Hamma Hamma River - WRIA 16.0251

The Hamma Hamma watershed is about 85 square miles, with 18 miles mainstem and 93 miles of tributary habitat. This river originates in the eastern Olympic Mountains, flows east through steep forested terrain, and enters Hood Canal at Eldon. Anadromous species are confined to the lower 2 miles of mainstem and lower 1.8 miles of Johns Creek (a lower mainstem tributary). There are two annual runoff peaks, one in November to February due to rains, and one in the spring due to snow melt.

Stock Status: See salmon distribution maps, stock charts and documents (right side of screen).
Federally listed (threatened) – HC/ESJF summer chum spawning and rearing (depressed in 2002 SaSI); Puget Sound Chinook salmon rearing and spawning (critical in 2002 SaSI) as part of Mid-Hood Canal Chinook stock
Healthy – fall/late fall chum, pink (2002 SaSI)
Depressed – winter steelhead (2002 SaSI)
Unknown – coho (2002 SaSI)
NOTE: Supplementation programs for Chinook, summer chum and winter steelhead are currently underway.

Land Use: 95% public ownership (60% managed forest, 34% national park or wilderness); 5% private (mainly commercial forest with some agriculture and residence in lower 1.5 miles).

Factors for Decline: lack of channel complexity; removal of LWD from 1950s to present; bed instability; sedimentation and aggradation in lower Johns Creek at least partially as a result of landslides associated with road failures and clearcutting; dredging; bank hardening; poor riparian widths and composition along the majority of the river; dredging and diking in estuary (48 acres summer chum rearing habitat lost); road construction at Highway 101 restricts tidal action; isolation of estuarine marsh from main river.

For all references and an expanded version of this description see the Hood Canal Coordinating Council’s Habitat Recovery Strategy for the Hood Canal and Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, version 09-2005