View photos of the fishery in the San Juan Islands on NWIFC’s Flickr feed.

Nine treaty tribes in western Washington have treaty-reserved rights to catch Fraser River sockeye in U.S. waters before they migrate upstream. The Fraser River sockeye treaty tribes are Lummi, Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Nooksack, Makah, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Suquamish, Swinomish and Tulalip.

Sockeye salmon is a source of food and income for tribal members and it also helps meet cultural needs. The tribes freeze the fish to be used throughout the year at celebrations, ceremonies and funerals.

“It’s wonderful to finally have a sockeye harvest again,” said Lorraine Loomis, Swinomish fisheries manager and tribal representative to the Pacific Salmon Commission, which manages the Fraser sockeye run for the United States and Canada. “This fishery helps our fishermen and feeds our tribal communities that have had to go without sockeye for too long.”

This year’s enormous returns follow several years of disappointment. In November 2008, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared the Fraser fishery a disaster because of drastic declines in returns over the past several years. The Fraser sockeye tribes and state commercial fishermen were allocated $2 million to compensate for the loss of income.

Lummi Chairman Henry Cagey said at the time that it would take at least $5 million to compensate the tribe’s more than 600 fishermen.

Last year, about 10 million Fraser sockeye were forecast to return, but only about 1 million came back, canceling treaty and non-tribal fisheries in both the United States and Canada.

For more information, contact: Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

“Tribal hunters don’t have the same access to nutritious protein that they once had,” said Ray Fryberg Sr., fish and wildlife director for the Tulalip Tribes. “Populations of deer and elk have declined and they’re running out of decent habitat.”

A few years ago, the tribes’ natural resources department started planting meadows on the reservation to provide a haven for wildlife. The meadows support populations of deer, small mammals and birds – and now wild turkeys.

“We hope these turkeys will breed successfully and sustain a harvestable population that can feed our community,” Fryberg said. “Having wild turkeys right here on the reservation also could engage tribal youth who haven’t been exposed to our hunting culture.”

The turkey chicks came from a hatchery in May and were placed in brooding pens. Once they were old enough, they were moved to a net-covered enclosure in the meadow to get used to eating the grasses there.

When the nets were removed in August, the turkeys needed some encouragement to flee the coop. After a few minutes, they started exploring the grasses surrounding the enclosure.

“That’s what I wanted to see,” said Tulalip wildlife manager Mike Sevigny. “Every step of the way, I have been really impressed with their development. I expect them to breed this spring, and if they do, we could issue a few hunting tags next fall.”

The tribe plans to release more game birds in the meadow. Next, Sevigny will incubate turkey eggs and rear the offspring, which should reduce stress on the young chicks. Eventually, the meadow could be home to quail, grouse and pheasant.

View photos of the release on the NWIFC Flickr feed.

For more information, contact: Mike Sevigny, wildlife manager, Tulalip Tribes, 360-716-4623 or msevigny@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Like other shellfish, Olympia oysters are broadcast spawners. Young oysters float on the tide until they settle on a hard surface such as an old oyster shell, called cultch.

“There are a handful of areas on the island with small populations of Olympias, but we want to see where the oysters are spreading their seed,” said Eric Sparkman, shellfish biologist for the tribe. “Hopefully, we’ll find the beginnings of good natural production in some areas, meaning we can come back, expand our efforts and possibly kick-start a self-sustaining population out here.”

Olympia oysters are the only oyster native to Puget Sound and had been mainstay in the Squaxin tribal diet until they largely disappeared almost 100 years ago. Pollution and competition from invasive shellfish species almost drove Olympia oysters to extinction.

“We have always depended on Olympia oysters,” said Andy Whitener, the Squaxin Island Tribe’s natural resources director. “Olympias took advantage of our pristine bays and beaches for centuries, growing and evolving into an important food source.”

The tribe is also working with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to restore Olympia oysters on Squaxin Island. The tribe and non-profit have spread thousands of oyster seed on the island’s tidelands.

“Over the past century, the Olympia oyster’s habitat has been hammered, and they almost disappeared,” Whitener said. “We want to save Olympia oysters and bring them back to harvestable levels.”

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For more information, contact: Eric Sparkman, shellfish biologist, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3811. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

As a participant in the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) partnership, Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) collects and analyzes seawater samples for the types of plankton and their levels that can indicate whether a harmful algal bloom is occurring. For many years, the main concern for QIN has been the levels of the plankton species pseudo-nitzschia. It causes the production of the biotoxin domoic acid in shellfish such as razor clams and Dungeness crab.

“Pseudo-nitzschia is a diatom. Diatoms were the dominate type of plankton in the waters off QIN’s coast up until about two years ago,” said Joe Schumacker, marine scientist for Quinault Indian Nation. Now, the balance has shifted to different species of plankton like the PSP-causing Alexandrium catenella.” “It’s a dinoflagellate that used to be a relatively rare presence in our coastal water,” said Schumacker. “But for the first time in modern memory, we had to close razor clam harvest last year because of a large bloom of Alexandrium and resulting PSP levels.”

Dinoflagellates have whip-like tails that allow them to move up and down in the water column and feed, while diatoms such as pseudo-nitzschia simply drift in the water. Alexandrium also thrives in waters that are layered, for example when fresh water and salt water are mixed. Scientists with ORHAB and the University of Washington believe ocean conditions will continue to favor it and other dinoflagellates because they can move to find nutrients.

California mussels are an early warning that PSP biotoxin levels may begin to rise in razor clams, which take longer to show biotoxin levels. “We increase our sampling of mussels and razor clams when we see the California mussels with high levels of the biotoxin,” said Jerry Borchert, of the Office of Shellfish and Water Protection in the Washington State Department of Health.

Eighty micrograms of toxin per hundred grams of tissue is the limit for human health. Mussels sampled June 1 by the Quileute Tribe near Second Beach showed levels as high as 3,601 micrograms per hundred grams of tissue. Makah Tribe samples collected June 7 registered nearly 2,000 micrograms at two beach sites. Prior to this year, the highest recorded level on the coast was 832 in 1997.

“At those higher levels, a person could die after just a couple of bites,” Schumacker said. Hoh, Makah, Quileute and Quinault Indian Nation all harvest mussels as part of their traditional diet.

Early symptoms of PSP are a tingling of the lips and tongue. Tingling can appear within minutes of eating poisonous shellfish or may take an hour or two to develop. Depending on the amount of toxin a person has consumed, symptoms may progress to tingling of fingers and toes and then loss of control of arms and legs. Difficulty breathing follows, and death can occur in minutes. Mussels, cockles, clams, scallops, oysters, crabs and lobsters are all known to cause PSP.

Through the ORHAB partnership, coastal tribes are working to encourage additional research into improving forecasting of HAB events. Tribes are also working with scientists to improve rapid tests for shellfish tissue that would eliminate the current need to wait for results from the Department of Health.

“When we get these high levels of biotoxin in mussels, we’re also concerned about its ability to persist in some of these bays and inlets where sampling may not be occurring,” said Schumacker. “For Quinault, it will be an ongoing health issue as well as a cultural issue when it affects harvest of these important species.”

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This summer the tribe set up a two-way fyke net to count how many fish are coming and going. “We found a lot of coho moving in and out of the reconnected wetland,” said Russ Ladley, resource protection manager for the Puyallup Tribe. This is important because unlike other salmon species that move quickly from fresh to saltwater, coho stay for a year in freshwater. ”

Coho need quality freshwater habitat, more so than other salmon like chum or pinks,” Ladley said. “It’s encouraging to see them using this habitat.”

The tribe installed the custom-built fyke net toward the end of the salmon outmigration season. “We didn’t get a complete picture of how many fish are using the habitat, but we do know they’re going in there,” Ladley said. Next year, the tribe will install the trap as early as January and monitor results throughout the salmon outmigration season.

In addition to the fyke net at Sha Dadx (pronounced shad ducks), the tribe also operates a smolt trap on the mainstem Puyallup River. The trap safely captures outmigrating young salmon so they can be counted and measured, providing important data about salmon productivity throughout a watershed.

Off-channel habitat is where juvenile fish can get out of the river’s mainstem flow to rest and feed. Small side-channels, tributary creeks and wetlands connected to the mainstem all provide important off-channel habitat. “Historically, the Puyallup wasn’t constricted by dikes and was able to carve new paths and create new off-channel habitat,” Ladley said. “Since the diking and building in the floodplain started, a lot of off-channel habitat has been lost.”

In addition to the Sha Dadx project, the tribe has also worked with others to restore two off-channel sites farther up the watershed near Orting.

“Off-channel habitat restoration is the single most important thing we can do to recover salmon in the Puyallup River watershed,” Ladley said. “Salmon evolved and have been successful in the Puyallup for centuries because the river was able to move and create habitat for them. Its great to see some good results from the project.”

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For more information, contact: Russ Ladley, resource protection manager, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, (253) 845-9225. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

Upper Skagit technicians Robert Schuyler (left) and Tim Shelton examine a spot prawn with biologist Kyle Deerkop.

SEDRO-WOOLLEY – The Upper Skagit Tribe has ramped up its shellfish program by hiring a new biologist and holding test fisheries on spot prawns.

Test fisheries improve harvest management by providing information about population size.

“Expanding our program will help us learn more about shellfish such as shrimp, so we can protect our resources now and for future generations,” said Scott Schuyler, the tribe’s natural resources policy coordinator.

