Publication Summary

This Upper Humptulips water quality assessment has been developed to address fisheries concerns within the watershed. The assessment uses information from a Watershed Analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- Forest Service (USFS), Rayonier Timber Company, and the Washington Department of Natural Resources for the Upper Humptulips Watershed. These forested watersheds include Rayonier′s commercial timberland in Grays Harbor county as well as public lands administered by the USFS -- Olympic National Forest. The plan area lies north of Hoquiam and northeast of Highway 101.

This Upper Humptulips water quality assessment has been developed to address fisheries concerns within the watershed. The assessment uses information from a Watershed Analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- Forest Service (USFS), Rayonier Timber Company, and the Washington Department of Natural Resources for the Upper Humptulips Watershed. These forested watersheds include Rayonier′s commercial timberland in Grays Harbor county as well as public lands administered by the USFS -- Olympic National Forest. The plan area lies north of Hoquiam and northeast of Highway 101.

The plan area includes over 800 miles of streams that drain lands bordering the southwestern extent of the Olympic Mountains. Of the 800+ miles of streams 300 have been classified. Salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout occur throughout the Upper Humptulips watershed. Significant fish-bearing streams within the watershed include the East Fork Humptulips and West Fork Humptulips and key tributaries (Goforth Creek, Flatbottom Creek, Donkey Creek, and Chester Creek).

Excessive summer water temperatures in some of these streams reduce the quality of rearing habitat for chinook, chum and coho salmon as well as for steelhead and cutthroat trout. Primary watershed disturbance activities that contribute to surface water temperature increases include forest management within riparian areas, timber harvest in sensitive areas outside the riparian zone, and roads.

This TMDL is designed to address impairments due to surface water temperature increases on the listed water quality-limited segment located at the highway 101 Bridge in Gray′s Harbor County in Water Resource Inventory Area (WIRA) 22. In addition, this TMDL sets allocation limits to protect other streams within the Upper Humptulips Watershed area from becoming water quality-limited. Landscape level TMDLs are useful in addressing systemic non-point pollution parameters such as temperature. They can lead to more complete understanding of conditions, and more importantly, can lead to more comprehensive management to improve conditions.