Lowland Watersheds

Lowland Watershed

Lowland watersheds drain the rain on the glacial plateau to floodplains or Puget Sound

Salish Sea References

• Ecology Shoreline Photography Viewer
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound provides a peer reviewed version of the wiki
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas
• UW River History Project

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Lowland watersheds are located within the rain-fed glacial plateau surrounding the Salish Sea. Their streams flow into floodplains or into embayments along shorelines. They are different that headwaters in that precipitation falls as rain, and topography is defined by our glacial history, with many wetlands. There have been limited attempts to classify lowland catchments into types, that could guide assessment and stewardship. However familiarity with multiple systems suggests some general forms. Most lowland watersheds include some sections where water flows among glacial troughs and swales, where the current stream is not responsible for the shape of the landform. In the lowlands, large areas of glacial plateau are typically a few hundred feet above sea level. Historically these areas likely supported extensive beaver wetlands, and stored a tremendous volume of winter rain. Such glacial plateau headwaters then descend to either a floodplain or shoreline through some kind of ravine. This plateau-ravine pattern may repeat several times in a system, and generally indicates the geologic youth of our post glacial landscape. Some larger basins have begun to develop a larger and more gently sloped floodplain valley near the lower reaches (for example Jimmycomelately Watershed) These are the large stream valleys, which are intermediary between the multitude of small streams, and the 16-20 large floodplain systems. In some cases, a stream is strongly associated with a large historical floodplain where agricultural development may have created more of a stream than was there historically (for example French Creek Watershed). It might be a useful project to clarify these systems, and better characterize their form and potential ecological functions and services. The Puget Sound Characterization Project does some of this work, but does not provide a multiple scale analysis.

Watershed Landform Topic Pages

The following Topic Pages are categorized with Watershed Landform.

Benthic Index of Biological Integrity  •  Channel Migration Zone  •  Clean Water Act  •  Dam Removal  •  Fish passage barrier removal  •  Resources for Volunteer Urban Stream Restoration  •  Riparian Buffers  •  Roads and Streams  •  Stream Temperature and Salmon  •  Watershed Planning  •  Wood in Streams

Lowland Watershed Places By Region

The following Lowland Watershed Pages are organized by region.

East Sound

Bear Creek Watershed

Fraser Lowlands

Fishtrap Creek Watershed

Hood Canal

Anderson Creek Watershed  •  Big Beef Creek Watershed  •  Dewatto River Watershed  •  Rendsland Creek Watershed  •  Seabeck Creek Watershed  •  Shine Creek Watershed  •  Tahuya River Watershed  •  Tarboo Creek Watershed  •  Union River Watershed

Juan de Fuca

Snow-Salmon Watershed Ecosystem

South Puget Sound

Butler Cove Watershed  •  Chambers Creek Watershed  •  Filucy Bay Ecosystem  •  Green Cove Creek Watershed  •  Indian-Moxlie Creek Watershed  •  Mission Creek Watershed  •  Schneider Creek Watershed  •  West Bay Watersheds

Whidbey Basin

French Slough Floodplain and Watershed  •  Jim Creek Watershed  •  Pilchuck Creek Watershed  •  Pilchuck River Watershed  •  Thomas Creek Watershed  •  Woods Creek Watershed

Lowland Watershed Workgroups and Efforts

The following Workgroups and Efforts are associated with Lowland Watershed.

Workgroups

Effort

Watershed Landform Products

The following Product pages are categorized with Watershed Landform.

Documents

Allan 2004 land use and stream ecosystems  •  Beamer et al 2013 chinook salmon non-natal stream rearing.pdf  •  Beechie et al 2010 process based restoration of rivers  •  Benedict & Shaw 2012 shade benefits from hedgerow on ditched streams.pdf  •  Bentrup 2008 conservation buffer design guidelines.pdf  •  Bloch et al. 2019 coastal stream and embayment restoration prioritization.pdf  •  Booth et al 2004 reviving urban streams  •  Bowling & Lettenmaier 1997 forest road effects on streamflow  •  Carah et al 2014 low cost wood in streams  •  Cereghino 2015 coordinated investment snohomish framework.pdf  •  Cereghino 2015 working buffers info sheet.pdf  •  Cereghino 2017 DRAFT riparian framework.pdf  •  Duda et al 2023 dam removal cost prediction  •  Dupont 1935 how dynamite streamlines streams.pdf  •  ESA et al. 2022 coastal stream and embayment fish access framework.pdf  •  Ecology 2015 riparian restoration and protection initiative grant guidelines.pdf  •  FCWMC 2004 french creek watershed management plan.pdf  •  Flint 2012 woods creek riparian action plan.pdf  •  Flint et al 2013 woods creek habitat.pdf  •  Fox & Bolton 2007 typical wood quantities in unmanaged streams  •  Hamlet et al 2001 climate change and water resources  •  Haring 2002 snohomish wria 7 limiting factors for salmon.pdf  •  Johnson & Ryba 1992 king county recommendations for buffer width.pdf  •  King County 2018 bear creek watershed management study.pdf  •  Knutson & Naef 1997 riparian management recommendations.pdf  •  Koski 2009 coho nomads  •  Lucchetta et al 2014 land use regulation and stream flow king county.pdf  •  May 2003 riparian best available science puget lowland.pdf  •  Montgomery 1999 process domains and river continuum  •  Pollock et al 2015 beaver restoration guidebook.pdf  •  Quinn et al 2018 riparian science summary.pdf  •  Roni et al 2013 DRAFT BPA columbia river restoration monitoring plan.pdf  •  Savery & Hook 2003 habitat and chinook in pilchuck river.pdf  •  Stanley et al 2012 watershed assessment water model  •  Stanley et al 2018 memo watershed characterization hydrologic condition index.pdf  •  Tuohy et al. 2018 chum non-natal habitat use.pdf  •  WDNR 2011 watershed assessment manual.pdf  •  WFC 2007 schneider creek stream type.pdf  •  Wright et al 2001 snohomish fecal coliform TMDL.pdf

Maps

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