The tribe has been testing the spot prawn population before and after commercial, ceremonial and subsistence fisheries to monitor the impacts of fishing on the stock. Last spring, shellfish biologist Kyle Deerkop and technicians Larry Peterson, Tim Shelton and Robert Schuyler set 100 pots, measuring a sample of the spot prawns, and recording their stage of sexual maturity.

Spot prawns have an unusual reproductive cycle. Most mature first as males, and after a couple of breeding seasons, change sex and reproduce for a few seasons as females.

Studies have shown that males sometimes change into females at a younger age, or skip the male phase when faced with increased fishing pressure or higher natural mortality. This could be a reproductive strategy to make sure there are enough egg-producing females each season.

“Shellfish have always been crucially important to our culture and way of life,” said Scott Schuyler, the tribe’s natural resources policy coordinator. “It’s very important for the tribe to continue to gather shellfish as our ancestors did.”

For more information, contact: Scott Schuyler, Upper Skagit Tribe, 360-854-7090 or sschuyler@upperskagit.com; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

The mouth of the creek is known to the Suquamish as the “Place of Chum Salmon.” It is one the largest native salmon-producing creeks in Puget Sound. An average of 30,000 fish spawn in the watershed each year.

The tribe partnered with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kitsap County and the U.S. Navy to make the project a reality.

“The Suquamish people have relied on the dog salmon of Chico Creek for thousands of year as a source of food for the winter season,” said Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman. “We are happy that the first of the three fish-blocking culverts will be removed through our partnership with the EPA, Kitsap County and the Navy. We look forward to giving these ancestral fish a fighting chance for survival.”

The removal of the culvert will allow native chum salmon, the watershed’s predominate salmon species, to take advantage of a widened estuary. Currently, when the tide is low, salmon have a hard time reaching the culvert to continue their spawning journey upstream. In the fall, when the creek is running high and fast, the volume and speed of the creek water makes it difficult for salmon to access the culvert.

“It will be interesting to see how the channel realigns itself after the estuary is returned to a more natural condition,” said Jay Zischke, the tribe’s marine fisheries manager. “Box culverts such as the ones we are removing are effective for conveying water, but negatively impact the way an estuary should work by constricting channel movement, water flow and fish access.”

The tribe has been working hard to keep Chico Creek one of the most sustainable salmon-producing creeks in the region. In the past year alone, the tribe has installed tons of gravel and dozens of rootwads near the mouth of the creek to help slow the water and create pools that salmon need.

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For more information, contact Leonard Forsman, Suquamish Tribal Chairman, at (360) 598-3311 or lforsman@suquamish.nsn.us; or Jay Zischke, Suquamish Tribe marine fisheries manager, at (360) 394-8444 or jzischke@suquamish.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

A Suquamish High School student tosses bucket of oyster larve into a saltwater tank.

Viviane Barry, a tribal shellfish biologist, showed students from the Suquamish-based tribal high school how Pacific oysters are easily seeded.

“This type of hands-on stuff is relevant to what is going on in their tribes,” said teacher Bob Kirk. “These students often have clam and oyster bakes with their family and during ceremonial events but it’s important to understand where the resources come from.”

With 500,000 tiny oyster larvae donated by Taylor Shellfish Farms, Barry placed a couple hundred under a microscope for the high school students to examine. Students saw that the wriggling oyster larvae had a foot (like a clam’s) with which the oyster secretes a cement-like glue to attach itself to hard objects as they metamorphose into the final oyster stage.

After examining the larvae, the students took turns dispersing them into a large seawater tank filled with empty oyster shells. The larvae set on the shells and stayed in the tank for about a week during which the students fed them a concentrated algae solution and observed changes in the color of water. The algae food quickly darkens the water, but within 24 hours the water is clear, evidence that the oysters are feeding.

“I’ve never seen this kind set up before for oysters,” said Ricky Sullivan, 17. “I’ve planted seeds for clams but never for oysters.”

Toward the end of June, students helped spread the oysters on the beach by the old tribal center and will be able to watch the progress over time.

“It’s beneficial to teach students that they can easily grow food that the tribe depends on,” Barry said. “If they can grow oysters themselves, it’s like growing a garden. It’s very easy to do while also learning about shellfish and the importance of water quality.”

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For more information, contact: Viviane Barry, Suquamish Tribe shellfish biologist, at (360) 394-8448 or vbarry@suquamish.nsn.us; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org

John Konovsky (left), environmental program manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe, and Joe Puhn, water quality technician, set slides to collect bacteria tainted sedmient in Oakland Bay.

The tribe is trying to learn more about harmful bacteria from failing septic systems and livestock manure that may become trapped on top of tideland sediments in upper Oakland Bay. “We think that instead of dying off like they usually do, the bacteria are surviving and amplifying the pollution, particularly during the summer months,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe.

“In a lab, we can recreate similar environmental conditions and track what the bacteria are doing more precisely,” he said.

Fecal coliform bacteria come from human and animal waste, and can’t usually survive long in saltwater. But if the bacteria become trapped on nutrient-rich sediment particles, they may undergo a physiological reaction that enables their survival, Konovsky said.

Tribal researchers are collecting polluted sediment from the bay for use in two 40 gallon aquariums. Twenty-four cups filled with sediment from the tidelands will be subject to conditions similar to the bay. Twice a day, water levels in the aquariums will rise and fall like the tides in Oakland Bay. The “tide” will gradually expose one set of cups, then the other.

“By recreating every aspect of the bay that would impact the bacteria, down to the temperature, sunlight and water quality, we hope we can get a better idea of how well these bacteria survive,” Konovsky said. “You can only get this close a look in a laboratory, you’d never be able to track detail like this in the field.”

In recent years, pollution has peaked in Oakland Bay during the summer, which is contrary to its normal cycle. “Usually, in marine areas like Oakland Bay, pollution peaks in the winter when rain washes it into the bay,” Konovsky said. “This summer peak indicates something different is going on here.”

The uppermost portion of Oakland Bay remains restricted for shellfish harvest in the summer. “We need to reverse the trend now,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the tribe. “More harvest closures in Oakland Bay would be disastrous for tribal harvesters and would devastate the shellfish industry, a vital part of the local economy.”

“Tribal members always have depended on shellfish as a source of nutrition, for income and as a way of life,” Whitener said. “Our treaty right to harvest shellfish depends on healthy shellfish, so we need to track down and solve this pollution problem.”

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For more information, contact: John Konovsky, environmental program manager, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3804. Emmett O’Connell, South Sound information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

Members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Revegetation crew cut grass around native trees.

“These plants quickly spread, preventing native plants from thriving,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s habitat manager. “It’s bad for the existing river habitat and if it’s not taken care of, there could be bigger problems after dam removal.”

For the past five years, the tribe’s revegetation crew has been working throughout the river valley identifying and removing invasive plants, such as Scotch broom, knotweed, canary grass and sweet peas.

“This spring alone we’ve treated 10 acres of Scotch broom with herbicide,” said Floyd Cooke, the crew’s field supervisor. “But that’s just barely scratching the surface.”

The tribe has also planted more than 20,000 native conifers and deciduous trees, including douglas fir, western red cedar, grand fir, red alder, black cottonwood, big leaf maple and sitka willow.

In addition to up and down the valley, the tribe’s revegetation efforts have also focused around manmade lakes Aldwell and Mills, which are reservoirs. The biggest concern is what the reservoirs are going to leave behind after they are drained following dam removal.

“Everything that drains into those reservoirs right now might carry invasive seeds,” McHenry said. “Taking care of the plants now surrounding the dams will help prevent their further spread.”

McHenry is also working with the Olympic National Park on a re-vegetation plan for the reservoirs after they are drained.

“After the water is gone, we want that area to be a floodplain forest that will accelerate recovery and habitat forming processes as well as preclude non-native weeds from establishing,” McHenry said.

Abigail Welch and John Melovidov take a sediment sample from Tala Point.

The NaGISA Project, derived from the Japanese word for “nearshore zone,” is an international effort aimed at inventorying and monitoring coastal biodiversity while encouraging local communities, students, teachers and researchers to participate. The data collected is entered into a central database that includes information collected from the more than 280 participating groups around the world.

“After helping out with tribal involvement in a NaGisa project in Alaska, I thought that the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe would be the perfect group to do the state’s first site and help get more sites going in the next few years,” said Paul McCollum, the tribe’s natural resources director. “Our staff is out in the water and on the beaches studying this type of information every week.”

Led by tribal project biologist Janet Aubin and the tribe’s habitat biologist, Hans Daubenberger, tribal staff and volunteers studied 15 randomly-selected plots on the stretch of beach, including counting eelgrass strands and invertebrates, and taking sediment and algae samples. Some of the 1-by-1 meter sampling areas had as many as 300 strands of eelgrass, plus a variety of tubeworms, hermit crabs and sea anemones. The samples collected were sorted and identified in the lab. Expert species identification assistance was provided by Sandra Lindstrom, a phycologist and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia.

“This type of global effort to establish baseline biodiversity data is invaluable,” Aubin said. “It will allow us to track changes over time, as well as increase our understanding of the habitat diversity within our region. We hope our participation will facilitate more NaGISA surveys in the area in the future.”

Participants included tribal staff and volunteers from Northwest Indian College, Seattle Aquarium, Point No Point Treaty Council, Evergreen State College, University of British Columbia and a private consulting company.

