Species & Ecosystem Science

Project Leads

Clayton Kinsel
Fisheries Biologist

I began working at WDFW in 2004 as a scientific technician working on spawning ground surveys and operating juvenile salmon traps. Currently I’m a fisheries biologist for the Wild Salmonid Production Evaluation Unit based out of Olympia, Washington. I supervise salmon monitoring studies on the Skagit River and on Big Beef, Seabeck, Stavis and Little Anderson Creeks which form the Hood Canal Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) project. I received a B.S. degree in environmental science from the University of Oregon and have worked assessing salmon habitat and monitoring adult and juvenile salmon populations from the Rogue River in Oregon to the Skagit River in Washington. I study salmon population trends, survival and life history diversity.

Current Research

• Skagit River Juvenile Evaluation
• Intensively Monitored Watersheds
• Baker (Skagit) River Coho
• Big Beef Creek Coho

Selected Publications

• Migration of Anadromous Juvenile Bull Trout in the Skagit River, 1990-2009
• 2007 Skagit River Salmon Production Evaluation
• 2006 Skagit River Salmon Production Evaluation
• 2005 Skagit River 0+ Chinook Production Evaluation
• Intensively Monitored Watersheds: 2008 Fish Population Studies in the Hood Canal and Lower Columbia Stream Complexes
• Intensively Monitored Watersheds: 2009 Fish Population Studies in the Hood Canal Stream Complex