Assessment and Monitoring

Environmental Review | Assessment and Monitoring | Watershed Planning | Downloads

Forest and Fish Adaptive Management

Under Washington State’s Forest and Fish agreement, the Tribes are active participants in an adaptive management process to validate and refine forest practice standards to ensure that fish and wildlife resources are adequately protected. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe works actively with other Tribes, as well as the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (as link), in this effort. Our current activities include: water type verification surveys (link to WT Ludlow water typing webpage), an Olympic Peninsula-wide study evaluating new Forest and Fish riparian management prescriptions, and stream temperature monitoring(PDF).

Watershed Assessments

Natural Resources staff members also lead independent watershed assessments and participate in multi-stakeholder efforts, such as the Washington Conservation Commission’s salmonid limiting factors analyses (or LFAs). Currently, the Tribe is engaged in a project to map and assess salmon habitat in the Dosewallips River combining remote sensing technologies (high-resolution LIDAR and digital imaging) with conventional ground surveys. Another staff focus area is the recovery and use of archival land survey and navigation charts to reconstruct historical habitat conditions in Hood Canal. Tribal Natural Resources staff members are active participants in a Hood Canal Coordinating Council-led ‘monitoring collective’ to update and refine our habitat knowledge base for planning and implementing salmon recovery. Dosewallips River Habitat Assessment: Coupling High-Resolution Remote Sensing and Ground Surveys to Prioritize Aquatic Conservation, Olympic Mountains, Washington State (3mb PDF)