Photo courtesy of Wade Perrow Construction Wade Perrow Construction built a 120-foot-long tunnel to connect a new fish habitat area to the Puyallup River.

This project was designed to restore critical fish habitat in a 17-acre oxbow that was cut off from the Puyallup River in the early 1900s. The site was once part of a web of waterways in which juvenile salmon transitioned from fresh water to salt water before entering Commencement Bay.

The project involved creating the new habitat area and connecting it to the Puyallup River by way of a 10-foot-wide, 120-foot-long tunnel placed into a levee.

The Perrow team constructed a mile-long ring levee, created by moving 100,000 cubic yards of material, to provide flood protection and serve as the boundary of the riparian buffer. Creating the habitat area required removing more than 2 million gallons of water a day.

Revegetation of the riparian buffer with native plants will provide filtration for sediment, pesticides and surface runoff as well as a habitat corridor for insects, small mammals, migratory waterfowl and shore birds in a primarily agricultural area.

The Puyallup Tribe called the project the “crown jewel” of the tribe’s restoration projects.