Indian Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Elwha River The Elwha River is a river on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Mountains, it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river's cou ...

located in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

in the United States. Indian Creek flows from

Lake Sutherland Lake Sutherland is located on the Olympic Peninsula about west of Port Angeles, Washington. The lake is located just to the east of Lake Crescent. Lake Sutherland drains into Indian Creek, which is a tributary of the Elwha River The Elwha River ...

into the former

Lake Aldwell Lake Aldwell was a reservoir located about from the mouth of the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. The reservoir was created in 1913 behind the Elwha Dam, which was fully removed in 2012. The Elwha Dam blocked ...

. Historically, Indian Creek supported runs of several

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and trout species, including all five species of Pacific Salmon. However, with construction of the

Elwha Dam The Elwha Dam was a 108-ft (33 m) high dam located in the United States, in the state of Washington, on the Elwha River approximately upstream from the mouth of the river on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Res ...

in 1913, fish were blocked from accessing the Pacific Ocean. While the Elwha Dam was in operation, Indian Creek sustained populations of kokanee

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

, which spawned in Lake Sutherland and migrated to Lake Aldwell to use as their ocean. It also contained stream resident

coastal rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal ...

coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroa ...

, and introduced eastern

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

. With the removal of the Elwha Dam in 2012, the native

salmonids Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefi ...

began a return to their anadromous lifestyle, with spawning activities of true anadromous

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

observed in late 2013.

References

Rivers of Washington (state) Rivers of Clallam County, Washington {{Washington-river-stub

See also

References