Puget Sound watershed

I used to live in rainy Washington State, although as I already mentioned IT ALWAYS RAINS, I still got the opportunity to see the beauty of the state that enables residents and visitors to enjoy the outdoor activities and landscape of this state. As a result, I thought it will be nice to talk a little more about the great Puget Sound, including topography, majors rivers, near cities, as well as environmental issues related to this watershed.

The Puget Sound watershed is located in Washington State, bounded by sub-alpine meadows of the Cascade and Olympic mountain. It covers nearly 42,800 square kilometers and consists of over ten thousand rivers and streams that drain into the Sound. Counties involving the Puget Sound watershed are Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, and Thurston. The watersheds going upstream are Strait of Georgia, Lower Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Lake Washington, Duwamish, Puyallup, Nisqually, Deschutes and Hood Canal. Watersheds going downstream are Nooksack, Lower Skagit, Snohomish, Duwamish, Hood Canal, and Dungeness-Elwha.

Puget Sound is an estuary, in which fresh water from the watershed mixes with the salt water from the Pacific Ocean. The bottom of the Sound is made up of a series of valleys and ridges, which disrupt the movement of water and help it mix. Puget Sound is the second largest watershed that flows through abundant forestlands and wilderness, including the popular Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Some of the environmental issues that Puget Sound watershed faces are the increase of toxic compounds discharge into the water, such contaminants become bound to sediments, spreading to other areas and contaminating the food chain. The release of these contaminants has created serious health risk to humans and harm to marine plants and animals. As far as watershed groups, there are about 99 groups already established such as the Boeing Creek Watershed Outreach Program, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, American Rivers-Northwest Regional Office, etc.

Photo retrieved from:http://www.co.snohomish.wa.us/PWApp/SWM/watersheds/PSDwtrshd.html

While searching the web I discovered important information about the increase of storm water runoff due to the development across the Puget Sound watersheds. As natural surfaces in Puget Sound watersheds have been covered with roads, homes and parking lots, populations of salmon, herring, bottomfish and many other fish have decreased, water quality has declined, shellfish beds have closed, and contaminated sediments have been washed into the near shore environment. As a result, citizens and organizations of the Puget Sound area need to be aware of what’s happening to their fresh waters while increasing volunteer groups and managing the preservation of watershed more effectively.

Reference:

Anonymous. (n.d.). Welcome to Puget Sound. Key to the Fishes of Puget Sound. Retrieed from http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/ichthyology/FishKey/aboutps.html

Anonymous. (n.d.). Watersheds. Retrieved from http://www.prism.washington.edu/story/Watersheds