Places
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Collecting place-based knowledge is one of the central functions of this platform. Places may be large, like the 2000 square miles of the South Puget Sound Basin, or small, like the 635 acre Schneider Creek Watershed, or smaller still, such as a individual planting site. Some places are defined by their ecological character, like watersheds or beach systems, while others are defined by social systems, like a county or a drainage district. In many case we gather information about places within places within places. To create a coherent collection of information about places is to have some clear shared language about places.
A Hierarchy of Scale
To help organize all our places, each place is assigned one of five scales. This lets us find all places of a similar scale. Places also have other attributes.
- Regional Scale (100s of square miles) We have divided the Salish Sea and surrounding lands into a set of regions, typically encompassing hundreds of square miles. These regions represent ways that are commonly discussed studied or managed by various workgroups. There is no perfect division of regions, and so some of our regions overlap.
- Catchment Scale (10s-100s of square miles) The catchment scale typically encompasses whole hydrologic systems. The watershed is the most commonly recognized unit, however all the watersheds around a marine inlet might define a catchment area. peninsulas and islands also describe distinct places, but centering the terrestrial rather than the aquatic. Furthermore large catchments may be subdivided to describe distinct places (for example the Skykomish River within the Snohomish Basin).
- Landform Scale (1s-10s of square miles) The landform scale describes square miles to tens of square miles, and usually defines an individual landform, or an adjacent cluster of related landforms such as River Deltas, Beach Drift Cells, or in higher elevation Headwater Tributaries with snow storage, and confined valleys. Landforms are useful because they typically encompass an area of similar physiographic processes--those ecosystem processes that form and sustain the character of habitats.
- Site Scale (10s - 100s of acres) - Sites describe the places we manage for conservation or restoration. They are often defined by ownership or stewardship effort, rather than ecology or physiography, although the two may coincide. Some colleagues use the wiki to document assessments, designs, or stewardship efforts over these sites.
- Patch Scale (1s - 10s of acres) - Our smallest scale describes specific patches under management. Some people use the wiki to document treatment and monitoring units. These patches are typically measured in acres or tens of acres.
Landforms
Students of ecosystems are keenly interested in how landform describes the character of a place (See Shipman 2008 or Montgomery 1999). In this wiki we use seven distinct landforms to describe places. Each of these landforms has similarities in how its habitats are formed and sustained, how they are developed, how they are degraded, and how they can be restored. This allows similar places to be queried and compared. These categories are generally used as attributes for place pages at the Landform, Site, and Patch scales. The Region and Catchment scales often contain multiple landforms.
The Riddle of Political Geography
We also study and steward places defined by political units. While this is often problematic for many ecological purposes, many Efforts and Products are focused on political landscapes, so we have a set of attributes to describe these landscapes, typically using Counties (in the United States) or Districts (In Canada) as our organizing unit. Not surprisingly, Workgroups, Efforts, and Products, are often categorized using county or district categories. However, because of our ecological focus, we rarely synthesize information about counties as "places" and instead recognize them as a kind of Local Government workgroup--or a social system composed of people.
