Watershed Facts
Snoqualmie-Skykomish Watershed

The Snoqualmie/Skykomish watershed encompasses more than 680 square miles from the Cascade Crest to the confluence with the Skykomish River north of Duvall.

The Snoqualmie River meanders more than 43 miles from Three Forks Park near the town of Snoqualmie to its confluence with the Skykomish.

The watershed supports wild runs of coho, chinook, pink, chum and steelhead salmon.

At the height of the November 1990 flood, enough water flowed over Snoqualmie Falls in 14 minutes to fill the King Dome!

In the 1980's, the Snohomish watershed (which includes the Snoqualmie and Skykomish watersheds) supported one third of the wild coho salmon entering Puget Sound on an annual basis.

More than 4,500 acres of farm land in the Snoqualmie watershed have been protected through the Farmland Preservation Program.

Snoqualmie Tributaries produce more adult coho salmon than the entire state of Oregon.

King County manages more than 5,000 acres of parks and natural areas in the Snoqualmie basin.

The overwhelming majority of chinook that return to spawn in the Snoqualmie basin belong to the Snohomish Fall chinook stock. Unlike other stocks in the Snohomish basin and in most of the Puget Sound area, Snohomish Fall chinook have been more numerous in the past twelve year years (1986-1997) than they were in the time period 1965-1976, when the escapement goal for the basin was set at 1,187 fish. In 1998, an estimated 2,695 Fall chinook adults returned to the Snohomish basin to spawn. Most of those fish returned to the Snoqualmie basin.