Documents & Archives

Skagit STEAM Resource Guide (PDF)

This document is a quick and easy guide for K-12 teachers in the Skagit Watershed for STEAM resources that local conservation organizations from our Community Engagement Committee are offering for the 2024/2025 school year.

2024 Skagit Lead Entity Program Guide (PDF)

This program guide documents the lead entity program procedures for developing and ranking voluntary habitat projects through both technical and citizen committees. It is a how-to guide for project sponsors to use when developing proposals and for technical and citizen reviewers when vetting and ranking (2-06-2024)

Summary Report - Targeted Riparian Buffer Incentives Pilot Project (PDF)

This project inventoried barriers to private landowners participating in current streamside stewardship incentive programs and makes recommendations for how to better achieve landowner needs and meet aquatic resource goals.

2023 SWC Protection Strategy Update (PDF)

This report is intended to update and improve the voluntary conservation acquisition components of the SWC Habitat Protection and Restoration Strategy (SWC 1998) and its Application (SWC 2000), and should be considered as an addendum to the 1998 Strategy. It fulfills our need to continually ensure wise investments of capital resources for preserving the highest quality salmon habitats remaining in the watershed facing development pressures.

Skagit Watershed Council Year 2022 Strategic Approach (PDF)

This document outlines the Watershed Council’s Strategic Approach for identifying and prioritizing voluntary habitat actions to address the most important actions for increasing natural Chinook production.

Executive Summary: Skagit 2020 Monitoring & Adaptive Management Report (PDF)

The Executive Summary of the Skagit 2020Monitoring and Adaptive Management (M&AM) states the key conclusions and recommendations of many independent research and monitoring projects completed between 2000 and 2016 by various restoration and research practitioners in the watershed. The full report can be found below.

Skagit 2020 Monitoring & Adaptive Management Report (PDF)

This report was compiled from many independent research and monitoring projects completed between 2000 and 2016 by various restoration and research practitioners in the watershed. The purpose of this Monitoring and Adaptive Management (M&AM) report is to present an adaptive management framework for collective decision-making; to present a summary of the status and trends (where available) of explicit and implied habitat indicators from the Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan (2005); and to make recommendations for future monitoring and adaptive management. Ecosystem components in the report include natal Chinook estuaries (referred to as the tidal delta), pocket estuaries, large and small freshwater channels, off-channel lakes and wetlands, and uplands. This report does not include salmon monitoring nor does it attempt to link salmon performance and habitat. These data represent our best assessments at this time, but, with very few years of information, care should be taken in how status and trends are interpreted and acted upon.

2019 Skagit STEAM Educator Resource Guide (PDF)

The 2019 Skagit STEAM Educator Resource Guide is a point source for information about current K-12 environmental and conservation programs being offered by our members and friends throughout the Skagit Watershed. It is a current and comprehensive tool for formal and informal educators to quickly use to assess and find enriching, immersive, and place-based programs to supplement curriculum and experiential learning. The 2019 Skagit STEAM Educator Resource Guide is an updated version of the 2017 Guide.

Skagit River Large Woody Debris Assessment - Connecting LWD to the 2005 Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan (PDF)

This report synthesizes information on the function of large wood in the Skagit River and similar river systems to aid in the potential development of an effective large woody debris assessment. Our goals are to create a set of descriptive, conceptual models that explain how large wood in the Skagit River Basin functions to achieve the implicit and explicit goals of the 2005 Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan, and to investigate and present potential methods for comprehensive assessment of large wood resources across Tier 1 and Tier 2 Chinook habitat in the Skagit Basin.

Skagit Watershed Council 2016 Interim Steelhead Strategy (PDF)

This report is intended to update and improve the voluntary conservation acquisition components of the SWC Habitat Protection and Restoration Strategy (SWC 1998) and its Application (SWC 2000) and should be considered as an addendum to the 1998 Strategy, following updates in 2010 and 2017. This document fulfills our need to continually ensure wise investments of capital resources for preserving the highest quality salmon habitats remaining in the watershed facing development pressures.

DRAFT- Tributary Assessment for Potential Chinook Salmon Rearing Habitat and Recommendations for Prioritizing Habitat Protection and Restoration (PDF)

We developed several alternative assessment and modeling approaches for identifying, estimating and ranking tributaries in the Skagit River basin according to their intrinsic ability to support Chinook salmon rearing habitat, which is the major habitat limiting factor for abundance and productivity (Zimmerman et al. in press.) We relied on spawner abundance observations and modeled potential as screening tools given the relationship of spawning and rearing areas as well as data availability and quality relative to limited rearing habitat data. This effort focused on intrinsic habitat potential as opposed to current conditions in an effort to assess the future potential for stream habitat restoration and protection. Recommendations are made for incorporating these tributaries into the Tier 2 Target Area in the Skagit Watershed Council 2010 Strategic Approach.

Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan (2005) (PDF)

Following listing of Chinook salmon as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, the Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC), working on behalf of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), in consultation with other interested groups, developed the Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan through a process that was initiated in 1994. The goal of the Plan was to provide a detailed pathway for recovering sustainable levels of Chinook salmon based on scientifically identified limiting factors for Chinook recovery, actions to address those limiting factors, and targets for recovery.

Application of the Skagit Watershed Council's Strategy (PDF)

(adopted 2000) - River Basin Analysis of the Skagit and Samish Basins: Tools for Salmon Habitat Restoration and Protection

SWC Habitat Protection and Restoration Strategy (PDF)

(adopted 1998) - This strategy develops a series of screens to identify strategic habitat actions in the watershed.

A Big Picture Story in the Skagit Tidal Delta (PDF)

by Eric Beamer

An Assessment of Potential Habitat Restoration Pathways for Fir Island, Washington (PDF)

Prepared for The Skagit Watershed Council, prepared by Philip Williams & Associates, Ltd. and Steve R. Hinton, W. Greg Hood, Skagit System Cooperative, February 29, 2004

Hydrologic and Hydrodynamic Modeling of the Skagit River Estuary — Rawlins Road Restoration Feasibility Study (PDF)

Zhaoqing Yang & Tarang Khangaonkar

Modeling tidal circulation and stratification in Skagit River estuary using an unstructured grid ocean model (PDF)

Zhaoqing Yang, Tarang Khangaonkar | Elsevier Journal