Places in the Salish Sea and Surrounding Lands
The following pages all use the "place" category at various scales:
Regional Scale
- Admiralty Inlet
- Chehalis River Basin
- East Sound
- Hood Canal
- San Juan Islands
- South Puget Sound
- Strait of Juan de Fuca
- West Sound
- Whidbey Basin
Catchment Scale
- Admiralty Inlet
- Anderson Creek Watershed
- Bangor Drift Cell
- Bear Creek Watershed
- Big Beef Creek Watershed
- Big Beef Estuary
- Big Beef Watershed
- Birch Bay Ecosystem
- Broad Spit Drift Cell
- Budd Inlet Ecosystem
- Burley Lagoon Ecosystem
- Butler Cove Watershed
- Carkeek to Everett Beach System
- Case Inlet
- Chambers Creek Estuary
- Chambers Creek Watershed
- Chehalis River Basin
- Cherry Creek Watershed
- Cherry Point Driftcell
- Chico Creek Estuary
- Chico Creek Watershed
- Clallam County
- Clallam River Estuary
- Clallam River Watershed
- Category:Columbia Basin
- Cooper Crest Community Forest
- Cowichan Watershed
- Dabob Bay Ecosystem
- Decker Creek Watershed
- Deer Lagoon
- Deschutes Estuary
- Deschutes River Watershed
- Deschutes Watershed
- Dewatto River Watershed
- Diking District 6
- Discovery Bay Ecosystem
- Dosewallips Delta
- Dosewallips Watershed
- Drayton Harbor
- Duckabush Delta
- Duckabush Watershed
- Dungeness Delta
- Dungeness River
- Dungeness Watershed
- Duwamish Delta
- East Bay
- East Dyes Drift Cell
- East Nooksack Drift Cell
- East Sound
- Ebey Island
- File:Ecosystem sites north jefferson.png
- File:Ecosystem sites north thurston.png
- File:Ecosystem sites port susan.png
- Edmonds Marsh Ecosystem
- Elwha Delta
- Elwha Drift Cell
- Elwha Watershed
- Fidalgo Bay Ecosystem
- Filucy Bay Ecosystem
- Fisherman's Bay
- Fishtrap Creek Watershed
- French Slough Floodplain and Watershed
- Frye Cove
- Goldsborough Creek Estuary
- Goldsborough Creek Watershed
- Grass Lakes Nature Reserve
- Green Cove Creek Watershed
- Green-Duwamish Watershed
- Hamma Hamma Delta
- Hamma Hamma Watershed
- Hardel Plywood Site
- Henderson Inlet Ecosystem
- Hoko River Estuary
- Hoko River Watershed
- Hood Canal
- Indian-Moxlie Creek Watershed
- Island County
- Jim Creek Watershed
- Jimmycomelately Estuary
- Jimmycomelately Watershed
- Jurisdictions
- Liberty Bay
- Lopez Island
- Lower Skagit
- Lower Skykomish Floodplain
- Lower Snohomish River Floodplain
- Lower Stillaguamish Floodplain
- Lynch Cove
- Marshall-Hansen Campus
- Marshlands Drainage District
- Methow Valley
- Mission Creek Watershed
- Municipalities
- Neill Point East
- Newaukum Creek Watershed
- Nisqually Delta
- Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
- Nisqually River
- Nisqually River Watershed
- Nooksack Delta
- Nooksack River Watershed
- North Fork Nooksack Floodplain
- North Fork Stillaguamish Floodplain
- Northwest Olympia Watersheds
- OUR ecovillage
- Padilla Bay
- Pilchuck Creek Watershed
- Pilchuck River Watershed
- Piner Point West
- Point Defiance Drift Cell
- Port Angeles Harbor
- Port Gamble Ecosystem
- Port Susan Bay Ecosystem
- Port Townsend Ecosystem
- Puget Sound Sub-basins
- Puyallup Delta
- Puyallup-White Watershed
- Pysht River Estuary
- Pysht River Watershed
- Quilceda Watershed
- Quilcene Bay Watershed
- Quilcene Delta
- Reiner Farm
- Reiner Farm/Mother Garden
- Rendsland Creek Watershed
- Salish Sea
- Category:Salish Sea
- Salmon-Snow Coastal Inlet
- Salt Creek Estuary
- Salt Creek Watershed
- Samish Delta
- Samish Island
- Sammamish River Floodplain
- San Juan Islands
- Scatter Creek Farm and Conservancy
- Scatter Creek Watershed
- Schneider Creek Watershed
- Seabeck Creek Watershed
