The Expanded Stream Catalog is a stream numbering exercise that attempted to provide unique stream identifiers for all streams within the WRIA1 (and WRIA0) catchments.
Wherever possible, the 2013 Catalog numbers are derived from numbers assigned in the 1970's by WDFW. The same naming logic used by WDFW in 1975 to assign the first set of stream numbers was also used when numbering streams in the 2013 effort.
However, the WDFW Stream Catalog was limited to only those streams that were thought to contain anadromous fish and excluded many other streams. The other problem introduced by the WDFW Catalog was that numbers were assigned sequentially without leaving unused numbers to be used when other streams in the networked subsequently needed to be classified.
As a result, the 2013 Catalog had to change the number of digits in the numbers assigned.
The 1975 system used two digits to represent the WRIA, followed by a period, followed by a unique 4-digit number. In WRIA-1, the first digit of the 4-digit number was only ever used as a leading 0, thus only 3 digits were actually used in this area.
The 2013 system removed the leading zero and placed two additional digits at the end of the 3-digit number assigned in 1975. If stream was previously classified in the 1975 catalog, the last two digits were '00'.
Thus, for the main Nooksack River that was given the number 01.0120 in the 1975 catalog, the 2013 catalog number was 01.12000
This approach provides 99 available numbers in-between each of the numbers assigned in 1975 that can be used to identify streams and tributaries that were not numbered in the 1975 catalog, while preserving the original concept that streams and tributaries that are geographically grouped should generally be assigned numbers that are close together.
In addition, the assignation of numbers in this exercise was not done in a sequential manner. If there were three tributaries that required numbers between two previously numbered streams, then these were assigned numbers that were equally spaced within the range of available numbers. This ensures that there would remain unused numbers in-between each of the newly assigned numbers in case other tributaries of these streams are identified in the future and need a number to be assigned.
Other differences also exist between the 2013 catalog and the 1975 catalog.
Some 1975 Stream numbers were retired from use because the feature described no longer exists, or because the original feature was really only a side channel of a larger feature. All side-channel features have been renamed to match the larger water body. This decision was taken because, over time, the river may have many channels within its channel migration zone and this makes the naming of transient features completely pointless.
The same can be said of distributary channel numbers as well. However, a somewhat arbitrary decision was made to retain distributary channel numbers in this revision of the catalog.
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1975 Washington Stream Catalog
Links to digitized files for the WRIA1 area from the 1975 Stream Catalog that were originally published by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife can be found below..
The full set of pdf versions of the Washington Stream Catalog files can be found here.