Watershed Resource Inventory Area

Topic

Topic pages summarize knowledge and resources within a subject area

Recent Topic Edits

• Non-natal Nearshore Rearing of Salmon
• Natural Resource Damage Assessment
• River Delta Restoration
• Clean Water Act
• Viability of assisted vs. unassisted development of tidal fresh swamp

Salish Sea References

• Ecology Coastal Oblique Photography
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound provides a peer reviewed version of the wiki
• The Nearshore Map Portal
• Habitat Work Schedule Map
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas

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What Links To This Page?

• Topics ‎ (← links)
• WRIAs (redirect page) ‎ (← links)
  • Puget Sound Sub-basins ‎ (← links)
  • The Big Picture ‎ (← links)
  • Total Maximum Daily Load ‎ (← links)
  • Hydrologic Unit Codes ‎ (← links)
• Hood Canal ‎ (← links)
• The Watersheds ‎ (← links)
• Watershed Planning ‎ (← links)

WRIA's (alternately pronounced "Why-ruhs" or "Wry-uhs") are watershed units developed by Washington State Department of Ecology for ecological management purposes. They were the initial basis for the state-led limiting factors analysis that initiated Salmon Recovery, and they are used to organize Lead Entities but actual Chinook salmon recovery planning, as regulated by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is based on fish populations by watershed.

There are 19 WRIAs in the Salish Sea. They are smaller than Action Areas or the various versions of Oceanographic sub-basins, and use a different watershed boundary than the federal Hydrologic Unit Codes or HUCs. Much of the discrepency stems from how to parse the smaller coastal watershed found between the big watersheds.

Notes

• Ecology's WRIA pages
• WRIAs organize Ecology's Watershed Planning Program