- Sequalitchew Creek Estuary
- Shine Creek Watershed
- Skagit Delta
- Skagit Watershed
- Skokomish Confluence
- Skokomish Delta
- Skokomish River
- Skookum Inlet
- Skookum Watershed
- Snohomish Delta
- Snohomish Lord Hill Reach
- Snohomish Watershed
- Snow-Salmon Watershed Ecosystem
- South Fork Nooksack Floodplain
- South Fork Stillaguamish Floodplain
- South Lummi Island Headlands
- South Puget Sound
- South Whidbey Island
- SPU 1008
- SPU 2071
- SPU 2086
- SPU 7086
- Stillaguamish Delta
- Stillaguamish River
- Strait of Juan de Fuca
- Sultan River Watershed
- Sundberg Gravel Mine
- Tahuya Estuary
- Tahuya River Watershed
- Tarboo Creek Watershed
- Teekalet Point
- Terrell Creek Watershed
- The Marshlands
- The Megapolis
- The Samish Watershed
- Thomas Creek Watershed
- Titlow Beach
- Tolt River Floodplain
- Union River Watershed
- West Bay Watersheds
- West Camano Drift Cell
- West Sound
- Whidbey Basin
- Woods Creek Watershed
Landform Scale
- Anderson Creek Watershed
- Bangor Drift Cell
- Bear Creek Watershed
- Big Beef Creek Watershed
- Big Beef Estuary
- Big Beef Watershed
- Birch Bay Ecosystem
- Broad Spit Drift Cell
- Burley Lagoon Ecosystem
- Butler Cove Watershed
- Carkeek to Everett Beach System
- Chambers Creek Estuary
- Chambers Creek Watershed
- Cherry Point Driftcell
- Chico Creek Estuary
- Chico Creek Watershed
- Clallam River Estuary
- Clallam River Watershed
- Dabob Bay Ecosystem
- Decker Creek Watershed
- Deer Lagoon
- Deschutes Estuary
- Dewatto River Watershed
- Dosewallips Delta
- Drayton Harbor
- Duckabush Delta
- Dungeness Delta
- Duwamish Delta
- East Bay
- East Dyes Drift Cell
- East Nooksack Drift Cell
- Edmonds Marsh Ecosystem
- Elwha Delta
- Elwha Drift Cell
- Fidalgo Bay Ecosystem
- Filucy Bay Ecosystem
- Fishtrap Creek Watershed
- French Slough Floodplain and Watershed
- Frye Cove
- Goldsborough Creek Estuary
- Goldsborough Creek Watershed
- Green Cove Creek Watershed
- Hamma Hamma Delta
- Hoko River Estuary
- Hoko River Watershed
- Indian-Moxlie Creek Watershed
- Jim Creek Watershed
- Jimmycomelately Estuary
- Jimmycomelately Watershed
- Lower Skykomish Floodplain
- Lower Snohomish River Floodplain
- Lower Stillaguamish Floodplain
- Lynch Cove
- Mission Creek Watershed
- Neill Point East
- Newaukum Creek Watershed
- Nisqually Delta
- Nooksack Delta
- North Fork Nooksack Floodplain
- North Fork Stillaguamish Floodplain
- Padilla Bay
- Pilchuck Creek Watershed
- Pilchuck River Watershed
- Piner Point West
- Point Defiance Drift Cell
- Port Townsend Ecosystem
- Puyallup Delta
- Pysht River Estuary
- Pysht River Watershed
- Quilceda Watershed
- Quilcene Delta
- Rendsland Creek Watershed
- Salmon-Snow Coastal Inlet
- Salt Creek Estuary
- Salt Creek Watershed
- Samish Delta
- Sammamish River Floodplain
- Scatter Creek Watershed
- Schneider Creek Watershed
- Seabeck Creek Watershed
- Sequalitchew Creek Estuary
- Shine Creek Watershed
- Skagit Delta
- Skokomish Confluence
- Skokomish Delta
- Skookum Inlet
- Skookum Watershed
- Snohomish Delta
- Snohomish Lord Hill Reach
- Snow-Salmon Watershed Ecosystem
- South Fork Nooksack Floodplain
- South Fork Stillaguamish Floodplain
- South Lummi Island Headlands
- SPU 1008
- SPU 2071
- SPU 2086
- SPU 7086
- Stillaguamish Delta
- Sultan River Watershed
- Tahuya Estuary
- Tahuya River Watershed
- Tarboo Creek Watershed
- Terrell Creek Watershed
- The Marshlands
- Thomas Creek Watershed
- Tolt River Floodplain
- Union River Watershed
- West Bay Watersheds
- West Camano Drift Cell
- Woods Creek Watershed
Site Scale
Patch Scale