Wednesday July 26, 2023
The Chronicle —
The Chehalis River Basin likes to be dramatic.
While many rivers flow west toward the Pacific, the Chehalis flows east first. It’s the largest river basin fully situated within the state of Washington — the Columbia River’s tributaries creep into parts of seven states and Canada. It’s one of the last salmon strongholds in the state without an endangered species listing.
It’s also fully rain-fed. And with climate change bringing longer, hotter, dryer summers to the region, experts in the basin are worried critically low flows and high temperatures in the river will be detrimental to aquatic species.
As The Seattle Times reported last fall, 2022 saw the fewest Chinook salmon egg nests in years along the Newaukum River. The mainstem Newaukum River is designated as “core summer salmonid habitat.”