Insights from Full-Year Stream Temperature Data Collected Across a Network of Monitoring Sites in the Olympic Experimental State Forest, Washington State, USA

In 2012, Washington State Department of Natural Resources initiated extensive, long-term monitoring to assess the status and trends of riparian and aquatic conditions as land management practices are implemented in the Olympic Experimental State Forest (OESF). The OESF is a 110,000-hectare forest on the western Olympic Peninsula managed with the goal of integrating revenue production (primarily from timber harvest) and habitat conservation. Within the OESF, a dense network of montane streams provides habitat for twenty six fish and eleven amphibian species. Monitoring indicators such as stream temperature, large wood, and stream flow are sampled across fifty managed basins and four reference basins.  Data will be used to compare observed versus predicted rates of change towards habitat complexity afforded by natural disturbances, to test assumptions about ecological relationships among upland, riparian and in-stream areas, to interpret fish population trends and habitat use, and to assess management effects on riparian and aquatic habitat. The first year of stream temperature data from 54 continuously-recording loggers was examined for spatial patterns and regulatory compliance. These initial status results will be discussed in terms of temperature impacts on salmonid and amphibian phenology, relationships among temperature metrics, influence of environmental factors, and direction of future analyses.