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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRivers For Life Vol. 1 No. 2,► Watershed Planning in WRIA 16 LIFE Vol. I No. 2 enf shq ? r Our purpose is to develop a plan to manage this shared resource` to benefit both people and the environment. We will listen to every individual in our watershed community who voices their needs, concerns, and ideas. Our vision is to develop a plan that achieves a broad consensus within this unique community. What's A Water Budget? Just as your financial budget for your household or business shows how much money comes in, and how it is used, a water budget shows how much water comes into a watershed, and what happens to it. In order to create a watershed plan and make recom- mendations about how to manage the water, we need to know how much water there is. All the water in a watershed comes from precipita- tion —rain, snow, sleet, hail. Some precipitation is captured by trees, and is unavailable for other uses. The water that's left can either recharge the groundwater, or end up as surface flow in rivers and streams. Some precipitation cannot re- charge the groundwater because it falls on impermeable sur- faces such as roads, blacktop or cement driveways, parking lots, etc. This runoff can be recharged to the ground, or di- rected to the Sound or streams. People use water from wells or streams for drinking and household activities, irrigation, power generations and other uses. A water budget can provide a good understanding of the path water takes through a watershed. How much water to allocate for stream flow, fish, people, and other uses, e.g., new housing, industry, farms, fire departments, or community water systems, are value decisions that the citizens who live in the watershed, and the managers of the watershed, must come to agreement on. The goal of our watershed planning is to determine the current water situation in the river basins, and to involve residents of the watershed in using the information to make recommendations for management strategies. A technical as- sessment team will develop the water budget for the Dosewal- lips, Duckabush, Hamma Hamma and portions of the Skoko- mish sub - basins. The WRIA 16 Planning Unit will share this information with the residents of the watershed, so that you can recommend how to allocate the water that's available. You will be hearing more about the technical assessment and water budget in coming months. The schematic diagram on the next page shows the water dynamics in a watershed. I Con't. from page 1 The diagram above shows the various paths water can take in a watershed. Some of the hydrologic features that must be taken into account in developing a water budget for the river basins in WRIA 16 are snow pack and snowmelt, hydraulic continuity between groundwater and stream water, and seasonal variation in stream flows. The technical assessment will provide a better understanding of the hydrologic dynamics in the Dosewallips, Duckabush, Hamma Hamma and Skokomish Rivers. Additional Resources "The Hydrologic Cycle: Online Meteorology Guide:" http: / /ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/Gh) /guides /mtr /hyd/home.rxmI This site is sponsored by the University of Illinois. It provides many easy-to-understand diagrams and explanations of the earth's water budget and hydrologic processes. Bailey, Ida and Vern. Brinnon: A Scrapbook of History. Perry Publishers, Bremerton, WW, 1997. Available from Ida & Vern Bailey, 4541 Dosewallips Rd., Brinnon, WA 98320. $30.00 ( +$5.25 for tax & shipping) A treasure trove of old photos, letters, and stories about Brinnon and the Dosewallips River. Citizens Want To Know... How will the watershed plan relate to other plans, e. MA? ig a framework to collaboratively solve water is ­6 111Gl11 EM-L 1ULjUUC5 WaL m Phase 3, each WRIA look at overlap and integration between ts recommendations and other planning processes, for example GMA. GMA`requires riparian buffers on class 1 -4 streams, but doesn't deal with water quantity and water quality; the watershed planning process is designed to address water quantity, water quality, and habitat on a watershed -wide basis: If you have questions about the watershed planning process in WRIA 16, you may share them at the monthly meeting of the Planning Unit. Please see p. 4 of this newsletter for meeting information. 1i 2 "I've Witched This River for Over 70 Y / asked several people who've lived for a long time beside the rivers in the watershed to share their memories of floods and water shortages over the years Here are some of the stories they shared. Bart Robbins, Hamma Hamma River "I've watched this river for over seventy years. The worst flooding on the river took place in the 1930's and 1940's. Though I didn't live here then, I remember the large amount of woody debris all over the place. "There's never been a drought in this county, we get a good amount of rainfall. About four years ago, it was a dry year and many small trees died between the Hamma Hamma and Shelton, that's the only time I ever saw that happen." Ida Bailey, Dosewallips River "I've lived on this river over eighty years, the river has always been a part of our lives. My folks raised us kids to be afraid of the river and respect it. Now people go down it in rafts." Kayaker on Upper Dosewallips River, November, 2001. This is a class IV+ rapid called The Maze Vern Bailey, Dosewallips River "There've been two major floods on the Dosie, in 1949 and this past January. In 1949, the road washed out about 8 miles up the Dosie Rd. Years ago a log jam formed and caused the river to make a new channel. In 1950 we were able to put the river back into the old channel with the help of Flood Control." "The swinging bridges have washed out both times we built them." "One thing I noticed is that when the old growth was here, the river would flood and wash out old growth, an old tree would get crossways in the river and cause jams, and then it would change the course of the river. After the old growth was logged, the river channel was straighter." South Fork, Skokomish River. Joe Andrews, Skokomish Tribe elder, Skokomish River "The water used to travel through the channel about a mile north of where it comes into the south fork now. They built a steel bridge (that was before the concrete bridge) in 1924, and all the material they used in building the bridge they brought from Seattle on scows that were pulled by Foss tugboats. The tugs went up the river with the barges to the bridge site. There's no way you could do that now. Now you can wade and not even get your knees wet." Jefferson Co. /Natural Resources (360) 379 -4498 bbowen@cojeffersonma.us 5 (360) 427 -9670, ext.. 294 C :f r u u