The roar of twin-rotor Chinook helicopters was heard all around Washington’s Pilchuck River valley in June 2025 as one massive log after another swung beneath cables toward the river below. It looked like an enormous logging operation from the air, while on the ground, crews were doing the opposite. Instead of clearing wood from the river, they were putting it back. Over several days, helicopters flew roughly 400 large logs into an eight-mile stretch of the Upper Pilchuck River, where they were assembled into 28 engineered logjams that were designed to recreate the tangled woody structures that once created Pacific Northwest rivers before decades of logging and flood-control work removed them. According to The Daily Herald, the effort is led by the Tulalip Tribes and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources as part of a long-term plan to restore habitat for threatened Chinook salmon while also trying to reduce erosion and slow floodwaters.
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