Clark County provides watershed management to protect our water resources, including lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands. Monitoring provides data on a watershed’s overall health, as well as the health of individual streams within the watershed.

Monitoring allows the county to understand if a waterway is degraded and if its overall condition is improving, deteriorating or not changing. Staff uses the information to design improvement projects, coordinate with other agencies and partners, and develop educational materials about watershed health and what the community can do to protect its watersheds.

Types of Monitoring

Monitoring activities are conducted throughout Clark County’s watersheds, including:

• Lakes
• Streams
• Stream flow and rainfall data
• Volunteer Monitoring Resource Center
• Watershed Assessment
• Student Watershed Monitoring Network - FieldScope

Monitoring Documents

Quality Assurance Project Plan for Status and Trends Monitoring of Urban Streams in Clark and Cowlitz Counties in the Lower Columbia River Regions (PDF)

2010 Stream Health Report (PDF)

Long-term Index Monitoring (PDF) (10 years of monitoring key sites)

2012 Comparison Monitoring results (PDF) (high-density residential, commercial and rural)

Modular Pavement Effectiveness Study (PDF)

Featured Watershed

• Suds Creek watershed (tributary to Salmon Creek at river mile 3.83)