We're at the Riverbend Project site
on the Cedar River, right outside of Maple Valley.
It's a major floodplain area that is still home to native
runs of chinook and coho salmon, plus sockeye salmon.
The salmon in this system have a pretty difficult journey.
They have to go through the Ballard Locks,
through Lake Washington,
come into the Cedar River, and they spawn all throughout
this area, upstream and downstream.
The site used to be home to a mobile home park.
In 1990, we saw a very large storm
that came through and it eroded the bank
underneath the structures themselves.
It's possible
that entire homes
could have been washed into the river
before anyone had a chance to repair it.
We worked with the flood control district
to help the residents find better homes in safer places.
What we've heard is that people felt respected.
They also didn't have to worry about what would happen in a
big flood event.
What we know
is that when you have a river confined and straightened,
those velocities get really high.
By opening this area up and slowing those flood
flows down, we're
helping reduce risk
for residents and restoring salmon populations.
The intent of this project
was to reset more natural conditions in the river.
Fish, if they're able to stay
in the freshwater environment in these side
channels and in the river until they're bigger,
they have a better chance of surviving
once they get out to the lake and to Puget Sound.
Chinook salmon are the main food source for
Southern resident orca whales.
After less than a
year, fish are readily using
the site, are seeking the site out.
To see it finished,
to see what it looks like on the ground is really exciting.
And it'll be beneficial for many years to come to both
salmon and the community.