It seems like every time we get a good drenching the Skok goes out. Why it more so than other rivers in the area?

Aunty: Too funny. I wonder if the TV crews go out every year to ge their, chum swimming across the road shots, or if they just use file footage.

The Skok floods so much because its filling in with excess bottom sediments. During high flows the channels not deep enough and there's no where for the water to go but over the banks. I believe the principal culprit are the Lake Cushman Dams on the North Fork. The dams act to regulate flow on about 50 percent of the basin, substantially lowering peak storm flows, which would blow out excess sediments during the winter. Increased siltation from agriculture and logging likely contributes to the condition as well.

the skok floods because of the extensive clear cuttlogging in mason county. so is most of the sediment problems. thats right when all the conservative folks were complaining about logging reform and fighting it, they were helping to wipe out their other resources. pure conservative hypocricy

PLEASE let's not make this another huge left vs right debate. Whatever you think I'm sure YOU ARE RIGHT!

I wasn't tryinh to start another huge pi####g match, just curious.about why that river get so much grief.

that was not at all my intent and i hope that the thread does not have to turn into that. it is the truth however and it needs to be pointed out that supporting conservative policies on the environment will come back to bite us and our resources and the skok is a classic example of this. when you get a 100 or a 500 year flood every year... something is wrong.
the question was put.. why is something wrong with the skok? and the answer is not one that most conservative like to hear. there is alot of good qualities about the republican party but the truth should not be covered up and the truth is that conservative policies did this to the skok.....

now if i am wrong then i would be happy to discuss timber policy or other environmental policies from mason countyand how it relates to watersheds but it is very difficult to talk policy on the environment without discussing the two opposing viewpoints on the environment.

this is a case that shows clearly that the "jobs vs the environment" mentality is wrong. "the environment is jobs" and a healthy environment creates a healthy economy. mason county would have profited many times more by preserving its salmon and steelhead runs for the future rather than giving in to short sided timber interests.

durring the "spotted owl" years, logging unemployment rose by 15% but durring those same years 25% more trees than ever were cut down. now who was being lied to?

politics and how it relates to fishing and our resources is probably the single most important discussion that the fishing community needs to have.

Obsessed hit the nail on the head.They have lobbied for permits to dredge it but have been turned down.I do not believe that even if the dam on the north fork was removed that it would recover down below with out having a good dredging.Lake cushman has the stocks left though to warrent the removal.There are huge dollys,chinnok salmon and wild rainbow and cutty stock up there just hankering for the north fork back.

Simpson is definately guilty of filling the river with mud.They try alot harder up there but it still washes brown with every heavy rain due to the logging and all the roads.I would like to see them recapture some of the blocked roads and push the buffers even farther back from the river.

There are some beautiful resident steelhead populations hiding back in the canyons,and the dollys are getting thicker every year.I have caught some beautiful wild steelhead in there over the years also.

Surecatch,

There are several reasons the Skok blows out and floods more than almost any other river in our state.

1. Logging. Simpson Timber, through the Reed familiy's Republican political connections (sorry Aunty M) was able to secure a so-called "sustainable yield unit" permit, giving them the right to harvest U.S. national forest timber as though it was part of Simpson's private timberlands in the Skok watershed. The high harvest rates result in sediment loading that is greater than the ability of the river to flush it out to Hood Canal. Consequently, the river channel is aggraded (filled with fines, sand, and gravel), and has a reduced hydraulic capacity, resulting in over-bank flow every time discharge exceeds about 5,000 cfs, which isn't all that much water for the size of the basin.

2. Cushman Dams. The North Fork is dammed by Tacoma and contributes little water to the flooding ~ 60 cfs. Most North Fork water goes straight to Hood Canal via the powerhouse at Potlatch. The North Fork doesn't help flush sediments from the Skok either, but it likely couldn't anyway, due to the next set of problems.

3. Dikes and levees constrain the Skok to a too narrow river channel, so there is no where for high water to go except up and over the banks. And, as mentioned, it only takes 5kcfs to get there. To make the Skok a healthier river, the dikes need to be set back a ways, but that doesn't seem likely, as homes, barns, etc. would be displaced.

