Juvenile rearing habitat for Chinook salmon in the Willamette River Basin

This data release contains rasters of modeled juvenile rearing habitat for spring Chinook salmon in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon for a range of streamflows and for various river corridors. Usable habitat area for juvenile rearing spring Chinook salmon was modeled for two size classes (fry and parr) by pairing outputs from two-dimensional hydraulic models with in-basin observations of juvenile Chinook salmon habitat preferences (Hansen and others, 2023). The resulting rasters are organized by river, wherein each river with modeled juvenile rearing habitat is included as a child item within this data release. For each river corridor, rasters of juvenile rearing habitat are included for streamflows that range from typical low summer flows (less than or equal to the 1st percentile of mean daily streamflows) to approximately the median annual high flow (approximately the 95th percentile of mean daily streamflows) for each reach. Descriptions of model development, habitat preference criteria selection, and limitations can be found in White and others (2026) and Hansen and others (2023).

Hansen, G.S., Perry, R.W., Kock, T.J., White, J.S., Haner, P.V., Plumb, J.M., and Wallick, J.R., 2023, Assessment of habitat use by juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Willamette River Basin, 2020–21: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2023–1001, 20 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20231001.

White, J.S., Bartelt, K.M., Kock, T.J., Overstreet, B., Hansen, G., and Wallick, R., 2026, Quantifying Chinook salmon habitat across flow regimes: high resolution modeling in Oregon’s Willamette River Basin: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, v. 14, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2026.1828470.