Strategy for Salmon Habitat

Chehalis Basin’s Guiding Restoration and Preservation Strategy

Salmon have been adversely affected by many different activities that have happened throughout the landscape over time. We can’t reverse these changes, but we can improve “habitat forming processes” that create good habitat for fish. Given the complexity needed to address habitat degradation, strategic planning is needed to figure out what to focus on in order to best recover wild salmon stocks. In 2011, the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat (Lead Entity) released a strategy that includes seven priority approaches for recovering salmon.

• Attain a Healthy and Diverse Population of Wild Salmonids Diversity can only be maintained if all species of salmon in the Chehalis survive and thrive. This means we need to support the species most likely to go extinct without our help (wild salmon stocks that are listed as “depressed”, “threatened” or “endangered”).
• Restore, Enhance, and Protect the Grays Harbor Estuary The Chehalis River flows into the Grays Harbor estuary, a saline bay that is rearing habitat for many types of wild salmonids. Maintaining this “salmon nursery” will take addressing the loss of shoreline habitat and degraded water quality in Grays Harbor.
• Restore and Preserve Properly Functioning Riparian Areas Riparian areas- the zone between land and water- are critical for salmon survival. Restoring and preserving these area starts with assisting landowners to reduce the impacts of their livestock, and assisting forestry operators to address the legacy of poor forestry practices around creeks.
• Restore Habitat Access Undersized culverts on public and private lands create a barrier to salmonids attempting to migrate between to spawning grounds and the sea. There are over 2,700 documented barrier culverts in the Chehalis. Replacing dysfunctional culverts in order to allow salmon passage is a high priority throughout the Chehalis Watershed.
• Restore Properly Functioning Hydrology Ditching, filling and armoring streambanks has led to extremes of high flows in the winter and low flows in the summer, as well as downstream flooding and excessive bank erosion. Reversing these alterations to streamflow will help improve wild salmon habitat.
• Restore Floodplain and Stream Channel Function Floodplains provide fish with habitat for feeding, spawning and rearing, as well as refuge from high velocity flood waters. Levees, dikes, revetments and roads have disconnected valuable floodplains, off-channel habitat, wetlands and sloughs. Projects that restore floodplain function are a major priority in the Chehalis Basin.
• Prioritize Habitat Projects and Activities within Sub-basins That Provide the Highest Benefit to Priority Stocks Since funding is limited, the Chehalis Basin Collaborative for Salmon Habitat needs to work to find projects that have the highest potential for yielding the greatest benefit to priority salmon stocks.

Prioritized Watershed Restoration Plans (PWR)

Prioritized Watershed Restoration (PWR) is strategic, process-based restoration at the watershed scale. Research tells us that at least 20% of a watershed must be restored to see a response in fish numbers. The PWR work improves our chances of creating and maintaining salmon habitat at a meaningful spatial scale and is envisioned to be replicated across the Washington Coast Region. Since 2015, partners in the Chehalis Basin have been developing and now implementing a PWR plan in the Newaukum River Headwaters, and have nearly completed a strategy for the Cloquallum watershed. This work refines the recommendations in 2011 our salmon strategy through bringing in new scientific information and local knowledge to understand and improve watershed conditions at a finer spatial scale.

Newaukum River Headwaters

The Newaukum watershed is home to spring and fall-run Chinook and coho salmon, winter steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout. A legacy of timber resource extraction and declining summer low flows degraded fish habitat. Restoration will improve riparian conditions, fish passage, channel and floodplain connections, and summer stream flows. The Newaukum’s Prioritized Restoration Plan, released in 2023, has the goal 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.

Restoration Objectives

• 13.1 miles riparian restoration
• 12.7 miles instream wood placement
• 3 fish barriers (16.4 mi upstream)

As of 2026, 20 miles have been assessed for instream wood placement, 2 of the fish passage barriers have been removed, and the third is undergoing feasibility study through a grant. The power of having a plan is that it attracts energy for implementation and funding! The full plan is available for download here.

Cloquallum Watershed

Cloquallum and Wildcat Creeks support diverse runs of wild salmon and steelhead that contribute to the species’ genetic diversity in the Chehalis River watershed. Sandwiched between the Olympic Mountains and the Black Hills, these relatively low-elevation tributaries have a unique geology and flow regime. Their headwaters are cool, spring-fed wetlands that historically drained to meandering channels and lush riparian corridors.

Restoration Objectives:

• 33.4 miles riparian and/or wood restoration
• Correct barriers to open up 8.3 miles of blocked habitat
• Increased wetland protections

Stay tuned for a link to the final report!

Scatter Creek Watershed

Scatter Creek is located entirely in Thurston County and is characterized by its low gradient and seasonally dry reaches. While historically home to multiple salmonids, it is now predominantly used for spawning and rearing by Coho salmon. In 2025, the Chehalis Basin Partnership completed a restoration strategy for the Scatter Creek watershed.

Restoration and Protection Goals:

1. Restore, protect, and sustain a flow regime in Scatter Creek that supports aquatic species that historically inhabited the watershed.
2. Restore geomorphic processes in Scatter Creek, which will enable desired habitat formation.
3. Restore and protect shallow groundwater quantity and quality to support cool baseflow contribution from groundwater and support groundwater-connected wetlands.
4. Protect surface water and groundwater from contamination from land uses (e.g. landscaping/agricultural chemicals, stormwater runoff, sediment)
5. Restore and protect summer water temperatures that favor native species over non-native species.
6. Restore native plant ecology consistent with the prairie setting

View the project website, which includes an interactive webtool with data that can information restoration projects, as well as a final report: Scatter Creek wiki page.