Our Role In Washington’s Salmon Recovery
When Washington’s salmon populations were listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act in the 1990s, state leaders decided they did not want the federal government telling them how to recover and protect these iconic Pacific Coast species. Instead, they proposed a bottom-up approach that let local communities to write their own recovery plans. In each major watershed across the state, communities have written recovery plans, which are now being implemented by Lead Entities. In the Chehalis Basin, a group of citizens and local technical experts wrote this region’s salmon restoration and preservation plan and updated it in 2011. The plan is called “The Chehalis Basin Salmon Habitat Restoration and Preservation Strategy for WRIA 22 and 23.” The strategy lists seven ways that the threats to salmon can be reduced. The 7 Priority Approaches for Recovery Salmon.pdf
Today, the Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat (Lead Entity) coordinates the work of hundreds of volunteers and professionals to implement the recovery plan in order to restore salmon to our rivers.
What we have accomplished (1999-2018):
54 fish passage barriers corrected
182 Stream Miles made accessible
89 Miles of Riparian area treated
237 Structures placed in streams
123 Acres off channel reconnected
2,453 Acres of estuary, riparian area, and uplands conserved
Focus on the Newaukum
The Newaukum watershed’s headwaters is the site of a new approach to salmon habitat restoration in the Chehalis Basin and on Washington’s outer coast. A new “Prioritized Restoration Plan” was developed in 2023. The plan goal is to address the highest priority restoration and protection goals in a single watershed in a defined timeframe that will generate a detectable response in fish productivity.
Read more here: https://www.coastsalmonpartnership.org/current-initiatives/pwr/
Focus on the Newaukum: History
In 2014, Chehalis Basin Lead Entity initiated an update of its restoration strategy with the goal of providing more detailed assessment of limiting factors, data gaps, restoration targets and project lists. Given the size of the basin (the second largest in the state), the group opted to work through each of the watershed’s 13 subbasins. A subcommittee of the Lead Entity’s Habitat Work Group (HWG) completed an update for the Humptulips in late 2014, and the Newaukum was selected for the update in 2015. In 2015, Coast Salmon Partnership | Protect the Best | Restore the Rest advanced a “pilot watershed” approach to guiding restoration along all coast Lead Entity areas. The Region’s plan was to assist each Lead Entity with scientific assessment and bringing additional resources to bear on restoration. To demonstrate successes, the work would need to occur in smaller “pilot” areas and could then be replicated elsewhere. The Chehalis Basin Lead Entity’s Habitat Work Group once again landed on the Newaukum for their selected watershed. When the Fish Barrier Removal Board made the request for a Watershed Pathway to barrier removals in the Chehalis, it made sense to also choose the Newaukum in order to focus more resources there.
The group identified many benefits of attempting a comprehensive restoration program in the Newaukum: existing landowner involvement and approachability in key areas; relatively low number of barriers compared to the rest of the Chehalis; good habitat and water temperature conditions in tributaries; and research and monitoring work starting as part of the Chehalis Strategy – Washington State Department of Ecology. Along with the above mentioned work, a variety of other projects have begun in the Newaukum. The Department of Ecology’s Watershed Assessment program chose the Newaukum for effectiveness monitoring (one of only about a dozen in the state), and its’ Nonpoint Pollution Reduction program will target this watershed in working with landowners to find non-regulatory solutions to reducing water quality pollution. The Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest WFC Watertyping Surveys Map is conducting a watertyping study for unmapped streams in the South Fork of the Newaukum. The Lewis County Conservation District has been working with landowners to identify bank erosion and protection projects. WDFW is conducting a number of other studies including a summer juvenile fish use. All of this work will generate new environmental data for the Newaukum and will lead to projects that will be more effective for having taken place in concert.
The Newaukum River