Issue 1
The Leader
January 1, 2011
Northwest Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society Dedicated to a science-based, ecosystem protection and management approach that integrates the human component on a landscape scale.
Welcome Aboard NWSSCS members have been working the past eight months, following our incorporation as a not for profit business, on strategies associated with Chehalis River basin flood risk management and with Chehalis River basin ecosystem restoration.
For more than one hundred years, commercial and residential development has increased in the Chehalis River floodplain. During this same timeframe, massive amounts of mature trees have been harvested from the surrounding forests.
“The Leader” will be used in conjunction with our website at http://NWSSCS.blogspot.com to communicate the current NWSSCS conservation issues and activities. This issue of “The Leader” will serve as an introduction to the varied and often complex topics associated with potentially deadly and often catastrophic seasonal Chehalis River basin rainstorms. Catastrophic Flood Related Damage
(Photo compliments of Natural Settings Digital Imaging and Design and LightHawk)
As the photographs on this page demonstrate, unwise, irresponsible land use practices continue to occur throughout the Chehalis River basin. When major rainstorms such as those in 1996, 2007 and 2009 hit the Chehalis River basin with full force, flood-related property damage often adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars. The Chehalis River basin with its 357 rivers and tributaries is the second largest river basin in Washington state; second only to the Columbia River. Unlike the Columbia, the Chehalis River is a free flowing river with a significant, historic and often meandering floodway. Since the beginning of time, the Chehalis River and its tributaries have flooded during heavy rainstorms that are sometimes accompanied by hurricane force winds and snowmelt.
In future issues of “The Leader”, you’ll learn more about proposed engineered solutions (dams and levees), the formation of a multi-jurisdiction flood control zone district, the impacts of the preliminary Lewis County FEMA floodplain maps, the ongoing Fish Study and more. Your continued support of, and interest in, the NWSSCS is truly appreciated by the NWSSCS Executive officers, Conservation Directors, Advisors and members throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Thank you.