Improving Fish Habitat: a Story of Collaboration with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe

In order to improve salmon rearing habitat in the upper Dungeness watershed the Forest Service partnered with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and others to complete the Dungeness Large Woody Debris project on the forest in October 2016. The team built structures that mimic how the river would naturally create jams, with logs and rocks that tumbledown stream during high flows. The log jams are designed to slow the water's velocity and allow for fine sediment and gravel to settle out which will create better salmon habitat that endangered fish need for building their nests and laying their eggs.

The Forest Service is directed by our management plan, to restore and maintain aquatic systems, and the Dungeness Large Wood Project is part of that “restore” component of that management plan. Olympic National Forrest has been collaborating on restoration activities within the Dungeness watershed for decades. The Dungeness is the home watershed of the Jamestown S'Klallam people.