Salmon and the Puyallup/White and Chambers/Clover Creek Watersheds

• Key Facts
• Meet the Salmon
• Major Policy or Actions Needed
• Accomplishments
• Organizations Involved
• Three-Year Work Program (April 2006)
• Technical and Policy Feedback on Three-Year Work Program, 2006
• Three-Year Work Program Update (April 2007)
• Technical and Policy Review Feedback on Three-Year Work Program Update, 2007

	For more information about salmon recovery planning in this watershed, click here. Click here to read this watershed's feedback summary.
	Key Facts
	Land use in the rural upper and mid-Puyallup is primarily forestry and agriculture, while urban and industrial development characterizes the lower Puyallup and much of the Chambers/Clover Creek watershed. Pierce’s major cities include Tacoma, Sumner, Lakewood, University Place, Fife and Puyallup. Projected population growth for Pierce County is 27% between 2000 and 2020. Watershed planning under HB2514 is underway for the Chambers-Clover Creek watershed. The planning areas under the state Watershed Management Act are Watershed Resource Inventory Area (WRIA)’s 10 and 12.

The White and Carbon Rivers are glacially-born on the flanks of Mount Rainer, the largest and best-known of 13 major volcanoes that span the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington. Each is a tributary that flows into Pierce County’s largest river, the Puyallup, also glacially-born. The Puyallup River empties into Commencement Bay at the Port of Tacoma, the third largest port in the western U.S. The Puyallup/White River basin is geologically the youngest watershed in Puget Sound having been shaped by a series of mudflows running down Mount Rainier’s flanks starting about 5,600 years ago.

There are two hydroelectric dams (Electron Dam on the Puyallup, and the Lake Tapps Hydroelectric Project) and Mud Mountain Dam, a flood control dam on the White River. Mud Mountain Dam regulates flooding by holding back water from heavy rains and snow melt in the reservoir, then releasing it slowly back into the river. Returning adult salmon are trapped at the Lake Tapps diversion dam; they are trucked upstream of the Mud Mountain Dam where they are released back into the White River. Fry pass through the dam’s tunnels as they head for Puget Sound.

The historic Commencement Bay estuary was characterized by extensive tidal flood plains of a meandering Puyallup River along extensive off-channel sloughs, marshes and wetlands, as well as a delta with numerous braided distributary channels and broad, expansive mudflat habitat. Today, less than 5% of the original estuarine habitat remains, and that has been severely impacted by both urban and industrial pollution. Citizens for a Healthy Bay believes that the value of tidal wetlands to fish and wildlife is so great that the addition of even small amounts of wetland habitat provides substantial benefit to the local ecosystem.

Pierce County also includes the Chambers/Clover Creek watershed (WRIA 12). Groundwater fed Clover Creek begins six miles east of Spanaway and is culverted through McCord Air Force Base before draining into Steilacoom Lake. Chambers Creek originates in Steilacoom Lake and empties into Chambers Bay.

Major Policy or Actions Needed to Recover Salmon

Improving Access to High-Quality Habitat
Access to the best remaining habitat, in the upper reaches of the Puyallup-White system, is hampered by levees, culverts and other barriers. For example, of the 357 known culverts in the Puyallup, approximately 70% are partial or complete barriers to salmon. A comprehensive survey of passage barriers and a habitat assessment have been completed and are used to guide selection of strategic protection and restoration projects. Improving access to high-quality up river habitat remains a major focus and opportunity for progress. In addition, the fish screen at the Electron Dam diversion accounts for as much as 40% of the mortality of downstream migrating smolts. Improvements in the fish screen efficiency are a high priority for salmon recovery.

Protection, Restoration of Floodplain Habitat
Salmon recovery efforts have taken aim at the loss of floodplain habitat. Dikes and levees have been used extensively to contain the White, Puyallup and Carbon Rivers, rivers naturally inclined to meander. Major recovery projects completed and slated for action include levee setbacks and oxbow restoration while simultaneously continuing to provide for flood control. The restoration of flood plain and estuary connectivity is one of the most important types of habitat actions needed for improving salmon population performance.

Nearshore Habitat
A habitat assessment of the nearshore along WRIA 12 from Point Defiance to the Nisqually Delta is important priority for regional salmon habitat planning. The WRIA 12 shoreline is the last substantial stretch of shoreline in South Puget Sound that has not yet been comprehensively assessed, and has been identified as a significant data gap. In addition, numerous restoration projects in the Puyallup estuary and Commencement Bay are ongoing or planned through the NRDA process.

Organizations Involved

• Pierce County
• Puyallup Tribe
• Port of Tacoma
• City of Tacoma
• City of Federal Way
• Pierce Conservation District
• U.S. Forest Service
• WA Department of Fish and Wildlife
• NOAA Fisheries
• Citizens for a Healthy Bay
• Friends of the Hylebos
• WA Department of Natural Resources
• WA Department of Ecology

Back to Top | Back to Watershed Profiles