The Totten/Little Skookum Inlet Subbasin drains 80 square miles. Commercial forestland covers about 70% of the area. Rural/agricultural land covers 28%. This includes woodlots (13%), rural residential (10%), and pastureland (4%). Urban residential development (more than one home per 1.5 acres) is a small land use. Most of this development is concentrated along shorelines, including Summit Lake, Fawn Lake and the inlets. Commercial and industrial property is concentrated near Kamilche, Taylor Town and Griffin (Soil Conservation Service et al. 1988). Aquaculture is centered in Oyster Bay and Little Skookum Inlet. Tidelands capable of shellfish production occupy 2,900 acres of the inlets. The total acreage of tidelands is 6,140 acres. About 700 acres of wetlands are present in the watershed.

Water quality has not been identified as a major limiting factor for anadromous fish in this watershed. Both inlets have extensive sediment deposits on the tide flats. These deposits may have covered historic spawning habitat for shellfish and marine fish. Sediment deposition has caused problems in the past (Soil Conservation Service et al. 1988). The extensive sediment deposits at the head of each inlet are believed to have occurred over the last 80 to 100 years from natural causes and timber harvest in the Kennedy, Schneider, and Skookum Creek watersheds (Jeff Dickison, Squaxin Island Tribe, Personal Communication 1987, cited in Soil Conservation Service et al. 1988).

The three major tributaries to Totten and Little Skookum Inlets are Kennedy Creek, Schneider Creek, and Skookum Creek.

Kennedy Creek originates from Summit Lake and several small tributaries in the north slopes of the Black Hills, then flows more than 10 miles to Oyster Bay. A series of falls, cascades, and logjams that drop more than 60 feet in 300 yards block anadromous fish passage near river mile 2.5. Simpson Timber Company and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources own the majority of the watershed, restricting development to the shoreline of Summit Lake. The headwaters are heavily forested with conifers, while deciduous trees and pasture land dominate the broad valley bottom (Washington Department of Fisheries 1975).

Schneider Creek is a low gradient, intermittent stream that begins on Schneider's Prairie northeasterly of Summit Lake. The stream flows about 5.3 miles to the east toward U.S. Highway 101, then northwesterly to tide flats along Oyster Bay. Land cover consists of a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees interspersed with pasture lands (Washington Department of Fisheries 1975).

Skookum Creek begins from ground water seepage near Stimson Station on the Northern Pacific Railroad. The stream flows northwesterly through the Kamilche Valley paralleling State Highway 108 before draining into Skookum Inlet. Pasture land dominates the valley floor (Washington Department of Fisheries 1975).

For salmonid stock status within Totten and Little Skookum Inlets see Totten and Little Skookum Salmonid Stock Status
under documents.

Description from the Salmonid Habitat Limiting Factors Water Resource Inventory Area 14, Kennedy-Goldsborough Basin. For more information including salmonid stock status see the previously stated document or the Salmon Habitat Protection and Restoration Plan for Water Resource Inventory Area 14, Kennedy-Goldsborough. For fish use see the map image located in pictures.