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For more information, contact: Paul McCollum, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe natural resources director, at 360.297.6237 or paulm@pgst.nsn.us; Janet Aubin, project biologist, at janet_aubin@yahoo.com; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org

The small island in Similk Bay is within the boundaries of the Swinomish reservation. It was was allotted to a tribal member in the late 1800s and passed out of tribal ownership in the 1950s. A nuclear power plant was planned for the site in the late 1960s, but concerns about the environment and fisheries won out and the plans were scrapped.

The Swinomish Tribe and state Parks and Recreation Commission bought Kiket Island this month with state and federal grants, and private donations. The state and tribe have a joint interest in preserving the island’s old-growth forest and intact shoreline inhabited by eelgrass and a variety of shellfish, fish and crustaceans.

The tidelands around the island will continue to be owned by the United States in trust for the tribe. Only tribal members will be able to harvest shellfish there.

“Generations of Swinomish tribal members haven’t been able to harvest shellfish from Kiket Island,” said Lorraine Loomis, fisheries manager for the tribe. “This partnership will allow us to practice our treaty rights and also share a part of our reservation as a state park.”

The newly acquired 84 acres on Kiket Island, which includes the tiny peninsula Flagstaff Island, and 9 acres on Fidalgo Island will be jointly managed by the tribe and state and will be part of Deception Pass State Park.

For more information, contact: Emily Hutchinson, attorney, Swinomish Tribe, 360-466-3163 or ehutchinson@swinomish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Cliff Cultee, Lummi Nation fisherman, cleans a sea cucumber. Tribes had a record sea cucumber harvest this year.

LUMMI NATION – It’s been a good season for tribal dive fishermen.

This year, tribes reached the harvest goal of more than 300,000 pounds of sea cucumbers in the San Juan Islands for the first time since a 1995 court ruling that upheld their treaty shellfish harvest rights.

For the Lummi Nation, the sea cucumber harvest provides some relief from the impact of having salmon fisheries closed because of declining runs.

The Lummi Nation’s schelangen, or “way of life,” has always centered around the natural resources of the sea. The harvest of fish, shellfish and other ocean-dwelling creatures not only is an important part of tribal members’ income, but also their culture.

“Crab, prawn and salmon seasons are short, so dive fisheries are a more stable source of income for Lummi tribal members,” said Cliff Cultee, a fisherman, tribal councilman and member of the Lummi Fisheries Commission.

It has taken some time for Lummi to develop the skills and obtain the equipment to participate fully in the dive fisheries.

Sea cucumbers harvested by tribal members are predominantly exported to Asia, where they are a delicacy.  Known as “namako” in Japan, sea cucumbers are related to starfish and sea urchins, and occupy a niche in the Japanese culture.

Tribes thought they might have to close the fishery early because of strong markets and an increased number of divers. The harvest limit had been set artificially low in recent agreements as a precautionary matter in the absence of specific information on sustainable harvest levels.

“We do need to safeguard the population, but there’s not a lot of knowledge about how sea cucumbers age or repopulate,” said Elden Hillaire, chairman of the Lummi Fisheries Commission. “We’ve been giving back to the resource by not harvesting our entire quota all these years.”

The Lummi Nation has more than 500 fishermen, and 18 of those are registered dive fishermen.

“Our whole fleet is diversified into a lot of different fisheries,” Hillaire said. “We’ve seen crab fishermen try out dive fisheries and stick with it.”

For more information, contact: Alan Chapman, Lummi Nation, 360-384-2267 or alanc@lummi-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is caused by a species of phytoplankton in the water called Alexandrium catenella. While not dangerous to humans alone, the toxins they produce can be concentrated in shellfish and become harmful when consumed by humans or other mammals.

The level at which mussels are too toxic to eat is 80 micrograms of toxin per hundred grams of tissue. Mussels sampled June 1 by the Quileute Tribe for routine analysis on Second Beach have recorded levels as high as 3,601 micrograms per hundred grams of tissue. The Makah Tribe’s samples were 909 micrograms in Makah Bay near Neah Bay and more than 300 micrograms in Neah Bay.

“At those higher levels, a person could die literally after a couple of bites,” said Joe Schumacker, marine resources scientist for the Quinault Indian Nation. The Hoh, Makah, Quileute and Quinault Indian Nation all harvest mussels as part of their traditional diet. The Quinault Indian Nation is awaiting the results of their razor clam samples, but the levels of Alexandrium, determined by their Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom specialist, are exceedingly high in their water samples, so it is likely the razor clams will also have high levels of toxin.

Early symptoms of PSP are a tingling of the lips and tongue, which may begin within minutes of eating poisonous shellfish or may take an hour or two to develop. Depending on the amount of toxin a person has consumed, symptoms may progress to tingling of fingers and toes and then loss of control of arms and legs, followed by difficulty breathing. Some individuals have a sense of floating, while others are nauseated. If a person consumes enough poison, death can result from paralysis of the breathing mechanism in as little as 15 minutes. Shellfish that have produced this disease include mussels, cockles, clams, scallops, oysters, crabs and lobsters.

For more information, contact: The Washington State Department of Health – Marine Biotoxin information by telephone, toll free, at 1-800-562-5632.
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The culvert had provided vehicle access across the creek on a U.S. Forest Service road, but it was a barrier to resident fish species and was at risk of failing and sending sediment to salmon habitat downstream.

“The culvert didn’t contain streambed material and had a 3- to 4-foot outfall drop, so it likely prevented upstream passage for resident fish species,” said Devin Smith, restoration ecologist for the SRSC. The SRSC is the natural resources arm of the Sauk-Suiattle and Swinomish tribes.

Tenas Creek is a productive tributary that is used by a number of fish species, including chinook, pink and coho salmon, native char and steelhead. Spring chinook populations have especially low numbers and are a high priority for recovery efforts. The glacial-fed Suiattle River has very high sediment loads naturally, so spring chinook depend on cool, clear tributary streams like Tenas Creek for spawning and rearing.

The culvert removal was part of a three-year project in partnership with the Forest Service to upgrade and decommission approximately 18 miles of forest roads in the Suiattle River basin. The primary goal of the project is to improve habitat for spring chinook and other species by reducing landslides and other sediment impacts from poorly maintained forest roads. Removing the large culvert on Tenas Creek had the additional benefits of restoring the floodplain to natural stream function and providing fish passage through the road crossing.

Roads are upgraded by improving drainage conditions. That can include replacing existing stream crossings with larger culverts, improving ditches, removing fill from unstable slopes, and reducing fill over stream crossings. The roads remain drivable and require future maintenance.

Decommissioning roads involves removing all culverts, constructing water berms to increase drainage across the road, removing hazardous fill material from stream crossings and unstable slopes, and blocking the road to vehicle access. Properly decommissioned roads require no further maintenance.

The Tenas Creek road project fulfills a priority in the tribal and state co-managers’ Skagit Chinook Recovery Plan – to control sediment in the Suiattle River basin.

Sediment degrades salmon habitat by smothering spawning gravel, which reduces survival of salmon fry. It also can reduce the quantity and quality of rearing habitat.

“The Suiattle River already has a naturally high sediment load,” said Richard Wolten, Sauk-Suiattle natural resources director. “This project will prevent chinook habitat from being further degraded by sediment loads from poorly maintained forest roads.”

For more information, contact: Devin Smith, SRSC restoration ecologist, 360-391-1984 or dsmith@skagitcoop.org; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Port Gamble shellfish biologist Tamara Gage observes the bay's shores for oil.

The 50-foot long former surplus Navy torpedo recovery boat drifted onto reservation shores after becoming loose from its mooring late Wednesday night, and heeled over as the tide dropped, resulting in diesel fuel spilling from a fuel tank vent. How much oil was spilled is unknown, however, contractors pumped 1,200 gallons of diesel fuel from the stranded boat Thursday night, according to the DOE. The agency also estimated the total fuel tank capacity to be 1,500 gallons.

The tribe has shut down all shellfishing on the east side of the bay, from Point Julia to the southern border of the reservation, until further notice. Tribal members harvest shellfish from the beach often for ceremonial and subsistence purposes.

“We’re going to monitor the situation over the weekend and re-assess potential openings next week,” said Tamara Gage, the tribe’s shellfish management biologist. “It’d be great for a big storm to come through this weekend to help dissipate the oil.”

Gage walked the beach on Friday morning to observe the remaining oil sheen. There was still a faint smell of diesel and light shimmers of oil along the waterline.

Diesel fuel, unlike crude oil, evaporates quickly. Shellfish are also good at filtering out toxins, but not if the oil is still seeping out of the beach, said Paul McCollum, the tribe’s natural resources director.

The spill comes at a time when the tribe has been working hard with its neighbors to help clean up the bay. While still relatively clean compared to other areas of Puget Sound, incidents like this are happening more and more in Port Gamble Bay.

“Trying to help keep this area as clean as possible is getting harder and harder, but the tribe is not going to give up,” McCollum said. “The tribe can’t just pick up and leave once its natural resources are destroyed. Not just the tribe, but everyone, has to work together to help cleanup and protect the bay.”

See more photos at NWIFC’s Flickr site.

The Coast Salish leaders and their executive staff gathered for the past two days at the Tulalip Tribes with the common goal of sharing and strengthening their science, policy and legal experts on climate change and addressing environmental impacts on tribal natural resources, traditional rights and sustainability of the Northwest way of life.

