Henderson Inlet Ecosystem

Place

Places are locations in the landscape recognized by people

Regions

• Admiralty Inlet
• Comox Coast
• Discovery Islands
• East Sound
• Fraser Lowlands
• Gulf Islands
• Hood Canal
• Qualicum Coast
• San Juan Islands
• South Puget Sound
• South Vancouver Island
• Strait of Juan de Fuca
• Sunshine Coast
• West Sound
• Whidbey Basin

Salish Sea References

• Watershed Characterization Mapper
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas
• WDFW's Salmonscape Map

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Woodland and Woodard creeks along with the smaller Sleepy and Dobbs creeks flow into Henderson Bay, a (historically?) significant shellfish growing area. The inlet is home to the Noo-Seh-Chatl which occupied Tutse'tcakl village, now incorporated by the United States under the Medicine Creek Treaty into the modern Squaxin Island Tribe. The headwaters have been cleared and paved by the City of Lacey, while the areas around Henderson Inlet are a mixture of young forest and cleared rural residential land in unincorporated Thurston County. The lakes and the glacial outwash geology make the headwaters unusual. Henderson Inlet contains the Woodard-Woodland Embayment and Chapman Bay. While there are small drift cells associated with Weyer Point and the two unnamed embayments opposite. The Northeast Henderson Drift Cell extending to Johnson Point is the largest beach system in the Inlet, with the Northwest Henderson Drift Cell much smaller.

• 24" x 36" detailed map of wetlands, streams, watersheds, aerial photography and parcels

Workgroups

• Thurston County Health Septic Testing manages septic certification under the shellfish protection district.
• Stream Team is a community engagement group required under the County and City NPDES permit.
• Henderson Nisqually Shellfish Protection District was created by the County under state authority to address shellfish closures on the Inlet.
• WDNR manages the forested Woodard Bay Natural Area surrounding woodard and chapman bays.
  • PSRF has completed some Olympia Oyster Restoration in collaboration with TNC at the reserve.
  • WDNR has completed planning for this site, and has implemented some fill removal, piling removal, and revegetation on Weyer Point.
• WSU and PSRF initiated the Henderson Inlet Community Shellfish Farm to provide education and volunteer opportunities growing shellfish on public lands to try to bolster the failing shellfish industry.
• Recent construction of reclaimed water infiltration galleries at Woodland Creek Community Park attempts to stablize summer stream flow by adding LOTT reclaimed water to groundwater (http://www.thurstontalk.com/2014/01/09/construction-wraps-woodland-creek-enhancement-facility/)
• Thurston County Health maintains annual water quality monitoring reports
• St. Martins University is a private catholic school with extensive forested grounds that straddles the transition between the lakes district and the mainstem of woodland creek.
• The City of Lacey has jurisdiction over the urban core sitting on the headwaters of Woodland Creek.
• Thurston County has jurisdiction for the mainsteam and most of the salmon habitat on Woodland and most of Woodard Creek, as well as the shorelines of the inlet.
• The Capital Land Trust has completed some acquisition along Henderson Inlet.

Socioecological Assets

• The Woodland Community Park which contains the Lacey Community Center, along with the Lake Lois Habitat Reserve straddles where Woodland Creek crosses under the Old Pacific Highway, and forms a large habitat island and social center just downstream of the lakes adn upstream of St. Martins Campus.
• The

Planning

• Thurston County, City of Lacey and City of Olympia have completed a Woodland Basin Comprehensive Plan in 1995.
• Thurston CD 2004 describes salmon stocks, watershed conditions, and recovery strategies as part of limiting factors analysis
• This may be superceded by a watershed characterization planning approach, which resulted in a Henderson Basin Watershed Characterization as summarized in Thurston County 2007.
• TMDL Study is described at an WDOE [web page]
  • TMDL Study
  • 2006 Implementation Strategy
  • 2008 Implementation Plan
• The TRPC Healthy Watersheds-Guiding Growth Project aggregated new and old information using WDOE Watershed characterization project.
  • In 2013 TRPC published a Basin Evaluation Report
  • In 2013 three basins were selected for further hydrologic modelling in a Technical Memo

All Pages

The following pages are flagged with the Henderson Inlet category:

a unit of government with specific authorities, or the area in which those authorities can be legally exercised