Thermal profile and cold water anomalies in the Hoh River watershed

23 Views

  • Thanks! Share it with your friends!

    You disliked this video. Thanks for the feedback!

FishEYeTelevision
Published
The Hoh River watershed, located on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington, supports Pacific salmon and steelhead populations, of which the Hoh Tribe retains treaty-reserved rights to harvest. Due to predicted glacial extinction and declines in snowmelt associated with increasing temperatures, the Hoh River is expected to warm considerably in the coming decades. Cold-water refugia, which salmonids rely on to survive the summer and fall low flow period, will likely diminish. To mitigate the expected warming of the Hoh River and its tributaries, it is necessary to locate cold-water areas in need of protection, and potential sites for future habitat restoration projects that promote the formation of cold-water refugia. In this study, our objectives are to identify the thermal profile and cold-water anomalies in the Hoh River watershed. To do so, a helicopter with a mounted cooled-technology thermal infrared sensor (FLIR SC6000, longwave 8-9.2um) flew 86 kilometers of the Hoh and South Fork Hoh Rivers during the early afternoon hours in August 2023. The results from this project will inform future restoration efforts that seek to maximize cold water features in the Hoh and South Fork Hoh Rivers.

Kim Bray*, Julie Ann Koehlinger
Hoh Indian Tribe

Mousa Diabat*
NV5 Geospatial

Nicole Rasmussen, Betsy Krier
Wild Salmon Center

Presentation given at North Coast & Cascades Science Days, 2024
go.nps.gov/sciencedays
Category
Steelheads