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Watershed facts Snoqualmie-Skykomish Watershed

Watershed facts Snoqualmie-Skykomish Watershed

The Snoqualmie/Skykomish watershed encompasses about 938 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 to fill the old King Dome stadium in 14 minutes!

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.

King County owns about 7,000 acres* of parks and natural areas, owns about 600 acres of trail sites and holds almost 100,000 acres of conservation and forest easements in the Snoqualmie - Skykomish Watershed area. (*1,822 acres in the Rattlesnake Mountain Scenic Area, jointly owned by King County and State DNR, and managed by the State).

The overwhelming majority of chinook that return to spawn in the Snoqualmie basin belong to the Snohomish Fall chinook stock.  

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