Carbon dioxide levels could double by 2050 meaning many salmon species would move to the poles, leading to extinction in the Northwest and most of Canada.

“We thought salmon would be here forever. This is our crisis. Salmon are the cornerstone of our Coast Salish way,” said Melvin Sheldon Jr., Tulalip tribal chairman.

Having a voice in international, national and local forums to protect the environment and natural resources for the sustainability of the Coast Salish peoples is a major goal of the tribal leaders participating.

Many tribes are already assessing their risks resulting from climate change as each tribe’s risks are different. Contingency plans have to be made and the impacts to natural resources assessed.

“We made a promise – the food would take care of us and we would take care of the food,” said David Close, researcher and a Cayuse tribal member.

Close urged those gathered to continue to push for science that addresses species that are important to tribes, such as lamprey and candlefish. “The models we have created are based on commercially exploited species and there just isn’t data for many species that are important to tribes,” said Close.

Additionally, how and where salmon restoration work will occur needs to be coordinated with the impacts of climate change to be effective.

The Coast Salish Gathering provides a platform across government and national boundaries to bring tribal traditional knowledge, policy, science and legal happenings to their resources, protect them and help plan for seven generations.

The Coast Salish Gathering will create scientific, legal and policy approaches to move forward in the various forums working on climate change policy and legislation within the Salish Sea ecosystem.

“By understanding changes in the waters, we can design management policies that can cope with such changes to minimize the potential ecological and social economic impacts of climate change,” said Close.

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For more information, contact: Deb Lekanof, Swinomish Tribe, (360) 391-5296

The grant will fund a project with three goals: restoring and protecting habitat in the creek, protecting stream flows, and restoring habitat in the creek’s estuary while preserving a working port.
 
“We want to balance the health of the watershed and bring back salmon to strong levels, while also sustaining the strength of the local economy,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the tribe. “There’s a lot of room here to do the right thing, we want to capitalize on that.”
 
Goldsborough Creek was the site of a 34 foot high dam that was removed almost 10 years ago, opening 25 miles of salmon habitat. Since then, the tribe has tracked an increase in juvenile coho production despite an overall decline in wild coho populations in the region. “There is great potential in Goldsbrough to protect and restore habitat, and increase coho populations even more,” Konovsky said. “Because they spend more than a year in freshwater before outmigrating, coho are especially vulnerable to changes in freshwater habitat.”
 
The project will focus on restoring and protecting habitat in the creek around the former dam site. The first step will be to complete the purchase by the Capitol Land Trust of a stretch of the creek that already contains good salmon habitat. Habitat work also will include construction of several logjams and reconnection of the creek to several wetlands, providing additional habitat for juvenile and adult fish, while also helping control fine sediment in the creek.

The stream flow portion of the project will include a hydrologic study to uncover connections between flows in the creek and groundwater supplies. “When groundwater and the creek are connected, pumping wells nearby the creek for drinking water decreases stream flow,” Konovsky said. “Understanding the details of the connection will help us figure out whether its possible to develop new water supplies that do little or no harm to the creek.” Late summer flows in Goldsborough are already below the state mandated threshold and limit coho productivity.

The tribe will also work with landowners around the Shelton Harbor — including the city, the port and two timber companies — to identify options to restore important habitat while also maintaining the working nature of the port. “We feel there are restoration opportunities here that won’t mean lost productivity for the port,” Whitener said. “Working with local governments and landowners is important to us because we want to ensure a stable local economy and preserve the watershed.”

“The tribe’s treaty rights to harvest salmon depend on the ecological health of streams like Goldsborough Creek,” Whitener said. “The tribe’s economy has always depended on the health of natural resources, so we see our livelihood and watershed health go hand-in-hand.”
 
 
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For more information, contact: John Konovsky, environmental program manger, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-4304. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

A fin-clipped juvenile pink salmon.

“The late run of Dungeness pink salmon limits its use the river to the very lower reaches and is in need of a boost,” said Scott Chitwood, the tribe’s natural resources director. “This area has poor habitat and the salmon that spawn in the lower river don’t do well there.”

Much of the problem is caused by dikes that constrain the river’s tendency to move around within its flood plain. Dikes increase the velocity of the river causing the gravel to scour which destroys salmon eggs located in shallow nests.

Pink salmon from the lower Dungeness River were collected and spawned last fall at the state’s Hurd Creek Hatchery. This spring 120,000 of those progeny were reared and released into the lower river. These “supplemental” fish were identified by having their adipose fins clipped before being released. When the fish return as adults in two years, the co-managers will assess the relative proportions of naturally produced and supplemented late timed pink salmon spawning in the lower Dungeness River

“Our goal is to create a better balance between the highly sustainable early run of pink salmon that spawn throughout the watershed and this less productive  late run that spawns in the lower river only,” Chitwood said.

While pinks have a lower commercial value, they play an important role in a properly functioning ecosystem by providing food for other animals and contributing nutrients to the watershed.

“Cooperation is the key to protecting, enhancing and restoring the salmon resource,” Chitwood said.

That sentiment was echoed by Hurd Creek hatchery specialist Dan Witczak.

“Jamestown has always been supportive of the work we do,” Witczak said. “They put a lot more into the resource than they take out.”

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For more information, contact Scott Chitwood, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s natural resources director at (360) 681-4616 or schitwood@jamestowntribe.org; or Dan Witczak, WDFW Hurd Creek Hatchery manager, at (360) 683-1738 or hurdcreek@dfw.wa.gov; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The conservation-based package focuses state and tribal salmon fishing opportunities on abundant runs of wild and hatchery salmon expected to return to Washington’s waters this year. Those include coho returns to portions of Puget Sound, and fall chinook making their way along the coast to the Columbia River.

While these and other runs are expected to provide good fishing opportunities this summer, state and tribal salmon fisheries throughout Washington’s waters will continue to be constrained to protect weak salmon stocks.

“This package of state and tribal salmon fisheries reflects the co-managers’ continuing commitment to recover depressed salmon populations,” said Phil Anderson, WDFW director. “As we continue to work toward that goal, we will ensure that our salmon fisheries meet or exceed conservation objectives for wild salmon.”

Overall, state and tribal salmon fishing opportunities this year in Puget Sound and on the coast will be similar to last year. But there will be some changes.

Unlike last year, there will not be state and tribal fisheries for summer chinook on the Skagit River because of low salmon returns expected back to the river this year. Last summer, anglers and tribal fishers had limited fishing opportunities for chinook on the Skagit River – the first summer chinook opener in 16 years.

“The returns just aren’t there to support summer chinook fisheries in the Skagit this year,” said Lorraine Loomis, fisheries manager for the Swinomish Tribe. “As important as these fisheries are to all of us, we must conserve these salmon for the good of the resource and future generations.”

Restoring and protecting salmon spawning and rearing habitat also is critical to rebuilding salmon stocks, said state and tribal co-managers.

“Conservative fisheries must go hand in hand with habitat restoration and protection so that we can continue to progress toward our goal of salmon recovery,” Loomis said.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180 or Pat Pattillo, WDFW, (360) 902-2705

A Pacific chorus frog is counted during an amphibian survey on the Sauk-Suiattle reservation.

DARRINGTON – In the springtime, frogs and salamanders busily lay eggs in a 5-acre wetland behind tribal members’ homes on the Sauk-Suiattle reservation.

Tribal natural resources staffers have been monitoring the hundreds of egg clusters, along with the live amphibians they find in the wetland, between February and May for the past four years.

Because amphibians are thin-skinned and sensitive to disturbances in their habitat, they are good indicators of wetland health. The tribe’s survey could reveal a pattern of mutations or changes to amphibian populations that indicate increased pollution or effects of climate change.

The most common species in the wetland are Pacific tree frogs, red-legged frogs and northwestern salamanders. Surveyors also have seen eggs of long-toed salamanders and a few western toads.

Each week, the survey team marks the locations of new egg masses and checks the status of the older ones, noting larvae that have grown tails and those that have floated to the surface or hatched.

Last year, the team found and flagged 1,500 egg clusters. “It was a two-day event to monitor them last year,” said Kevin Lenon, natural resources technician.

“We bit off more frogs than we could chew,” joked Scott Morris, watershed manager for the tribe.

About a month into the survey this year, Morris and Lenon, along with natural resources technicians Eugene Edwards and Michael Wolten, had flagged about 350 egg masses.

Sauk-Suiattle natural resources technician Kevin Lenon examines a northwestern salamander egg mass in a wetland on the tribe's reservation.

By mid-morning on a mild day in late March, Pacific chorus frogs, also known as tree frogs, broke into a desperate symphony for a couple of minutes, then quieted. Studies have shown that one male frog acts as chorus master, leading the others to join in, Morris said.

“It can be kind of peaceful out here,” Lenon said. “Last week, the Pacifics in that pond were making all kinds of noise.” A quick check of the pond confirmed what he expected – many new egg masses waiting to be counted.

The Sauk-Suiattle reservation, at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, is far from the large cities where water quality has been degraded. The amphibian survey is one way to make sure the wetland remains uncontaminated.

“If anything, this survey will show that we have a healthy wetland,” Morris said.

