACE, 2017)
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Spokesmen for the tribe have also expressed special concerns about the impacts of the SRS on the environmental conditions of the North Fork Toutle River, particularly with respect to salmon and steelhead populations. In addition to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the Yakama Nation has been interested in the preservation and management of their traditional use lands in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
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, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe has been particularly active in the North Fork Toutle River watershed, which lies in the heart of the tribe's ancestral lands, where they have conducted fish and habitat research, restored and protected critical salmonid habitat, and assisted in trap and haul efforts at the FCF and worked closely with the WDFW and other stakeholders to protect and conserve resources of the Toutle River. In terms of technical expertise, the Cowlitz and Yakama communities both have highly trained scientists and technicians that perform and publish the results of fundamental scientific research as well as established programs in wildlife, 117
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of forest, range, agricultural, aquatic, and commercial lands throughout the state for more than $200 million in annual financial benefit for public schools, state institutions, and county services.34 In the Toutle River watershed, it manages 37,100 acres (15,014 hectares) of state-owned trust lands immediately west of the Monument between the North Fork and South Fork Toutle Rivers as well as smaller parcels elsewhere in the watershed (see Figure 3.1)
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and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, which manages Seaquest State Park and the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, both of which are near Silver Lake within the Toutle River watershed.
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Nongovernmental Organizations, Businesses, and Local Residents Individuals, businesses, and communities in the region are all potentially affected by Spirit Lake and Toutle River management decisions, so their interests and concerns need to be considered. Many active nongovernmental organizations interested in the region seek to represent these interests and concerns and to speak for subsets of the interested and affected parties.
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Funding and the political climate at any given time further complicates their relationship and the decisions they can make. Management of system elements downstream -- for example, in the North Fork Toutle River near the SRS -- is even more complex because many federal, tribal, state, local, and private entities have their own responsibilities and interests related to different aspects of the valley.
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No single organization understands all aspects of the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system: the USFS does not have the engineering expertise needed for managing Spirit Lake, but the USFS and the USGS conduct joint research in and around Spirit Lake and have developed understanding of environmental and geologic processes. Flood risk management engineers may not appreciate the extraordinary magnitude of lahars and lake breakout floods (see Chapter 4)
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The wide range of interested and affected parties and their respective concerns described in this chapter illustrate how difficult it will be to develop a common understanding of the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system, of the physical and socioeconomic consequences of management alternatives, and of how to reach decisions that will address the diverse concerns. The material offered herein could be considered a starting point for future deliberation among decision makers and other interested and affected parties.
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In this context, all the participants heard from during open session meetings recognized that any decisions need to incorporate the current and future safety of citizens downstream of the Spirit Lake blockage. There was also support for evaluating a broader range of goals and benefits such as improving recreational opportunities; improving fish habitat and passage; improving habitat for elk and other fauna and flora of the region; reducing the likelihood of both chronic and catastrophic flooding; containing costs associated with long-term management; sustaining emergency response capabilities; helping allay the concerns for residents concerned about floods and other hazards; managing sediment flows through a variety of means; recognizing and honoring distinctive Native American Indian values and cultural practices; having the ability to make repairs to structures such as the Spirit Lake tunnel without increasing flood risk; minimizing the risks to personnel involved in maintaining management infrastructure (e.g., the Spirit Lake tunnel)
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Greater Transparency and Involvement in the Decision Process The NEPA requires that decisions concerning actions to be taken by federal agencies such as the USFS or the USACE that may significantly affect the environment must include opportunities for public comment, and public comments have been elicited in the past. Nevertheless, during the committee's open session meetings private citizens and representatives from a number of interested and affected groups expressed frustration that the participatory processes for previous decisions regarding Toutle River management had been insufficient and non-transparent.
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The SRS is operated by the USACE so upstream decisions that affect sediment flow into the SRS affect the life span of the structure and have implications for downstream flood and sediment management. Similarly, management of the SRS affects fish migration, for example, which necessitates involvement of such organizations as the National Marine Fisheries Service under the auspices of the ESA.
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