Chinook salmon use smaller rural tributaries to mainstem rivers at low levels, and the sub-basins are important for coho salmon spawning and
rearing. Bull trout are also presumed to forage in many of the sub-basins. Other habitat problems in this group include decreased fish passage due to human-made barriers such as culverts, dams, and pump stations; increased bank erosion and deposition of fine sediments in spawning gravel; degraded water quality due to high temperature, low dissolved oxygen, high nutrient levels, and high copper and lead levels (Patterson Creek only); high fecal coliform counts that violate Washington State water quality standards; loss of riparian vegetation; lack of large woody debris; loss of floodplain wetlands; and loss of floodplain connectivity/function due to levees, bank armoring, channelization/ditching, and road encroachment (Snohomish Basin Salmonid Recovery Technical Committee, 2002; Haring 2002; Solomon and Boles, 2002).

Protecting and restoring watershed processes through forest retention and limiting impervious surface is important for multi-species protection and creating and maintaining suitable conditions downstream for Chinook spawning and rearing. Addressing fish passage barriers in this sub-basin strategy group - specifically at the mouths of French Creek, Tulalip Creek, and Battle Creek - would provide substantial benefits for wild salmon.