DRAFT, last updated 3/15/05
Clallam River Watershed Page – WRIA
19, Tier 2 A. Watershed Information:
- General
Watershed Description: From WRIA 19 LFA (pp 22-23): The Clallam
River is about 13.4 miles long, with steep gradients in the headwaters
and low gradients downstream. Major tributaries include Charley, Last
and Pearson Creeks. Nearby is the small independent stream of Falls Creek.
Coho spawners have been documented between RM 3.6-11.4 in the mainstem,
the lower 0.4 miles of Blowder Creek, and the lower 1.7 miles of Charley
Creek (Fig. B.2). Winter steelhead have a similar distribution to coho
with spawners documented from 2.8-11.4 in the mainstem, as well as to
RM 10 of Pearson Creek, RM 2 to Last Creek, and RM 3 of Charley Creek
(WDFW spawner survey database 1998). Moderate numbers (500 or less) of
chum have been observed in the lower mainstem. Chinook salmon haven’t
been observed in the Clallam River for many years. Previous sightings
of chinook might have been the result of outplants of hatchery chinook
salmon in the 1970s (Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Tribe, personal communication).
- Hatchery impacts:
- Quillayute System Hatchery Winter Steelhead by WDFW (North
Coast, p. 181 "plants in April at five fish per pound
are as follows: 50,000 to the Calawah River, 5,000 to the Clallam
River, 20,000 to Goodman Creek, 25,000 to the Lyre River, 5,000
to Morse Creek, and 10,000 to the Pysht River.")
- NOPLE Strategy
Table 4. Current Hatchery Information
- More hatchery information
- Harvest impacts: More harvest information.
- Stakeholders: Lower Elwha Klallam
Tribe is co-manager of fisheries with WDFW; Public landowners
include
WDNR, Clallam
County Parks and Washington
Department of Transportation (SR 112); Major private landowners
are Merrill
and Ring, Rayonier,
Bloedel Timberlands, and
Cascade Timberlands LLC (taking over ownership
from Crown Pacific Timberlands
with management provided by Olympic
Resource Management LLC (a subsidiary of Pope Resources). The
Clallam Bay community is located in the Clallam River flood plain.
Part of the unincorporated portion of Clallam County, the primary
governing
body
of Clallam Bay
is the Chamber
of Commerce which was established as a non-profit organization in
1981. Through the Chamber's Community Council, regular meetings
with the Clallam
County
Commissioners connect
Clallam Bay with the County seat.
- Tier explanation (from NOPLE Salmon Habitat Recovery Strategy):
The historic productivity of the Clallam River is
difficult to estimate because it was one of the first rivers
settled, therefore
one of
the first impacted by development (stream clearing began in
1890s.) The Clallam River is 5 square miles smaller then the
Pysht, and is
currently producing similar coho numbers to the Pysht (with
some variability between years). Charlie Creek numbers indicate
500 redds/mile.
Looking at number of stocks as a factor of historic productivity,
there is no evidence that there ever was chinook in Clallam,
therefore there is one less stock than the Pysht, which supports
keeping historic
productivity at a 3. Applying the Strategy Table 1 Tier guidelines,
the Clallam River meets the standards to be a Tier 2. Current
data indicates the upper reaches serve as spawning grounds
for coho (167/mi,
WDFW coho Redd county index section).
- Bibliography:
B. Salmon Habitat Recovery Priorities:
- Salmonid stocks & their status. From State
of Our Watersheds Report 2004, NWIFC SSHIAP, p. 132:
There are an unknown number of Chinook left in
the Sekiu, Clallam, and Pysht, similar in timing to the Hoko but the
Sekiu,
Clallam and Pysht stocks can be considered functionally extinct. Recovering
Chinook in the Hoko, Sekiu, Clallam and Pysht is important because
of their potential of economic importance to the local economy. There
are plans for repopulating the Chinook run in the Sekiu, Clallam and
Pysht via outplanting from the Hoko. According to local fisheries biologists,
all Western Strait Chum stocks deserve to be designated
as depressed or even as critical under SaSI. Chum runs must be considered
critical in Clallam, Deep, the Twins, and Salt. Escapement values for
the Steelhead are also low. Steelhead continue to be planted in the
Chambers tributary. The Charley Creek may be considered one of the
remaining strongholds of the Peninsula Coho.
- Priority salmon stocks. All stocks are important
and should be recovered and restored. For this particular watershed,
the following stocks deserve specific attention:
- Coho because Coho fisheries are an important aspect of the
local economy, and the Charley Creek tributary is among the strongholds
for Peninsula Coho.
- Chum because they form the basis of the food chain, they make
up the most widely distributed stock, and they contribute the
most in biomass and tonnage. Stock has been degraded significantly
and recovery is a high priority.
- Priority Limiting Watershed Process & Habitat Features. The
main land use in WRIA 19 is commercial forestry and the following
habitat features and/or watershed processes are responsible for
the poor PVCs identified above
- From State
of Our Watersheds Report 2004, NWIFC SSHIAP:
- Sedimentation due to high road densities, improper forest
road construction and maintenance, poor forest practices,
mass wasting;
- channel instability-incision due to high sedimentation
rates, lack of LWD;
- reduced LWD-channel complexity due to riparian/floodplain
roads, channelization, incision
- poor riparian conditions, due to FP-riparian encroachment,
poor forest practices
- increased freq/mag peak flows, due to channelization, conversion
from late-seral conifer to early-seral mixed forest
- high stream temperatures, due to loss of riparian conifer
cover
- Clallam River is listed on 1998
303d List for Temperature
- See also Limiting
Factor Summaries from NOPLE Strategy
Documentation
(Appendix
E) and
see
Abstract from
WRIA 19 LFA (p 6)
- Major actions to protect and improve: The following
major actions are necessary to protect and improve the above-identified
priority salmonid stocks:
- See Recommendations
from Abstract from
WRIA 19 LFA (p 6)
- See additional recommendations from bibliography under Section
A above.
- Priority actions and areas: The following priority
actions and areashave been specifically identified as priorities in
resolving the priority limiting watershed processes and habitat features
identified above:
- Community issues: The following community issues
are relevant to protecting and restoring the above-identified priority
salmonid stocks in this particular watershed:
C. Recovery Projects:
D. Monitoring:
E. Emerging Issues:
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