Harvest Management Plan For Steelhead Returning to the Hoh River In the Winter of 2021-2022

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Hoh Tribe have prepared the following harvest management plan for the 2021-2022 winter steelhead season in Hoh River Watershed. This plan establishes management guidelines for the steelhead resources of the Hoh River system. The co-managers agree to a philosophy of cooperation in implementing management measures to maintain, perpetuate, harvest, and enhance the steelhead resource and the natural ecosystem that supports it.

This winter steelhead harvest management plan provides current stock status and the agreed to management for the 2021-2022 winter steelhead fisheries in the Hoh River system jointly managed by Hoh Tribe and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

The Hoh River located on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula is approximately 28 miles south of Forks and 80 miles north of Aberdeen. The Hoh River watershed is 56 miles (90 km) long, originates at the Hoh Glacier on Mount Olympus and flows west through the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest, then through the foothills in a broad valley. As it nears the ocean, the Hoh passes through the coastal strip of the Olympic National Park, and forms the northern boundary of the Hoh Indian Reservation.

The Hoh River's drainage basin is 299 square miles (770 km²). Its discharge, or streamflow, has considerable seasonal variation, with summer streamflow averaging about one-third that of winter flows.

The Hoh River is fed by glaciers on Mount Olympus, such as the Blue Glacier. The glaciers grind rock into fine glacial flour which turns the Hoh River a milky, slate blue color. The river valley is generally broad and relatively flat, causing the glacial sediments to settle out, creating extensive gravel bars, river meanders, and the many side channels characteristic of a braided river.