DRAFT, last updated 3/15/05
Deep Creek Watershed Page – WRIA
19, Tier 2
A. Watershed Information:
- General Watershed Description: Description (From
1995 Deep Creek Assessment, pp 4-5 (references omitted)): Deep Creek
is an independent tributary to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, located
approximately 30 miles west of Port Angeles. Deep Creek is a fourth
order basin draining an area of 10,678 acres. Elevations range from
sea-level at the mouth to nearly 3500’. Ownership patterns include
US Forest Service in the upper headwaters (4599 acres), and a mixture
of private, state and tribal owners (6079 acres) in the lower portions
of the basin. This area is transitional in rainfall between the rainshadow
affected areas of the mid and eastern Strait, and the wetter areas
of the western Olympic Peninsula. Rainfall averages between 60-80”/year.
Forest communities are dominated by Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and
western hemlock. Red alder is common on disturbed sites, in particular
along riparian zones. Deep Creek historically supported anadromous
runs of fall chum salmon, fall coho, winter steelhead, sea-run cutthroat
and summer/fall Chinook. The latter are believed to have been extirpated
from the system.
- Hatchery impacts:
- Harvest impacts: More harvest
information.
- Stakeholders: Lower
Elwha Klallam Tribe is co-manager of fisheries with WDFW; ; Public landowners
include
WDNR, Washington
Department of Transportation (SR 112), and Olympic
National Forest. Major private landowners are Merrill
and Ring, and Rayonier.
- Tier explanation (from NOPLE Salmon Habitat Recovery Strategy):
Basin area falls into Tier 2; historic productivity is M+(on a scale
of 1-5, these are 3 which is more than half); current productivity
is 2 (ML-just less than half); Deep Creek has a (4) for diversity
of stocks: chum (depressed; critical and declining), steelhead,
coho,
cutthroat; no ESA stocks and one critical. Deep is an excellent area
for surf smelt in WRIA 19. Potential for the successful restoration
of this basin is thought to be high. Half of the Deep Creek watershed
is in federal ownership (late successional reserve status) with major
road decommissioning anticipated; the other half is in private land
and could be targeted for purchase. Additionally habitat based restoration
on the watershed scale in addition to extensive monitoring makes
this basin unique.
- Bibliography:
B. Salmon Habitat Recovery Priorities:
- Salmonid stocks & their status. From State
of Our Watersheds Report 2004, NWIFC SSHIAP, p. 132:
* 2002 WDFW SaSI is incomplete and incorrect and additional information
about specific stocks is available from local co-manager fisheries
biologists.
Of the habitats found in East Twin, West Twin and Deep Creek, East
Twin is steeper, Deep is flatter and West Twin is in the middle. What
that means is that Chum is relatively more important
in Deep Creek, and steelhead is relatively more important in
E.Twin. Deep
Creek Chum are independent from the Twins, similar to the independent
stocks found in the Pysht and Lyre. Deep Creek Chum are beyond
depressed, and could be considered extirpated. Coho stocks
may be stable, but they are not at potential, and certainly not
healthy. Although
Coho stock has shown some short-term increases, the 2004 data does
not look good. There may have been some Chinook in
Deep Creek, but it is unclear what the wild stock were. There
are steelhead in Deep Creek but escapement values
are so low that harvesting should cease immediately.
-
Priority salmon stocks. All
stocks are important and should be recovered and restored. For
this particular watershed, the following stocks deserve specific
attention:
- 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.
- Coho because Coho fisheries are currently an important aspect
of the local economy.
- 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
- Major actions to protect and improve:
Summarized from Deep Creek Assessment (cited in Bibliography under Section
A above)
- Recover mass wasting impacts by conducting side-cast removal,
slope stabilization, culvert removal and revegetation,
emphasizing the US Forest Service road network in the upper headwaters
- Deep-seated
failures in lower basins to be treated with combination of toe protection,
revegetation and water routing treatments
- Redistribute and anchor
LWD in the active channel margin, in particular from RM 3 to 7 where
scouring effects have been
the greatest but also in lower portions of the channel
- Because few off-channel
areas are available for Coho over-wintering due to aggradation and
widening, construct 2 or 3 off-channel
areas in the lower portion of the system, in association with relict channels
or existing small tributary
- Revegetate riparian zones for long term needs
of shade and wood
- 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:
- LWD Restoration by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Merrill & Ring
involves placing large wood in Deep Creek, representing the culmination
of watershed scale restoration efforts dating to 1997 under multiple
funding sources (including 4th Round SRFB
funding). Deep Creek is included
in the Intensively
Monitored Watershed Program.
D. Monitoring:
E. Emerging Issues:
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