For more information: Scott Morris, Sauk-Suiattle watershed manager, 360-436-0347 or smorris@sauk-suiattle.com; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Franchesca Perez, the tribe’s education and outreach biologist, visited 16 fifth-grade classes throughout the academic year, to teach them about salmon, habitat, water quality and other environmental lessons. In addition to the Pilchuck Park field trip, the tribe’s elementary school education program includes visits to the Harvey Creek Hatchery and estuarine habitat in Iverson Park.

“Today is your chance to be stewards of the land,” Perez told a group from Presidents Elementary School in Arlington. The students planted native species such as black twinberry, western redcedar and alder, and learned to identify the different plants. They also learned how previous land use harmed the fish and wildlife habitat.

“Streams like to move,” Perez told the students. “They’re like snakes. Over time they like to go back and forth. We’re helping Pilchuck Creek move back and forth again.”

Three years ago, the tribe purchased the land near the creek’s confluence with the Stillaguamish River. Previous landowners had tried to use it for pasture, but because it’s a wetland, it didn’t drain well.

“The land near Pilchuck Creek is very sacred to the Stillaguamish Tribe,” said Shawn Yanity, the tribe’s fisheries manager. “It was one of the oldest native villages in the state of Washington.”

The tribe has restored the habitat by building logjams and creating ponds.

Earlier in the day, natural resources staff seined one of the new ponds and discovered a variety of creatures that had moved in, including a few yearling coho salmon, red-legged frogs, salamanders and a variety of birdlife.

“We didn’t know how soon this pond would start to have life again,” Perez said.

Once Pilchuck Park is complete, it will be open to the public, featuring trails, an observation deck over the pond and interpretive signs.

“The tribe is really happy to bring the public onto tribal land in this capacity,” Yanity said. “Working together and engaging the community in a positive way helps protect the natural resources that belong to everyone.”

~~

Pilchuck Park work party 11 a.m – 1 p.m. Thursday, April 22

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Stillaguamish Tribe is hosting a tree planting and public viewing of Lower Pilchuck Park beginning at 11 a.m. April 22. Shovels will be provided and technical experts onsite to answer questions about use of the land, native plants, and salmon habitat.

Directions: Exit 210, head west, take first right onto Old Hwy 99. Planting site is about 1/2 mile on left, just after the bridge. Park on shoulder.  Limited parking, please carpool.

~~

For more information: Franchesca Perez, Stillaguamish outreach biologist, 360-631-2620 or mperez@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Robert Skoog, natural resource specialist for the Tulalip Tribes, prepares a gel to perform a protein electrophoresis genetic test.

The Tulalip Tribes Natural Resources Department is taking its fisheries stock assessment lab to the next level.

The tribe has acquired genetic testing equipment so that lab technicians can determine on-site whether a chum salmon originated from the tribal hatchery.

Tulalip has genetically marked its chum salmon since the 1990s, but didn’t have the ability to test for the markers. Samples had to be sent to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) labs for protein electrophoresis. However, with advances in DNA technology, those agencies have started using different genetic tests that do not test for the unique protein markers in Tulalip chum.

WDFW and NOAA donated equipment that was no longer in use, and now the Tulalip lab is one of the only facilities on the west coast using electrophoresis for genetic stock detection. Adrian Spidle, fish geneticist from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, is training the tribal staff.

“NOAA and WDFW really helped us get this going and Adrian has been instrumental in getting the lab set up,” said Mike Crewson, salmon enhancement scientist for the tribe.

“One of the first things we will do is take duplicate tissues from the same set of 144 fish and analyze them to see if DNA can be used to test for Tulalip chum,” he added. “Since everyone else has converted from electrophoresis to DNA, without a new stock assessment tool, we would lose the ability to detect our chum whenever DNA is being analyzed.”

The result could be the development of a new stock assessment tool to detect Tulalip chum with DNA, but the tribe will continue to use electrophoresis for routine testing because it is less expensive than DNA testing.

For more information, contact: Mike Crewson, Tulalip Tribes, 360-716-4626 or mcrewson@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

“Installing formidable wood structure complexes in the river and riparian zone and planting native vegetation in this small stretch will improve spawning and rearing habitat for Steelhead, bull trout, coho and chinook, ” said Alex Gouley, the tribe’s habitat resource manager. “The area  is open and exposed; salmon need deep pools, cover and shade associated with streams reaches that have abundant vegetation and woody debris, channel depth and complexity.”

Puget Sound Ccinook, steelhead, and bull trout are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

This particular stretch of the South Fork has been heavily impacted by past land management activities including logging and wood debris removal in preparation for a proposed dam project in the 1950s that was abandoned prior to initiation of construction. Past management of the watershed has had a huge effect on habitat.

As a result, the tribe has seen the river channel shift or widen and become shallow because of degraded conditions. Woody debris and native vegetation are needed to keep riverbanks stable. When the river runs high, some exposed gravel bars release higher incremental amounts of sediment downstream and into the mainstem of the Skokomish River. The riparian and landscape alterations may have contributed to reduced fish access though the South Fork gorge by changing the timing and duration of river flows.

“This work will also complement the Skokomish Tribes estuary restoration that is taking place at the delta,” said Marc McHenry, a fish biologist with the Olympic National Forest.

The tribe, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, will construct approximately 30 formidable wood structure complexes in the stream channel and plant native vegetation on 12 acres of floodplain area to help stabilize the river and provide proper spawning and rearing areas.

“This is a small section of river but benefits to the salmon will pay off in the long run,” Gouley said. “Working with the U.S. Forest Service allows us opportunities to take care of important restoration work together that we couldn’t have done as individual entities.”

Funding for the project came from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. Forest Service is donating wood for the formidable wood structure complexes.

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For more information, contact Alex Gouley, Skokomish Tribe habitat resource manager, at (360) 877-2110 or agouley@skokomish.org; Marc McHenry, Olympic National Forest fish biologist at 360-765-2231 or mmchenry@fs.fed.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

WDFW biologist Scott Harris and Skokomish Tribe biologist Bethany Tropp watch Tomokazu Hager, 13, administer medicine to a female elk with the help of tribal wildlife technician Emily Wirtz.

Skokomish tribal natural resources staff were out on an elk collaring survey when they spotted an uncollared herd in a private pasture.  With permission from the property’s owners, the tribe was able to track, capture and collar a female from the herd. The Global Positioning System (GPS) collar allows the tribe to follow the herd’s movement for the study.

The herd is a regular visitor to the Hager family, which owns the 41-acre pasture. But being able to witness and participate in a real-life science study opened up the eyes of the five homeschooled Hager children. The two oldest boys, 13 and 11, helped administer medicines given to the elk while she was sedated.

“That was pretty interesting,” said Tomokazu Hager, 13. “It felt like we were kind of part of Animal Planet.”

“We’ve never seen an elk that close before,” added Wes Hager, 10. After the elk was collared and released, the kids received a quick lesson in elk behavior, as well as a tour of the helicopter that was used to track the herd. The family also decided to name “their” elk Sacajawea and will integrate their observations into their studies.

Since 2008, the tribe has been tracking the herds within its primary hunting area, Game Management Unit 636, counting only about 150 elk.

“That is way too low – the herd population needs to be up around 500 elk or so,” said Bethany Tropp-Brinkerhoff, the tribe’s wildlife biologist. “We have several herds that we’re focusing on, trying to mark their foraging ranges and population growth.”

The tribe’s goal is to collar several elk in each herd so movements can be tracked year round. The tribe will also enhance elk foraging areas this fall with the Olympic National Forest by planting native trees and plants, such as dogwoods, snowberries and willows in areas where the elk are known to feed.

“Preserving the area’s elk population is key to supporting the tribe’s treaty-reserved right to hunt elk, which contribute to the tribe’s subsistence and ceremonial needs,” said Joseph Pavel, the tribe’s natural resources director. “Elk is a traditional food that is low in fat and a good source of protein.”

The tribe is partnering with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife on this project.

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For more information, contact: Bethany Tropp, Skokomish Tribe wildlife biologist, at (360) 877-5213 or btropp@skokomish.org; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

Coho salmon smolts were transferred through a fish pump at the Gorst Hatchery, and into a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fish transfer truck. The truck took the fish to a dock at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport, where a Suquamish tribal barge loaded the fish into the barge’s holding tank, then emptied them into the tribe’s net pen near Agate Pass.

“It’s great to be able to reengage this program because it provides a Kitsap-based coho fishery opportunity for tribal members, with benefits for non-treaty fishers as well,” said Jay Zischke, the tribe’s marine fish manager. “This has been a multi-year collaboration, which has involved working with our co-manager, Washington State, the city of Bremerton and the U.S. Navy.”

The tribe transferred 265,000 coho smolts from Gorst Hatchery to its net pen near Agate Pass on Monday, March 1, located between Suquamish and Bainbridge Island. The smolt stage of a salmon’s lifecycle is when the fish are ready to transition from living in freshwater to saltwater before heading out to sea.

Using Minter Creek Hatchery stock, the one-and-a-half year old coho were transferred from the Gorst Hatchery to a dock at the U.S. Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport using Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fish transfer trucks.

At Keyport, the smolts were loaded on to a tribal barge, which took the fish out to the 70,000 cubic foot net pen.

The fish will spend nearly three months in the pen before being released this spring. They are held in the net pen to acclimatize to the salt water environment and to imprint on the area so they return to the Agate Pass area as adults.

