Navigation Technical Applications Home Environmental Restoration Technical Assistance (ERTA) ERTA West ERTA East ERTA Contact Information TAPPS Reports Off-Channel Habitat Inventories - TAPPS off-channel habitat inventory data for the North Coast and North Sound regions Fish Passage Barrier and Surface Water Diversion Screening Assessment and Prioritization Manual - Guidance on how to locate, assess, and prioritize fish passage problems (culverts, dams, and fishways) and surface water diversion screening problems SalmonScape - TAPPS data can be found in the Salmonscape Internet map application.

ERTA West: Off Channel Habitat Inventory Data North Sound Off Channel Habitat and Salmonid Distribution Click Link to View Inventories Click on maps for enlargement North Coast Off Channel Habitat and Salmonid Distibution Click Link to View Inventories Introduction: Wild Stock Restoration / Enhancement The 1987 Washington State Legislature directed WDFW to develop a wild coho habitat enhancement program on North Coast and North Puget Sound rivers. Those rivers included the Hoh, Queets, and Quillayute systems on the North Coast, and the Skagit and Stillaguamish Rivers in North Puget Sound. The purpose was to increase and stabilize wild coho smolt production by expanding and improving key production habitats. Improved production could ease harvest impacts in mixed stock fisheries and strengthen the wild component. Harvest restrictions necessary to protect low numbers of these wild fish reduced fishing opportunity and caused economic loss to citizens of Washington State and Indian Tribes. Historical watershed reconstruction has shown that key habitat features for coho have been lost. These key habitats consist of flowing backwater sloughs, channels, and ponds and have been termed “off-channel” habitat. Many of these off-channel have been degraded or permanently lost by diking, urban development, agricultural activities, logging, road building, and dams. Restoration of these areas can improve survival throughout all freshwater life history stages. Work began immediately to identify project options and implement construction. A comprehensive inventory of previously undocumented off-channel habitats on each of the river systems was also initiated. The purpose of the inventory was to carefully describe habitat areas that were not included in the Washington Department of Fisheries Stream Catalog (Williams et al., 1975) and other major surveys. Once identified and compiled into an easily accessible database, these areas could be better managed for protection by various watershed managers and to complement the WDFW Hydraulic Project Approval permit process. Since 1987, there has been increased recognition that many wild salmonid species use the “off channel” habitat targeted by this program. This understanding has led TAPPS to implement a variety of similar habitat enhancement projects throughout Washington, such as spawning channels for depressed chum salmon stocks in the lower Columbia River. However, most habitat enhancement work is still being focused on coho and other wild salmonids in the North Coast and North Puget Sound, with smaller efforts in central and south Puget Sound and the lower Columbia River. These projects benefit total ecosystem health by restoring a valuable natural landscape feature that has been lost through development activities. Habitat work is an important component to the recovery of these wild salmonid stocks. These efforts supplement the ongoing fish passage and screening work of TAPPS. Wild salmonid recovery efforts received further attention in 1992 in North Puget Sound watersheds when coho salmon were listed as “depressed” in the 1992 SASSI report (WDF et al., 1993). The listing re-enforced enhancement of high quality habitats to aid in stock recovery. The high value of small stream and off-channel areas to coho was recognized as early as 1948 through 1958 in work on the Wilson River in northern Oregon (Skeesick, 1970). Additional work on the north coast of Washington by Cederholm and Scarlett (1981) and Peterson and Reid (1984) further demonstrated the value of off-channel winter refuge habitats in the Clearwater River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. They demonstrated that 20% to 35% of the total coho smolt production came from these areas. Additional investigations in Canada by Tschaplinski and Hartman (1983), Foy (1985), and Brown and McMahon (1987) also confirmed these habitat preferences by juvenile coho and the value of off-channel project types to increasing production. Nickelson et al., (1992) concluded that off-channel habitat development has the highest potential for increasing wild coho salmon production in Oregon coastal streams. High quality off-channel habitats have not only been found to improve juvenile freshwater survival but lead to faster growth rates and larger size, increasing marine survival (Bilton et al., 1982). The performance of projects constructed by TAPPS has been evaluated at selected sites by monitoring summer juvenile use, smolt production, spawner use, and observation of overall project function. Immediate colonization and high levels of use comparable to earlier and other work in the Pacific Northwest have been found.