Natural Systems Design, Inc. 3/24/2025

CITY OF EVERETT PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT  SMITH ISLAND ESTUARY RESTORATION ADVANCE MITIGATION SITE: YEAR 7 MONITORING Page 6 | February 18, 2025 species size classes, life stage, and origin (wild or hatchery). The goal of this monitoring is to document that the site is being used by a variety of native fish species, including juvenile salmonids. Documenting use of the AMS by estuarine fish species indicates the AMS is meeting the goal of achieving interspersed estuarine habitat. Fish use is also an indicator of meeting the AMS goals of intertidal marsh development and habitat complexity in that the marshes and mudflats export organic material downstream and provide habitat for benthic invertebrates, both of which support the estuarine food web on which rearing salmonids depend. Subtask 3.1 Data Collection Coordination Consistent with the approach taken in Year 1 by ICF and in Years 3 and 5 by NSD, NSD will again coordinate with Snohomish County during the 2025 sampling being conducted by the County, the Tulalip Tribes, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) throughout the lower Snohomish River estuary to ensure sampling is completed within the site’s tidal channel. The site is described as the ‘Everett Channel and the Everett Mitigation Channel’ in the County’s documents and data files. NSD anticipates that fish will be collected under a scientific collection permit from WDFW and NOAA/Tulalip/Snohomish County’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 10 A1a collection permit. Fish use sampling is typically conducted in the AMS, as well as in the larger Smith Island Estuary Restoration project’s starter channels and blind channels, and from sites within the lower estuary (e.g., Mid Spencer Island). Utilization of these collaboratively gathered data meets the intent of the Advance Mitigation Plan (ICF 2016) to document fish use within the site, while also capitalizing on the larger monitoring effort being conducted to monitor estuarine restoration in the lower Snohomish River estuary. Sampling is anticipated to be conducted by the County/Tribes/NOAA on a cycle of approximately every two weeks between February and August 2025 using a modified Puget Sound beach seine deployed from a boat moving downstream across the site’s tidal channel. Captured fish are placed in buckets for temporary holding, identified by species, a subset of each species is measured, and the fish released as quickly as possible. Chinook and coho salmon are identified as hatchery or natural origin based on visual identification of external marks (adipose fin clip) or detected presence of a coded- wire tag. Subtask 3.2 Data Analysis NSD will analyze the fish use data from within the site and will compare the species caught within the mitigation site to that reported in the Year 1, 3, and 5 Monitoring Reports per the performance standards for Years 7 and 10. NSD will prepare summary tables and figures for inclusion in the Year 7 Monitoring Report (Task 5). ASSUMPTIONS:  NSD will not collect fish use data; collaboration and use of estuary-wide data collection will remain acceptable to EPWD and Snohomish County and to reviewers at USACE and Ecology.  Snohomish County/Tulalip Tribes will provide summary data collected within the site to NSD in fall 2025 time for inclusion in the Year 7 monitoring report. DELIVERABLES:  Year 7 fish use analysis and summary tables for inclusion in Task 5, Monitoring Report