Chehalis Basin

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The Chehalis Basin is the largest basin entirely in the State of Washington. It can be easily divided into the Upper Chehalis Basin and Lower Chehalis Basin. The Upper Chehalis is centered on the twin cities of Chehalis and Centralia. These towns were established in the broad valley where the Chehalis Headwaters, Newaukum and Skookumchuck Rivers join, collecting water from the East Willapa Hills and South Cascade foothills, as well as from the Outwash Plain including Scatter Creek and the Black River.

The Lower Chehalis Basin Includes a series of Rivers flowing from the South Olympic Mountains into the oversized Lower Chehalis Floodplain, including the Satsop River, Whynoochee River, Wishkah River joining to empty into Greys Harbor Estuary at the cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam. The Estuary further collects the Humptullips River, Johns River and Elk River, and the mouth is frames by two massive sand spits, Ocean Shores and Westport. To the north are the West Olympic Valleys, and to the south is Willapa Bay

Workgroup and Effort Notes

The Legislature created the Office of the Chehalis Basin in 2016 to support a new Chehalis Basin Board in overseeing a combined natural resource and flood hazard strategy. Voting members include three flood authority reps, two tribal reps, and two appointed by the governor. Ex-officio membership includes WDFW Habitat Restoration, Ecology Shorelands, WDNR, WDOT and WSCC.
The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation has not ceded its lands, and thus has been excluded from harvest negotiations between the state and treaty tribes.
[Chehalis Basin Strategy http://chehalisbasinstrategy.com] - / defines the state plan for managing floods and habitats in the basin.
- WDOE published a final EIS in 2017 - http://chehalisbasinstrategy.com/eis-library/
- Part of the strategy is an Aquatic Species Plan supported by WDFW and USFWS staff.
- To support the plan the state legislature has appropriated funds through WDFW which runs a competitive process in the Lead Entity Habitat Work Group.
- "For the 2017-2019 Biennium, restoration projects will be designed and constructed in the highest priority sub-basins of the Chehalis River Basin that have been identified through a rigorous scientific process: the Newaukum River, South Fork Chehalis River, Skookumchuck River, Satsop River and Wynoochee River. These sub-basins have the greatest potential to increase salmon abundance with restoration actions."
USFWS offers a Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Grants, typically $200k/year, with awards of less than $50k but also supporting outreach. https://www.fws.gov/wafwo/articles.cfm?id=149489600
The Chehalis Lead Entity is responsible for salmon recovery planning under state law and provides technical review of grant funds
- Allocates SRFB resources. There are regular meetings of the Habitat Work Group. Kirsten Harma is the coordinator kharma@chehalistribe.org.
Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority - manages flood hazard mitigation for the basin connecting to FEMA and EMD resources.
[www.chehalislandtrust.org Chehalis Land Trust] - / holds lands throughout the basin and has received USFWS funding for outreach and education.
Chehalis Basin Education Consortium - (clip) The Chehalis Basin Education Consortium (CBEC) is a partnership comprised of Educational Service District 113, school districts, natural resource agencies, Centralia College, the Chehalis River Council and other nonprofit agencies within the Chehalis watershed.The primary purpose of this project is “to support stewardship of the Chehalis watershed through environmental education by linking Washington’s learning goals and standards to environmental issues that are part of this watershed. In addition, the program aims to provide related professional development and enrichment opportunities for teachers.”
Greys Harbor College has a natural resources and forestry program https://www.ghc.edu/academics/degrees-and-certificates/professional/natural-resources-forestry
Greys Harbor Audubon Society - www.ghas.org is an active NGO in the system.

Place Notes

With the development of Chehalis-focused funding, Thurston Conservation District has developed efforts in Scatter Creek Watershed and the Skookumchuck Watershed
The Newaukum Watershed has become a focus for collaborative restoration.
Multiple counties including Thurston County, Lewis County, and Greys Harbor County have adopted the Voluntary Stewardship Program model for CAO implementation. Only Thurston has an approved plan.