Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

The Clearwater River watershed is a culturally significant and economically important area that provides fish, timber, and wildlife resources for the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN), Washington State, and local stakeholders. Productivity of Clearwater River salmon populations, specifically coho salmon due to their utilization of a broad range of habitat types throughout their freshwater life history, serves as a good indicator of freshwater habitat conditions and overall watershed health. An overall goal for the Clearwater River watershed is to restore or enhance natural salmon habitat forming processes to improve the resiliency and productivity of natural salmon populations for harvest in both tribal and non-tribal fisheries. An interagency habitat restoration workgroup led by the Quinault Department of Fisheries was established in 2017 to begin rehabilitating salmon habitat in the Clearwater River watershed. The mission of the work group is to assess, design, and implement instream and riparian habitat rehabilitation projects to restore ‘normative levels’ of habitat conditions in the actively managed river and tributary stream corridors of the Clearwater River watershed. To inform restoration needs on the mainstem Clearwater River and better understand the Clearwater River’s fluvial processes and historical evolution, the Quinault Department of Fisheries requested technical services from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Technical Service Center to conduct a hydrologic, hydraulic, and geomorphic assessment along the mainstem Clearwater River corridor. The purpose of the study is to assess and document historical and current geomorphic conditions and model current hydraulic conditions in the mainstem Clearwater River corridor. The study results will provide baseline data to inform QIN efforts to identify habitat impairments, prioritize river corridor segments for site-specific and reach-scale restoration actions, and develop restoration plan designs for instream and floodplain habitats.