Net pen operations like this are common throughout Puget Sound and are often successful in contributing to Washington fisheries. During the first two decades of the Agate Pass program, 600,000 hatchery coho were released each year from the net pens. Puget Sound coho are considered a “species of concern” under the federal Endangered Species Act.  All of the Agate Pass produced fish are marked with an adipose fin clip.

“We are pleased to partner with the Suquamish Tribe on this important fish transfer,” said Captain Stephen Iwanowicz, Commanding Officer of Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Keyport. ”This is a great example of how the Navy is committed to being good stewards of the environment, along with deepening the strong relationships we have with our Native American neighbors.”

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For more information, contact: Jay Zischke, Suquamish Tribe fisheries management biologist/marine fish manager, at (360) 394-8444 or jzischke@suquamish.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission’s Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and Assessment Program (SSHIAP) is preparing a State of Our Watersheds report to gauge habitat recovery.

The project is an outgrowth of the tribes’ long-term commitment to protecting, restoring and preserving salmon habitat. Tribes seek to improve state/tribal cooperative management, expand existing partnerships, forge new relationships and promote collaboration wherever possible.

“We will ask our member tribes to identify a set of key indicators they would like to highlight in the report, to illustrate the progress or lack thereof toward habitat recovery within each of their watersheds. One suggestion is to use the current salmon recovery plans as one of the information sources to start this evaluation,” said Bruce Jones, SSHIAP section manager. “A key question we’ll ask is, ‘Are we making progress in the recovery of habitat within our watersheds?’ ”

State of Our Watersheds is an effort to intensify the focus on habitat as the key to salmon recovery. The project will improve upon State of Our Watersheds reports produced in 2004 and 2005. The earlier reports captured the status of salmon stocks, but not the effectiveness of management decisions that had been made.

The first phase of the 2010 report will assess the Skokomish and Snohomish watersheds by looking at habitat, fish populations, harvest, water quality and quantity, land-use and change.

“We need to make sure threats such as development and water withdrawals are being balanced by responses through the federal Clean Water Act, state stormwater rules and other laws,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “The restrictions imposed on harvest must be balanced by restrictions on habitat loss and degradation.”

For more information, contact: Bruce Jones, SSHIAP section manager, NWIFC, 360-528-4369 or bjones@nwifc.org.

Hatchery technician Ben Ives Sr. adjusts the net on the net pen in Port Gamble Bay.

Tribal hatchery manager Tim Seachord and natural resources staff worked with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to bring 425,000 coho salmon smolts from the state’s George Adams Hatchery in Hoodsport to Port Gamble Bay.

Over the course of four days, the young fish were hauled from the hatchery to a tribal barge, then floated out to the tribe’s 63,000-cubic-foot net pens near Point Julia. The fish will remain in the pens until June before being released and will return to the area as adults. The tribe has been putting this operation into place since 1981.

“These fish are for everyone, tribal and nontribal, to be harvested when they come back as adults next fall,” Seachord said. “It’s been a pretty successful program for nearly three decades for all fishermen who participate in the Port Gamble Bay and Hood Canal fisheries.”

All of the fish have coded-wire tags inserted in their snouts. The millimeter-long tag contains information about its hatchery of origin, release date and other data. Their adipose fins also are removed to mark them as hatchery fish.

“This fishery has been successful because we have lost so many fishing opportunities over the years with listings of fish under the federal Endangered Species Act,” said Paul McCollum, the tribe’s natural resources director. “Having a local fishery has been critical for fishermen, both tribal and non tribal.”

The tribe also appreciates its partnership with Pope Resources, which has allowed the tribe and WDFW to access the bay via one of its docks in the historic town of Port Gamble, and has been key to the program’s success, McCollum said.

Net pen operations contribute significantly to successful fisheries in Puget Sound. Other net pen operations in the area include the Suquamish and Muckleshoot tribe’s Elliott Bay net pens and the Suquamish’s newly restarted Agate Pass net pen operation.

END

For more information, contact Paul McCollum, Port Gamble S’Klallam natural resources director, at (360) 297-6237 or paulm@pgst.nsn.us; Tim Seachord, Port Gamble S’Klallam hatchery manager, at (360) 297-3933 or timbear@pgst.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

This is the second time in two years that Ecology has rejected the Tribe’s request to protect Johns Creek, citing the need for study on the connection between ground and surface water in the Johns Creek watershed. The Tribe’s petitions were based on a state law that closes a watershed to new well drilling activity if not enough information exists to establish that water is legally available.

If the Gov. Gregoire is serious about protecting the waters of Puget Sound, then she will direct Ecology to act. “Ecology’s excuse is the lack of resources. It takes a commitment to their responsibilities, not money, to close the basin,” said Kevin Lyon, the Tribe’s attorney. “The rule is simple: if you lack information, you don’t take water – especially when minimum flows are not being met.

“Ecology acknowledges that it lacks the information, but it won’t do the right thing. Let’s hope with the Governor’s input, this will attract the right attention and action,” Lyon said. “The Tribe is a willing partner, but it cannot accept Ecology ignoring the problem any longer.”

In the first round, Ecology denied the petition and offered as an alternative six commitments. However, in 18 months since, no progress was made on those commitments. “This time, they didn’t even bother to talk about their past commitments and abandoned them,” Lyon said. “And if you read the commitments that are made the potential study is no commitment at all and the limits on additional exempt wells is virtually meaningless.”

“We agree a study needs to be done,” Whitener said. The Tribe’s original petition, filed in 2008, was rejected with a promise that a study would be conducted on groundwater in the Johns Creek watershed.

“We joined with the City of Shelton and Mason County to request a study as far back as 2006,” Whitener said. “Funding was available at the time, but Ecology declined the request.” Every year since then the Tribe has requested funding for the study, and every year Ecology has rejected that request.

“After Ecology failed several times to fund the study, we filed our first petition,” said Jeff Dickison, assistant director of natural resources for the Tribe. “Its ironic that they have now twice rejected our petition because they need a study that they won’t fund.”

Ecology’s sole concession to the Tribe’s request will be to issue a directive that new residents in the watershed should use water only for indoor uses. “That’s a small step from our point of view because most of the impact will come from industrial development,” said Dickison. The approximately 10,500 acre watershed northeast of Shelton has been a center of recent industrial and commercial activity. “Telling people in new houses not to water their lawn isn’t going to save the creek,” he said.

“While we agree there needs to be more research, we already know two important things right now: there isn’t enough water in the creek to support salmon and a lot of water has been taken out of the creek in recent decades,” Whitener said. Johns Creek does not meet state minimum flow requirements to support salmon, and over the past 25 years, more than 200 exempt wells have been drilled in the watershed.

First intended as a way to allow homeowners and other low volume users easier access to water, the increasing number of exempt wells has had an impact on groundwater levels.

Winter rainfall seeps into the ground, providing summer streamflow for Johns Creek. But because wells draw water from the same supply, when they are pumped there is less water available to maintain streamflows. “A groundwater model could help identify if, where and when water can be taken from wells so that there would be little or no impact on streamflows,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the Tribe. “Without that kind of tool, we’re flying blind.”

Johns Creek is home to a small and fragile population of summer chum that is being harmed by increasingly low water levels. “If we could achieve the state-mandated minimum levels, we would have 20 percent more spawning habitat in Johns Creek,” Konovsky said.

“They didn’t reject our petition because there is enough water in the creek for salmon, they rejected it because their isn’t enough money for a solution,” Whitener said. In a letter to the Tribe outlining the reasons for the denial, the department cites “staff reductions and potential new cuts” and points out they are attempting to secure outside funding to conduct a study on Johns Creek.

The natural resources portion of the state budget has been especially hard hit in recent years. Despite making up less than 3 percent of the entire state budget, natural resources management was cut by 12 percent last year — the second most of any state government sector. Current budgets being proposed this year will cut the natural resources budget even further.

“We all agree that salmon runs are being hurt by low flows and we don’t know how much water is available,” Whitener said. “But the longer Ecology stalls and does nothing, the harder and more expensive its going to be to fix.”

(END)

For more information, contact: Andy Whitener, natural resources director, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3800. Jeff Dickison, assistant natural resources director, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3815. John Konovsky, Environmental Program Manager, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3804. Emmett O’Connell, Information Officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304.

“The new space will allow us to expand our hatchery operations, even more so when the dams come down,” said Larry Ward, the tribe’s hatchery manager. “More fish will have better access to the river valley as well.”

Construction is expected to take 18 months and be completed by spring 2011. Once the new facility is functioning, the current tribal facility will be decommissioned after the last fish released from the hatchery return.

The new hatchery will provide additional raceways and early-rearing ponds, as well as greater control over water temperatures while eggs are being incubated.

The tribe currently has several hatchery programs, including a steelhead broodstock program to help ensure that the remaining Elwha River steelhead aren’t wiped out during the deconstruction of the dams. Elwha River steelhead are part of the Puget Sound steelhead population listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The tribe also raises chum and coho and expects to start a pink salmon program in the new facility to restore that species in the Elwha River

Tribal, federal, state and county dignitaries spoke highly of the work that has been put into preparing the Elwha River valley for the removal of its two dams, the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam. The structures – built without fish passage – have been in place since the early 1900s. Removal is expected to begin in 2011.  Currently only the lower 5 miles of the river is available to salmon.

The tribe has been working feverishly since the early 1990s to prep the river valley and floodplains for the expected increased in water flow and sediment following dam removal. Efforts have included constructing engineered logjams, removing manmade dikes, replacing undersized culverts with larger culverts and bridges, and planting native vegetation in floodplain areas.

