DOI: 10.24431/rw1k46k
title: Klawock Lake sockeye salmon habitat assessment, Alaska, 2014-2016

description: The Klawock Lake watershed, located on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, historically supported large sockeye salmon runs important to multiple user groups. In recent times, these runs have significantly decreased, and have impacted local communities both culturally and economically. Assessing sockeye spawning habitat in three main sub-basins of the Klawock Lake watershed is one step in evaluating and addressing potential concerns with the reduced returns. This study focused on the Hatchery Creek, Threemile Creek and Inlet Creek sub-basins. Sockeye salmon spawning surveys were conducted around the peak return of fish from 2014-2016. A desktop comparison of current and historical aerial imagery was conducted to depict landscape changes. Fish habitat surveys were conducted to document channel geomorphologies and availability of key habitat features such as large wood and pools. Additional features, such as a legacy beaver dam on Hatchery Creek and a double culvert system on Threemile Creek were evaluated. Data showed that sockeye salmon continue to utilize habitat in all three sub-basins for spawning. The Hatchery Creek sub-basin dataset is limited, however survey data allowed for it to be listed in the State of Alaska Anadromous Waters Catalog. Hatchery Creek data was also collected to evaluate a legacy beaver dam for removal, in order to open up approximately 2.9 kilometers of potential upstream good-quality spawning habitat. The beaver dam has been storing a large amount of sediment, so it was recommended the downstream impacts from adding sediment to a floodplain channel bet taken into consideration prior to making a decision about removal. The Threemile Creek sub-basin continues to be an important sockeye spawning system in Klawock Lake, but analysis shows that historical landscape changes related to timber harvest, road building, and sub-division building have degraded and reduced historical sockeye spawning habitat. A double culvert system at the Klawock-Hollis Highway has changed the downstream hydrology of a historical alluvial fan channel type. Further, the culverts likely hinder fish passage for adults into upstream habitat. Before improvements near this site occur, a detailed hydrological analysis and potential impacts to a downstream subdivision needs to occur. There are potential restoration opportunities for upstream habitat restoration, but it is recommended to evaluate whether past restoration activities such as culvert removal, riparian thinning and sediment control are working first. The Inlet Creek sub-basin also continues to support returning sockeye salmon for spawning. Currently, the sub-basin functions well and provides good spawning habitat. The systems is limited in instream large wood and large wood recruitment, therefore they system would benefit from monitoring of habitat degradation, and future consideration of large wood restoration should the habitat degrade. A description of methods and results related to this data can be found in the "Klawock Lake Sockeye Spawning Habitat Assessment" (Needham et al. 2018) at http://www.seakfhp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Needham-et-al-2018.pdf". Data are presented as nine CSV files: 2015_Habitat_Header.csv 2015_Habitat_Pebble_Count.csv 2015_Habitat_Longitudinal.csv 2016_Habitat_Sidechannel.csv 2016_Habitat_Longitudinal.csv 2016_Habitat_Header.csv Habitat_Data_Dictionary.csv Spawning Data.csv Culvert_data.csv This dataset was generated as part of NPRB project 1524. F