Salmon Recovery
The Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan is a document that strives to achieve one thing: provide a detailed pathway by which Skagit Chinook populations can recover to sustained numbers that meet recovery goals established, by agreement, between fisheries co-managers.
Priority Habitats are places that warrant special consideration for protection when land use decisions are made. The PHS program provides land use decision support to clients such as local governments, tribes, government agencies, non governmental organizations, and landowners.
The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to protect and—where possible—restore healthy, intact, and fully functioning riparian ecosystems, which are fundamental for clean water, healthy salmon populations, and climate resilient watersheds.
Temperature
This Water Quality Improvement Report represents Ecology‘s strategy for reducing late summer maximum temperatures in nine creeks that are tributaries to the Lower Skagit River in Skagit County.
Ecology invited representatives from local government units, tribes, non-profit organizations, conservation organizations, and stakeholder groups to attend a series of five meetings to develop, inform, and refine the Strategy with the intent to renew efforts and refocus attention on surface water temperatures in the TMDL area.
In the summer of 2012, four different planted agricultural waterway buffers in Whatcom County, Washington were monitored for air temperature and effective shade. Buffer areas examined in this study consisted of the following widths: 0 feet (no buffer), 5 feet, 15 feet, 35 feet, and 180 feet.
Riparian Restoration
This report synthesizes information on the function of large wood in the Skagit River and similar river systems to aid in the potential development of an effective large woody debris assessment
This document outlines a strategy to revegetate riparian buffers on temperature polluted salmon streams in the Skagit Basin. It aims to plant these areas within three years, not including preparation and maintenance time.
This document synthesizes scientific evidence on how the buffer characteristics, such as width, length, tree size, and connectivity influence riparian functions and habitat for salmonids. This information is organized by six key habitat functions that provide benefits to salmonids.