High Valley Reach: What Happened & Where We're Headed
Packwood, WA — Upper Cowlitz (Muddy Fork)
1. The Weather Event & How We Mobilized
In December 2025, the Upper Cowlitz saw an avulsion and severe flooding that put the High Valley community at risk. The river shifted, banks eroded, and the threat to homes and infrastructure was immediate. In a landscape that had long been a patchwork of individual landowners—making coordinated action difficult—residents and property owners had to act fast.
The community mobilized. We coordinated with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) on emergency measures and permits, and with local leadership on access and safety. Landowners along the reach came together to support immediate stabilization work. That effort—armored embankments and rock-and-wood deflectors (jetties) designed under WDFW guidance—has helped stabilize the immediate threat and laid the groundwork for a more durable, habitat-minded approach.
Out of that response, High Valley Community Resilience (HVCR) was formed: a Washington nonprofit to be the unified voice and legal structure for the community. We are organized to move from reactive emergency flood-fighting to long-term habitat restoration and bank stabilization in the Upper Cowlitz. Below we describe who we are, the technical vision for the reach, and the types of grants we are applying for to get there.
Want to see the event and response sequence visually? Browse our photo timeline documenting flood conditions and stabilization work as they unfolded.
Donate
Help us fund the remaining 52% of embankment work
We are currently at about 48% of our armored embankment funding goal. Every donation helps protect homes, access routes, and habitat as we complete the remaining work.
Campaign Progress
Last updated: February 2026
48% funded
$155,400 raised of $321,300 goal
31 donors have contributed so far.
Ways to Give
Donate securely online.
Need a receipt, help completing your donation, or want to donate by Zelle, bank transfer, or check? Email info@hvcr.org.
2. Who We Are
Candid Silver Seal 2026
HVCR earned a 2026 Candid Silver Seal of Transparency. Candid.org is a nonprofit data platform that helps donors and funders review nonprofit profiles and impact information.
HVCR was created to solve the fragmentation that has historically made large-scale restoration in this reach logistically impossible. We represent the High Valley Community as a single point of contact, capable of securing site access, managing landowner agreements, and overseeing project implementation across multiple private parcels.
- Structure: Registered Washington Nonprofit (501(c)(3)).
- Landowner consensus: We have united the High Valley 8 and 11 communities and hold signatures and/or financial commitments from landowners along this critical reach—a rare window of total cooperation.
- Financial commitment: The community has self-funded significant emergency stabilization to date, demonstrating strong local "skin in the game" and the will to solve this problem.
3. Where We Stand Today & Project Vision
High Valley Reach Process-Based Restoration
Location: Upper Cowlitz – Muddy Fork Landscape Unit (RM 129.0 – 131.2)
The armored embankment and emergency stabilization work in this reach has already been completed because community members stepped up and fronted their own funds to lock in construction and protect homes, access, and critical infrastructure. Our immediate fundraising priority is to fully repay and cover that completed work.
At the same time, HVCR is building the next phase of resilience: extending this work through a longer-term, habitat-minded strategy. Protecting the High Valley community over time requires a stabilized bank that also supports habitat. Our direction remains Bioengineered Bank Stabilization across a continuous, managed reach.
The Concept: We envision a continuous, managed reach that moves away from simple riprap walls toward complex, roughness-based structures. Our toolkit for this reach includes:
- Hybrid Deflector Jams: (Based on the WDFW Dec 2025 Emergency Work) These structures utilize a structural rock core for bank protection, "skinned" with large wood and rootwads. This hybrid approach provides the durability of a jetty with the hydraulic roughness and fish refuge of a natural log jam.
- Deflector Engineered Log Jams (ELJs): To dissipate energy and create scour pools.
- Complex Margin Habitat: Restoring roughness to the banks to slow water velocity rather than just constricting it.
The December 2025 emergency work used a "Hybrid Deflector" approach—armored embankments plus rock-and-wood deflectors (jetties)—and has stabilized the immediate threat while beginning to add the roughness needed for fish habitat. We aim to refine, expand, and properly engineer this concept for the entire reach.
Project area & media
4. Grant Pathways for Future Resilience Work
HVCR is continuing to pursue grants and partnerships to expand resilience work beyond the emergency embankment already built. One example partner would be the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board (LCFRB), which has identified this reach as a priority for restoration. Below are the funding pathways we are pursuing for future extension work, why we are a strong partner, who we work with, and the reference documents guiding alignment.
Why partner with HVCR
Previously, social constraints (landowner resistance) made work in this reach difficult. HVCR changes that. We have the signatures, demonstrated local financial commitment, and the will. We are the organized partner needed to carry completed work forward and unlock future restoration and resilience potential in the High Valley Reach while the community remains united and ready to act.
Strategic partnerships & key relationships
HVCR works in active coordination with local leadership and regulators. Key relationships from our formation and emergency response:
- Scott Brummer, Lewis County Commissioner: County infrastructure protection and funding alignment.
- Lonnie Goble, Packwood Fire Chief: Emergency access and public safety during the December 2025 flood events.
- Eliot Johnson (WDFW) / WDFW Habitat Biologists: Guidance on emergency HPA permits and bioengineering standards for the immediate stabilization work.
- Community stakeholders: 50+ property owners in High Valley 8 and 11; High Valley Community Center / HOA (400–600 homes); "Trails End" (44 homes).
References & alignment
Our grant applications are developed in alignment with guiding documents and priorities from organizations like the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board.
- Upper Cowlitz-Cispus Habitat Strategy (Dec 2019)
LCFRB Library – UpperCowlitz-CispusHabitatStrategy_12-2019.pdf
We have structured our proposal around the limiting factors identified for the Upper Cowlitz basin (channel complexity, floodplain connection). - Strategy Appendices: Priority Actions & Maps
UCC_AppendicesA-E_12-2019.pdf
Appendix E, Map 1 identifies the High Valley Reach as a "Strategic Action" polygon. Action UCMF-1 addresses floodplain inundation and levee/armoring modifications; our Hybrid Bioengineering approach is designed to meet this while respecting community constraints. - LCFRB Salmon Resource Map & Precedent Projects
Salmon Resource Map
We have reviewed completed projects in the Cispus and Upper Basin (e.g. Timberline Reach, RM 131.5). Our "Hybrid Deflector Jams" draw on these precedents.