Little Fishtrap Watershed
Lowland watersheds drain the rain on the glacial plateau to floodplains or Puget Sound
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Little Fishtrap is a lowland stream watershed, draining to Budd Inlet located North of Boston Harbor, on the Dickenson Point Peninsula. The basin follows a common Puget Sound small stream pattern, with extensive Wetlands in glacial swales eventually leading to a ravine that drops quickly to Puget Sound. Some wetlands have been modified for Agriculture, but the watershed appears to be forest surrounding wetland complexes. Ladyberry Produce is a Community-Supported Agriculture operation, working fine soils collected in the glacial swales, and producing food for the local community. The watershed is largely Rural residential proximate to the City of Olympia
Notes[edit]
- Little Fishtrap Stream is not identified accurately by county or state data. Salmonscape identifies the stream as gradient-accessible, and with a fish-blocking barrier at 81st Ave NE.
- Shortly, upstream of the blocking culvert, the watershed splits into a smaller west branch wetland complex and a larger east branch mainstem, with headwaters in another set of wetland complexes. The extensive wetland complexes in this area of the glacial plateau may interact through shallow Groundwater.
- It seems likely that systems like these would have historically been used by Chum Salmon and Coho Salmon with Coho rearing in the wetland complexes, and chum leaving early after hatching.
- Wild Fish Conservancy Water Typing Surveys identified coho salmon in the downstream plunge pool of the 81st Street Culvert. They were unable to survey upstream, and safely presumed a barrier to anadromy.
- The culvert is covered by 30-40 feet of fill in the ravine, making repair expensive.
- The Little Fishtrap Barrier Spit was heavily armored to create a picnic site, potentially pushing beach sediment drift into deeper water. South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group attempted to remove the armoring, but upon the death of the landowner was unable to negotiate project implementation with the heirs of the estate, until 2019 when the project was completed
