Thompson creek is a tributary to the skagit river between concrete and rockport near highway SR20

A barrier ( 994221) currently blocks fish passage to 0.75 miles of habitat upstream. This summer WSDOT will be correcting a state owned barrier culvert located less than 500 feet upstream. Sfeg is seeking funds to remove this private barrier culvert and replace IT with an ATV lawn mower crossing. This project also builds on a barrier removal downstream on sauk store road that skagit county completed in 2012. In addition to providing fish passage to chinook, coho, chum, pink and steelhead, removing the barrier culverts on thompson creek and installing an ATV bridge will also permanently stop the creek from flowing over the road and keep foot and ATV traffic out of the creek. IT will also allow large woody debris movement from the mature riparian forest downstream. Thompson creek is currently 100 blocked to fish access according to wdfw criteria by this barrier and is listed as a habitat for chinook, coho, chum, steelhead, and pink salmon on wdfw s salmonscape. Thompson creek is well forested with a healthy, mature, riparian buffer consisting of conifers and shrubs. The channel has high habitat complexity and sinuosity with abundant large woody debris and gravel for spawning. The current culverts are very disruptive to normal sediment, wood and water flow. In winter water is frequently forced to overtop the road. Replacing this crossing with a small ATV bridge would restore fish access and natural processes. The thompson creek project was identified due to WSDOT doing a barrier removal project upstream of this site. This project will remove a small private barrier and ensure that the public money spent fixing the upstream barrier actually benefits salmon. On thompson creek the barrier culvert causes the stream to flow over the road and meander unnaturally in the forest around the crossing, leading to unnatural erosion and distribution of gravel road fill. Removing the barrier will remove this unnatural channel disruption and improve water quality in downstream reaches. Several forested wetland complexes are mapped downstream 0.4 miles downstream associated with the skagit river.