Spent 12-16 hours recently hiking portions of the Dungeness to evaluate present condition. Description starts at Dungeness Hatchery and proceeds downstream. Conditions June 30,: Weather clear, river visibility 3 ft, flow approximately 500 cfs [cubic feet/second]. Made no attempt to make close measurements. Conditions July 3,: Raining. River rising with only 8-12 inch visibility, flow approximately 6-700 cfs. Ratings are on scale of 1-10 with 10 being very good fish habitat.

1. Hatchery Area (hatchery to house 0.5 miles downstream)

Series of jams on long corner below hatchery, right bank. Refugia rating: 3 Holes formed have too many boils.

Large jam on next corner, left bank, rating 4. Large boils in hole, river starting to get around jam on upper end.

2. Ladder Hole (1/4 mile above and below)

Virtually useless for resting or refugia. Rating only 0.5.

3. Duncan Bridge site (0.3 miles up and down)

Holes above are gone. Flood control project shows signs of river trying to get behind it (left bank). Refugia value in low to medium water flow. Rating 2, in high water zero. Rest of this stretch river is wide, shallow, braided. Flood control project aiming river at east side (right) bank.

4. Power Line (1/4 mile upstream and down to old dike on left (west) bank.

Habitat terrible. Only one decent hole. Might be candidate site for a log jam. Wide, shallow, braided for the rest of it. River from above Power Line to entire length of Dungeness Meadows dike is moving towards left (west) bank and is straightening.

5. Taylor Road at new ditch takeoff (end of Dungeness Meadows dike down to development on left bank.)

Wide, shallow , braided. (Bear Creek quite muddy).

6. Hwy. l01 Bridge (1/4 mile above and down 1/2 way to Railroad trestle)

Incredible amount of braids. Flood control project below bridge (1994?) was abandoned by the river almost immediately after its construction.

7. Railroad Trestle (Halfway to hwy. 101 up and 3 miles downstream.)

No holes above trestle, even old trestle hole is nearly gone. Large jam constructed by (??) in (1996?) is now 150 ft. from river and only a tiny braid is going by it. No holes below trestle except 2 small ones with lots of boils.

Large jam constructed by (?) in (1996?) is sitting on the beach. A project with a log tied into the beach just below the trestle offers some refuge in low to medium water (rating 2), but little for flood water protection. A natural log jam on the corner below the above referenced project is given a rating of 3. Angle of current to jam is good, considerable room under jam, offering good resting and some high water respite.

Why is there a KEEP OUT sign about 20 ft. and below the trestle? [Note]

8. Old Olympic Highway (1/8 mile up and 0.3 mile down)

Wide, swift, shallow, 2 small jams around first corner downstream. The one on the right bank rates a 3, but is poorly anchored, made of small timber and thus is shaky; the one on left bank is composed of alder and cottonwood, is rotting fast, and maybe rates a 2.

9. Ward's Bridge (1/4 mile upstream to head of Beebe dike downstream.)

All very poor, wide, shallow, braided, except for 1 fair spot just above bridge on right bank braid. Rating: 2.

10. Game Farm (1/2 mile up stream, 1/2 mile down stream)

Very wide, shallow, holes all have lots of boils with no structure except for stumps cabled on outside of curve. This will provide resting and refugia only in low water. Several gravel traps on both sides. River fairly stable.

11. Schoolhouse Bridge.

River stable, wide, shallow, almost no refugia.

God, what a mess!! I would like to leave it at that, but I will have to do a little better so, here goes.

The river from the hatchery to the mouth is in the worst shape that I have ever seen it in, the 55 years that I have observed it. The holes and meanders are the fewest, braids are the most numerous, the river averages the shallowest, there is the least refugia that I have ever seen. It is apparent that a lot of money has been spent for studies and projects on the river, but the only ones who have benefited are some of the landowners and the fishery has continued to collapse.

Unless we can turn this habitat around soon in the lower river, I feel that the stocks which utilize only the lower river and the late components of stocks that use both upper and lower river are doomed.

With the present strategies for restoration and the overwhelming lack of cooperation from landowners, I see little chance of this river being restored in time to save those stocks.

Dick Goin

Note: The author was unaware at the time that the strip of property immediately north of the railroad trestle is privately owned.--S. Koehler

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