“We’re taking advantage of this event to thank all our families, friends and allies who have supported us through the journey this far,” said Rob Elofson, the tribe’s river restoration director. “We’ve used all the influence we could to help restore the river. No one said we never lived up to our Klallam name – ‘Strong People.’”

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For more information, contact: Larry Ward, Lower Elwha Klallam hatchery manager, at (360) 457-4012 ext. 17 or lward@elwha.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org

The president’s FY 2011 budget increases the Rights Protection account in the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget to $28.5 million, a 60 percent increase in funding levels over the past decade. The increase comes after a decade of stagnant funding and a strong message from Congress through its FY2010 appropriations bills that tribal resource management has been long-neglected.

“It is gratifying to know that the administration is listening,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “We have been talking about these needs for many years, but this time we have been heard.”

Rights Protection, located in the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs budget, supports co-management by treaty tribes in the Pacific Northwest, Columbia River and Great Lakes areas. Tribal harvest management, research, enforcement and participation in international agreements, such as the Pacific Salmon Treaty, are all supported through the Rights Protection account.

“This is a new day for us,” Frank said, adding that tribal co-management has become more vital as state budgets for natural resource management have declined. “This funding increase will benefit not only the natural resources, but every one who lives in the state and region,” he said.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer, information and education manager, NWIFC, (360) 528-4325, tmeyer@nwifc.org

“There isn’t enough water in Johns Creek to support salmon,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the Squaxin Island Tribe. Likely because of withdrawals from hundreds of domestic and municipal wells, the creek does not meet state mandated minimum flows to protect salmon.

The tribe filed the petition under a state law that closes a watershed from future withdrawals if not enough information is available to justify those withdrawals.

This new petition comes almost two years after the state declined an initial call from the tribe to protect Johns Creek. With the original refusal came the promise that the state would work with Mason County to develop ways to achieve minimum streamflows. “That so-called ‘alternative path forward’ never materialized,” Whitener said. “Neither the state or Mason County took any action.”

Among other things, the state did not fund a request to complete a scientific study of the connection between surface and groundwater. “We know Johns Creek does not meet state minimum flow requirements. What we don’t know is exactly where and how the creek is connected to groundwater,” said Jeff Dickison, Squaxin natural resources assistant director. Groundwater is critical to Johns Creek because it supplies summer-time streamflows to support salmon populations.

Over the past 25 years, over 200 exempt wells have been drilled in the Johns Creek watershed. Permit-exempt wells are a way to access water without first determining if water is available. First intended to allow small users easier access to water, their small size was intended to limit their impact. “The common use of exempt wells in Johns Creek has made them a real – and hard to track – problem in determining water availability,” Dickison said.

“One or two exempt wells aren’t really anything to be worried about,” said Whitener. “But, their common use in Johns Creek is causing a death-by-a-thousand-cuts.”

Some winter rainfall seeps into the ground and provides both drinking water and summer streamflow for Johns Creek. Because wells draw water from the same supply that discharges into Johns Creek, when wells are pumped, there is less water for the creek. “A groundwater model can help identify if, where and when water can be taken from wells that would have little or no impact on streamflows,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the tribe. “Without that kind of tool, we’re flying blind.”

Johns Creek is home to a small and fragile population of summer chum that is being harmed by increasingly low water levels. “If summer flows were just at the minimum required, we would see 20 percent more spawning habitat available for summer chum salmon,” said Konovsky.

The approximately 10,500 acre watershed northeast of Shelton has been the center of recent economic and residential development efforts. “We know that salmon runs are being hurt by low flows. We simply don’t know how much water is available for people to use near Johns Creek,” Whitener said. “You can’t just assume there is enough water there for development to happen, you need to find out first.”

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For more information, contact: Andy Whitener, natural resources director, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3800. Jeff Dickison, assistant natural resources director, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3815. John Konovsky, Environmental Program Manager, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3804. Emmett O’Connell, Information Officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304.

On Dec. 28, a damage control hunt in Skagit County was canceled after a handful of archery hunters breached the state’s Hunter’s Code of Conduct. As many as 18 animals were killed before the hunt was canceled. During a damage control hunt in 2008-2009, more than 40 elk were killed.

These damage hunts remove mostly cow elk, hampering efforts of the state, tribes and local non-profit groups to rebuild the Nooksack herd. The hunts don’t provide a long-term solution to a chronic problem, said Todd Wilbur, a Swinomish tribal member and chairman of the Inter-tribal Wildlife Committee of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

“The Skagit Valley bottom lands are the natural winter range for these elk in the Nooksack herd,” he said. “As the herd grows, elk will continue to visit the valley floor during winter months, in increasing numbers.” Elk have very few places to go during the winter because their habitat is so fragmented. Winter snows drive the animals down to the valley to forage, and most of the herd’s historic winter range has been lost to agricultural and residential development. These elk will continue to damage property in search of food unless other quality habitat is available to them, Wilbur said.

Tribes favor fencing and acquiring property for elk habitat to address the problem, Wilbur said. Point Elliott Treaty tribes have been seeking to acquire land in the Skagit and Nooksack river basins to enhance and preserve for elk use. Last year, the Tulalip Tribes, with help from the Stillaguamish Tribe and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, enhanced 12 acres of private timberlands in the area, removing invasive plants and planting vegetation for elk food. Since then more than 20 elk have been seen foraging in a restored meadow near Baker Lake.

Damage control hunts undo the work that the tribes and state have done to recover and preserve the Nooksack elk herd. By 2003, the Nooksack herd had declined from about 1,700 elk to 300. Several years ago the co-managers relocated about 100 elk from the Mount St. Helens area to boost the herd’s population. Since then, the herd has grown to more than 700 animals, enough to support a limited hunt by treaty and non-treaty hunters.

“Damage control hunts can be an effective management tool, but they offer only short-term relief,” Wilbur said. “These elk are not going to stop their seasonal migration to the valley floor. Fencing and acquiring or leasing property for elk habitat offer the best solutions for elk and people,” he said.

For more information, contact: Todd Wilbur, chairman of the Inter-Tribal Wildlife Committee, (360) 466-7245 or twilbur@swinomish.nsn.us; Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4325 or meyer@nwifc.org.

Chalaat Creek is a tributary to the lower Hoh River. The 5-mile long creek meanders through mature second growth timber and forested wetland on the tribe’s reservation about 30 miles south of Forks. It empties into the Hoh River several thousand feet from the ocean.

“This is the first main tributary to the Hoh River that fish encounter coming in from the ocean,” said Steve Allison, habitat biologist for the Hoh Tribe. “These kinds of streams are historically significant coho producers and we think we’re going to see a noticeable increase in the numbers of young coho coming out of Chalaat Creek.”

The tribe, through a $218,000 Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund grant, replaced a failing, impassable culvert with a bridge and created a 330- foot section of stream channel to allow fish access to a pond with about 2.5 miles of additional habitat upstream.

The low-gradient channel gives salmon access to a two-acre natural pond that provides excellent over-wintering habitat for young fish, Allison said. The re-opened miles of stream above the pond will be used as spawning and rearing habitat.

Additionally, streams closest to the ocean often see many “dip-ins” of juvenile salmon migrating downstream from other tributaries. Tributaries like Chalaat offer more consistent flows and convenient escape from flood conditions I the river as well as a sanctuary to feed and grow before migrating to the ocean.

“We will monitor these streams and continue to do spawning fish surveys, smolt trapping and coded-wire tagging,” said Allison. “We’ve had as many as 1,000 coho smolts migrating out of Chalaat Creek in the recent past. It will be exciting to see how much more productive it becomes in the years ahead.”

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For more information, contact: Steve Allison, natural resources directory, Hoh Tribe – (360) 374-5404; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

Instead of using paper plates and disposable utensils, the department brought real plates and silverware to the event held last summer at Lone Tree beach and the Thousand Trails lodge.

The tribe’s newly formed Climate Change Education and Awareness Group (CEAG) will recognize the water resources department’s effort in the monthly Kee-Yoks newsletter. The group is encouraging tribal members to make small changes that will benefit the environment and help reduce the causes of climate change.

“Our tribal leaders are at the forefront of the climate change movement,” said Shelly Vendiola, communications facilitator for the group.

The Swinomish Indian Senate signed a proclamation forming a Climate Change Initiative in October 2007 and the tribe’s Planning and Community Development Department released a climate change impact assessment report this fall, in partnership with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and the Skagit River System Cooperative.

The assessment found that more than 1,100 acres of Swinomish Reservation lands and about 160 residential structures are potentially at risk of inundation from increasing sea level rise or tidal surge. Traditional tribal beach seining sites and shellfish beds are at significant risk of permanent inundation and potential loss. Shellfish and salmon are at risk of higher levels of contamination from algal blooms and other diseases that may be exacerbated by increased temperature.

Not only are heat-related illnesses a concern for the reservation population, especially those who are ill or elderly, but tribal members in particular may be at risk of ailments such as asthma and toxic poisoning from the combined effects of pollutants.

“We’re looking at global issues and making the link to our local tribal community at Swinomish,” Vendiola said. “We are starting to raise awareness about climate change and its impacts, and how it’s going to affect such things as land use, transportation, housing, facilities, and natural and cultural resources such as shellfish, salmon and forested areas.”