4. Highway 101 and other bridges. The bridge abuttments are too close together, causing a backwatering effect during every high water. The backwatering reduces stream velocity, and sediment deposits instead of being flushed out of the system. This keeps the river channel at a low hydraulic capacity, resulting in flooding at relatively low discharges. Each of the bridge crossings needs to be made about twice as wide as they presently are to accomodate higher flows and maintain stream velocity.

One could also blame nature. The compass aspect of the Skokomish watershed is positioned such that it receives very high precipitation across the entire elevation range. This leads to a somewhat higher cfs runoff per square mile of watershed, but this would be scapegoating.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I was going to say something brilliant and unpolitical like "sheer number of square miles drained" but after researching, it doesn't drain that many miles??

kalama and the noochie are also 2 rivers that recent/on going logging is screwing up! the kalama would rise up but stay pretty clear...they started logging above the upper canyon area now it rains the river is mud,same on the noochie.

As a former Simpson employee I am very familiar with the "sustained use permit" that salmo mentioned. Simpson has tried hard the past few years to do the right thing, but the cutting in the 40's, 50's, and 60's caused so much sediment run off that the river is plugged. Witthout dredging it will never stay in its banks.

Dikes and levees reduce the amount of room that a river meanders through. Not to mention much of the Reservation is sitting right on the floodplain. Floodplains act as "reservoirs" for excess water. When you have dikes and levees the river is channelized and so heavy rains cause the river to rise rapidly and thus you have flooding.

I'm not familiar with the Skokomish watershed, but was wondering if engineered logjams could help serve as sediment traps. Perhaps the state should buy out land adjacent to the river if possible and rehabilitate the riparian zone.

ltlcleo: i can vouch for the huge fish in the upper river i caught a 14lb bull trout right where the river runs into cushman about 4 years ago

Rockhopper,

The Skok situation is more complex than ELJs can treat. There are already natural sediment traps in the form of gradient inflections and unnatural sediment traps created by the state highway bridges.

It's almost an impossible situation to address. There is no town and only a small rural human population, so it's hard to get the Army Corps of Engineers involved in an effective flood project due to lack of prospective benefits for the high costs.

Dredging of 3 pinch points has been proposed by the County, but I'm not sure if it would actually be effective. I would only trust the opinion of a hydrologist with no economic stake in the action. And there was opposition to the plan based on environmental consequences. However, the environment of the lower Skok is so screwed up, I'm not sure that's a valid reason. I think it's possible that nothing will work until the bridge crossings are widened to eliminate the slowing, back-watering effect they have.

Wolverine,

I didn't mean to imply that Simpson hasn't improved their logging methods. They have, as a result of their HCP and current logging regulations that apply to everyone. Much of the damage occurred before the 1987 major upgrade of the state Forest Practices Act.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I'm no fan of logging and especially of clear cutting. Every time I travel to the OP it makes me sick to see all the barren hills. The Quinault reservation is especially distressing as it was really a case of massive exploitation. I would venture to guess that the majority of loggers are Democrats but I don't know. I do know that most of the Republicans I know are fishermen and do not endorse the logging practices that have ruined our forests and rivers. If you aread the signs that the timber companies put up that tell when it was clearcut (harvested) then look at when it was replanted and then look at the small trees you can see that it will be a long time until the trees are large again. I haven't researched the progress being made if any with logging more responsibly. I do know that the Forest and Fish Act in this state that gets alot of publicity with Governor Locke's picture on it and Weyerhausers logo is a real spin program...They promote themselves as if they are doing good things for the forests and rivers but they sure lobbied hard to keep the setbacks closer to rivers so they could log more acreage. Just hop in a plane and fly over our state and Vancouver Island and it will make you sick if clearcutting bothers you. The programs to clean up the slogged forests have alot of merit and are endorsed by forestry folks. The problem with the debate is that the environmental side always wants to stop everything without compromise thereby creating an adversarial situation instead of a coalition that may be able to make some headway. Closing all the roads to the forests and stopping all logging is not realistic unless we start deporting millions of people and reduce our population dramatically. I'm for that but not much chance that will happen. Most likely our population will continue to grow and habitat will continue to shrink including our beautiful forests. If I were 20 year younger I'd move to Alaska.

The bottom line is that it's just another watershed destroyed by human arrogance!
The stilly system both north and south forks are headed in the same direction. But what the hell timber is money and money never sleeps. Disgusting but true!