Reach

Species

Habitat Type

Recommended Action

Actions/Needs

Rationale

Comments

estuary

Coho, Steelhead, Chum, Chinook

Feeding, rearing, migrating

Restore river mouth connectivity to Strait.

Need assessment, investigation, perhaps experimental project, monitoring. Historic conditions unknown; solution unclear; persistent problem 

It is unclear whether the Clallam River was historicaly bar-bound, however, the flow regiment has changed and closure is interfering with chinook and chum leaving, and coho and chum runs.

Good Project for Corps of Engineers? 

Lower Clallam

Chum, Coho

Spawning and rearing

Water quality requires attention, especially in lower Clallam

Need study.

If not covered by Clallam County Habitat Assessment project, then needs separate study.

The integrity of the Clallam headwaters is among the best of the WRIA 19 streams, but the lower flood plains is one of the worst. 

Clallam River

Coho, Steelhead

Spawning and rearing

Protection and restoration of riparian corridor.

Implement recovery priorities to be established through Clallam County Habitat Assessment

CREP restoration projects should be encouraged

Throughout watershed but especially in lower reaches

Coho, Steelhead

spawning and rearing

Slow down peak velocities to reduce mortality, increase habitat, reduce scour and incision, and improve access to tributaries

Addition of large woody debris. Mainstem jams must be large and channel spanning, and form beads on a string, to capture wood and spawning gravel. Jams can be smaller on higher tribs, to reduce peak flows.

Legacy of forestry practices has left insufficient riparian buffer for input of large woody debris. Must be accompanied by riparian restoration, but riparian restoration alone will take too much time.

Throughout watershed

Coho, Steelhead

spawning and rearing

Protect riparian corridors to prevent additional damage to watershed hydrology processes and salmonid habitats.

Acquisition of slopes, 500 foot river corridors, fluvial landscape, and all of the floodplains will ensure corridor stability, riparian refugia, cool stream temperature, and protect water quality and velocity.

Current forestry practices and buffers are not sufficient to prevent changes to river hydrology and damage to salmonid habitat. Helicopter logging would reduce roads and some sedimentation but remaining riparian corridor will still be insufficient for providing necessary refugia for shade, large woody debris, and stability.

Acquire available forestry properties, retain crucial riparian strips, and sell remainder with proceeds to be used to purchase additional properties.

Upper Clallam & Charley trib

largest Coho population on the strait

Spawning and rearing

protection

The Charlie Creek trib is currently in pretty decent shape and the Coho there is doing pretty well because of that. Important to protect what's left.

The Clallam has historically been logged extensively. The upper reaches are managed by DNR which continues to actively log in WRIA 19. While the Clallam Landscape Management Plan for DNR guides them to only thin and to not cut older timber (and much will soon be 50 years old), the plan does allow for extraction of alder from riparian zones, and it is unclear what will happen.

DNR ownership