DRAFT, last updated 3/15/05
Pysht Watershed Page – WRIA 19,
Tier 2 A. Watershed Information:
- General Watershed Description: From WRIA 19 LFA
(p 22): The Pysht River is about 16.3 miles long, with eight tributaries
that add another 35.6 miles of stream length (Phinney and Bucknell
1975). In the headwaters, the gradient is steep and the US Forest Service
owns the surrounding land. Downstream, the low gradient runs through
valleys for 11 miles. The Merrill and Ring Company owns a large portion
of the surrounding land in this area, and it is managed as a tree farm.
The South Fork Pysht joins at RM 7.2. Chinook have been documented
in the mainstem as well as the lower 6 miles of the South Fork (Phinney
and Bucknell 1975). Coho and winter steelhead spawn in all accessible
areas in the mainstem Pysht (primarily between RM 3-12) and South Fork
Pysht (Fig. B.2) (WDFW spawner survey database 1998). Most of the chum
spawning is between RM 4-10 (Phinney and Bucknell 1975). Tributaries
important for coho (and probably winter steelhead) spawners include
Reed Creek to RM 3.1, Green Creek to RM 2.2, Gold Creek to RM 1, and
Needham Creek to RM 1.8. A few unnamed tributaries support these two
species as well (stream numbers 19.0116, 19.023, 19.0124).
- Hatchery impacts:
- Smaller Watersheds hatchery Winter Steelhead by WDFW (Eastern
Straits,
p. 40 "smolts are planted in the Lyre River (25,000), Pysht River
(10,000) and Morse Creek (5,000")
- Hoko River Fall Chinook broodstock program by Makah Tribe (North
Coast, p. 133 "Program releases are 200,000 smolts to
the Hoko River at river mile ten for a US/Canada indicator stock,
100,000 smolts to the Hoko River at river mile 16, 50,000 to the
Little Hoko River, and the rest at river mile ten. Future plans
for this stock include plantings in the Sekiu and Pysht Rivers")
- 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
Olympic National Forest, WDNR,
Clallam County (Hoko Ozette
Road), and Washington
Department of Transportation (SR 112).
Major private landowners are Merrill
and Ring, Rayonier, and Cascade
Timberlands LLC (taking over ownership
from Crown Pacific Timberlands with management provided by Olympic
Resource Management LLC (a subsidiary of Pope Resources).
- Tier explanation (from NOPLE Salmon Habitat Recovery Strategy): Historically,
the Pysht basin were considered to have moderately high productivity
levels (Figure 2), higher than the majority of the geographical units
assigned to Tier 3. While the current productivity level in the Pysht
basin has declined, the TRG considers this basin to have the “best
hope” of recovery for western Strait chinook and chum within
WRIA 19 due to lower impact land-use practices. Western Strait chinook
and chum are currently considered by the TRG to be at great risk of
extirpation (Table 2).
- 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-managers.
Chinook probably
occurred in some number in all major WRIA 19 streams (Dick Goin, personal
comm), and they are still there in small numbers today. It may be that
Pysht Chinook were genetically distinct. but they currently occur at
such low numbers that they can be considered to be 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. The Chum runs in
the Pysht and Lyre are currently most numerous but are considerably
depressed relative to their history numbers.
- 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: 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:
- Pysht Bay makah fall set-net fisheries for coho to be assessed,
modified to minimize incidental take of chum, chinook.
- M&R has fixed 13 culverts in 2004. Is doing more than
most to fix.
- NOPLE Strategy Section
G
C. Recovery Projects:
- LWD placement at RM 10.5 by Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
- LWD in SF Pysht River by Merrill
& Ring and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
- SF Pysht River Restoration by
Merrill & Ring and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe was completed. Phase
1 removed a fish barrier blocking access to a 1 ac pond/wetland &
1,200' of stream (fully funded by M&R, exclusive of match); construct
a channel between the pond & Pysht R. for fish passage & spawning,
replace the currently-used ditch; & place LWD along 3,000' of the
River.
- Pysht River Habitat
Restoration by
North Olympic Salmon Coalition (2005) improved
riparian and instream habitat on private land along the Pysht River which
involved removing abandoned cars and placing a large log jam in
the channel to slow
flow, encouraging sediment
deposition in gravel bars.
D. Monitoring:
E. Emerging Issues:
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