Skagit Wild and Scenic River System

How We Manage the Skagit River System

The Skagit Wild and Scenic River is located in a unique and inspiring place, largely wild, yet within a stone’s throw of major metropolitan areas. Development in the Skagit River basin has increased greatly since the river was designated in 1978. The convergence of abundant natural resources and increasing demands on those resources creates an environment that is on the one hand passionately prized, and on the other hand threatened.

This climate and the Skagit Wild and Scenic River designation have provided abundant opportunities for working in partnership at the watershed scale to fulfill our river stewardship responsibilities. Forest Service river management strategies push beyond geographical, legal, administrative, political, and personal boundaries to find effective solutions. Good communication and cooperation help improve river management and stewardship by fostering shared responsibility. Many different people—from landowners to members of federal, state, and county agencies and private organizations—interact with one another in decision-making, working together to protect this special place.

Some of the many aspects of Skagit Wild and Scenic River management (as described in Beyond Boundaries) are:

• Involvement in basin-wide watershed restoration and protection
• Monitoring of natural and cultural resources and public use
• Management and recovery of threatened and endangered species
• Limited capacity to meet demand for community education and outreach
• Public concern with floodplain management, flood damage and control
• Increasing demand for recreation opportunities, access, and visitor services and facilities
• Demand for hydropower production
• Need for infrastructure protection.