Marine Based Economic Resources on the Washington Coast
The Washington Working Coast project is an economic assessment of marine based resources on the Washington Coast, including Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Pacific, and Wahkiakum Counties. A group of University of Washington Graduate Students pursuing the Environmental Management Certificate from the Program on the Environment are taking the lead on this project. Read more.
Outer Washington Coast Anadromous Fish Habitat Intrinsic Potential Modeling
Over the past year, the University of Washington / Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) has partnered with Wild Salmon Center (WSC) to implement Intrinsic Potential (IP) modeling for five species of anadromous fish along the Outer Coast of Washington State (OWC):
- Chinook Salmon
- Coho Salmon
- Steelhead
- Chum Salmon
- Sockeye Salmon
Currently, the project encompasses four basins of varying sizes:
- Bear River (a single HUC12* unit)
- Hoh River, containing 7 HUC12* units
- Queets River, containing 14 HUC12* units
- Quillayute River, containing 19 HUC12* units
*The basins are equivalent to watersheds, Level 6, or 6th Field Hydrologic Units; the NRCS HUC12 units are equivalent to subwatershed, Level 7, or 7th Field Hydrologic Units
We anticipate that in the near future, ONRC will be adding a partnership with the Washington Coast Sustainable Salmon Parnership (WCSSP) to begin post-phase II work.
Many thanks to Mindi Sheer at Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA for her invaluable contributions to this effort!
As work proceeds, IP modeling will be expanded to include all coastal basins, with a similar scope as the analytical layer developed for the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling (CLAMS), a similar sized project on the Oregon Coast. Earth Systems Institute (ESI) has provided NetMap, software developed for watershed analysis and database work, for this effort.
ONRC Geocache
Read the latest posts from Geocachers at the Forks Geocache web page. The cache contains items from Geocachers from around the world, ONRC, the City of Forks, and other Forks community members. It is located along a small 2-mile long trail system, in a western hemlock forested area, less than 1/2 mile south of downtown Forks.