CEAG is getting tribal members involved by informing families and youth through the tribal newsletter and raising awareness at community events such as holiday parties. The next step will bring community members together to talk about climate change and capture their concerns, which will help guide the actions of the Planning and Community Development Department.

“I’m impressed with the awareness of our young people, our next generation of leaders,” Vendiola said. “They will inherit this challenge, which in fact is a climate crisis. The strategy is to educate them now and begin to prepare them for how to adapt. The key for the next phase of the project is identifying community concerns, seasonal climate changes and ideas for adaptation.”

CEAG also can learn from the experiences of community members, especially elders, and get their input in the planning process. Already, tribal members have shared stories about roads eroding to within 25 feet of homes on the reservation, and increased concerns about sun protection.

“When I was a kid, we never sunburned,” said tribal member Brian Porter, who coaches the youth canoe club. “Now we have to keep an eye on the kids to make sure they don’t sunburn or get some skin disease.”

Support for the Swinomish Climate Change Initiative was provided through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Native Americans (ANA), which provided 80 percent of project funding.

Tips from the Education and Awareness Group include:

• Recycle. Reuse. Renew
• Unplug unused electronics
• Install low-flow shower heads
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs
• Take your own bags to stores

What is climate change?

Climate change, also known as global warming, occurs from increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Changes that can be seen on the ground include rising sea levels, melting glaciers, reduced snowpacks, hotter summers, wetter winters and increased drought conditions.

Warmer climate affects salmon because it:

• Increases water temperatures and decreases flows during spawning migrations, increasing prespawning mortality and reducing egg deposition;
• Increases water temperatures during egg incubation stages, causing premature fry emergence and increased fry-to-smolt mortality; and
• Increases the severity and frequency of winter floods, reducing egg-to-fry survival rates.

For more information: Swinomish Climate Change Initiative; Ed Knight, senior planner, Swinomish Tribe Planning and Community Development, 360-466-7280 or eknight@swinomish.nsn.us; Shelly Vendiola, communications facilitator (consultant), CEAG, 206-280-4079 or msvendiola@gmail.com; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

The tribe acquired the parcel of land along Pilchuck Creek with plans to restore wetland habitat. The state offered to contribute to the project, because it needed to mitigate for 2 acres of wetlands that would be destroyed during planned safety and congestion improvements to Highway 532.

During the past 100 years, the land around the creek near its confluence with the mainstem Stillaguamish River was cleared, graded, farmed and turned into a dirt bike track. The banks of the creek were hardened and pushed closer to the water, constraining the channel.

“We were just going to plug the ditches and contour the fields so there were high and low spots,” said Pat Stevenson, environmental manager for the tribe. “DOT is paying for a more elaborate wetland project than we proposed.”

With DOT’s support, the project expanded to include more extensive ditch filling, earth moving and planting. Up to 15 acres of new wetlands will be created, some of which will be banked by the state to mitigate for future improvements.

The Pilchuck Creek restoration will create quality rearing habitat for chinook, coho, chum and pink salmon, steelhead and bull trout. Other features include frog ponds, floodwater storage and wildlife habitat.

A work-release crew of minimum-security inmates from the Snohomish County Jail is planting the newly excavated floodplain with 60,000 plants and shrubs. The tribe has employed an inmate crew for years, but the program was put in jeopardy this past year when the county Department of Corrections restructured.

In a typical year, the riparian crew plants trees and shrubs in about 30 different riparian projects.

“Besides the amount of work they complete, this crew is vital to our grant matching requirements because of the valuable labor they provide,” said Dave Timmer, the tribe’s restoration crew supevisor. “For many reasons, they are difficult to replace.”

Fortunately, the tribe was able to work with the county to reinstate the program.

State Salmon Recovery Board funding is contributing to restoration separate from the mitigation work paid for by the DOT. That portion of the project features a rearing pond, logjams and a new stream channel that connects the pond to Pilchuck Creek.

Tribal funds are paying for a 1,500-foot-long trail between the creek and the wetland, an observation deck and interpretive signs.

For more information, contact: Pat Stevenson, environmental program manager, Stillaguamish Tribe, 360-631-0946 or pstevenson@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Jennifer Sevigny, one of the tribe’s biologists, drafted the Washington state component for land-based marine debris.

“We are trying to develop a strategy for dealing with marine debris that will be presented to the governors of Washington, Oregon and California,” she said. “We are currently creating a database of land-based, ocean-based and derelict fishing gear projects and we will use that information to identify what is working and what data gaps exist for each state.”

In addition to establishing baseline estimates of marine debris and derelict gear off the West Coast and setting reduction goals, the Marine Debris Action Team will support state and federal policies for achieving the reduction goals, such as prevention through expanded recycling, improved trash maintenance, public education and enforcement of litter laws.

Studies estimate that more than 3,000 abandoned crab pots litter the waters of North Puget Sound. Pots left on the sea floor continue to trap crab and other species that die, becoming bait that lures more crab into the pots.

In 2003 and 2005, the Stillaguamish Tribe removed 333 abandoned crab pots from Port Susan, containing 952 live crab and the remains of countless dead crab. Last year, the tribe deployed 12 test pots in Port Susan, to determine the number of Dungeness crab killed per pot per year in a high density crab area. Preliminary data suggest that a single derelict crab pot kills an average of 44 Dungeness per year.

“Given the high numbers of derelict crab pots in Port Susan Bay, this is a huge impact on the resource and a form of unreported mortality that needs to be considered in Dungeness crab management efforts,” Sevigny said.

For more information on the action team, visit westcoastoceans.gov/teams/#debris.

Contact: Jennifer Sevigny, biologist, Stillaguamish Tribe, 360-631-2372 or jense@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Lake Sutherland Kokanee

The tribe has been studying the landlocked sockeye salmon within the Elwha River watershed for four years, including the population’s health and genetics. The purpose is to gather baseline data of the population before the river’s fish-blocking dams are removed starting in 2011. The lake is connected to the river via Indian Creek.

Like sockeye, kokanee spawn only once in their life cycle, and typically spawn in rivers and streams that are tributaries to lakes but also on lakeshores, mainly where groundwater comes up through gravel.

Unlike sockeye, kokanee spend their entire lives in freshwater. Because they don’t migrate to sea to feed, kokanee are much smaller than their anadromous sockeye cousins.

“After the dams are removed, we’ll continue this effort and see if anadromous fish begin to use Lake Sutherland, and see if there is change in the health profile of the kokanee,” said Larry Ward, the tribe’s hatchery manager.

It’s possible that the kokanee may leave the lake and head for the Strait of Juan de Fuca after the dams come down,  but it is more likely the fish will  stick to the freshwater, Ward said.

“Having a solid database of the health of the kokanee will help us keep tabs on the health of the watershed,” Ward said. “It’s all part of learning more about the enormity of the Elwha River system and what species have what roles in it. The database we are building is incredibly valuable on its own, but more so if anything were to happen to this population.”

Fish pathologists from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sample the fish for diseases and to develop genetic profiles. Special attention is paid to looking for Infectious Hematopoetic Necrosis (IHN) to which sockeye are susceptible. It’s a fish disease that causes death by destroying blood-forming tissues such as the kidney and the spleen.

Further work is being conducted by a biologist from Canada’s department of Fisheries and Oceans who is studying a fish parasite unique to the Lake Sutherland kokanee. The parasite doesn’t appear to be harmful to the fish, but further studies are being conducted.

Port Gamble S'Klallam habitat biologist Hans Daubenberger checks a juvenile salmon for a coded-wire tag.

As part of the tribe’s juvenile salmon pilot study, natural resources staff collected data weekly between April and October. In addition to tow netting, the tribe used other collection methods, including beach seining and scanning the water column with SONAR.

“We want to get a better understanding of the health of salmon coming in and out of Hood Canal,” said Hans Daubenberger, the Tribe’s habitat biologist. “It will help us manage fisheries better.”

The objectives of this pilot project are to study the current state of the marine environment and to assess the health of juvenile fish as they head to sea. The tribe is collecting a variety of data, including the weight and length of fish. Genetic and gut samples also are being gathered.

“We know a lot about freshwater systems and what factors play important roles in those habitats, but not so much about nearshore and deep water marine environments,” Daubenberger said. “We want to see which method provides the most information in the most efficient way possible.”

Information from the pilot project will be used to develop a five-year study of the area starting next summer.

Similar projects are underway  in the Skagit watershed and the San Juan Islands. By conducting parallel studies throughout Puget Sound, biologists are able to compare data over a larger spatial scale. All this work is part of Puget Sound Partnership’s overall effort to improve the health of the Puget Sound by 2020.

Funding for this project came from Puget Sound Partnership and Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery funds.

Wastewater containing pharmaceuticals and other products that mimic estrogen can interfere with the endocrine system of fish, potentially resulting in males displaying both male and female characteristics, which inhibits breeding.

The Stillaguamish Tribe has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Science Center in Tacoma and the city of Arlington to look at contaminants in the wastewater that winds up in the Stillaguamish River and Port Susan Bay.

These “emerging contaminants” have become an increasing concern because they are present in the environment on a global scale. They include endocrine disruptors such as pesticides, birth control pills, detergents and other industrial, agricultural and household products.

In 2006 and 2007, the tribe partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to test adult male chinook at the Harvey Creek Hatchery for the female egg-producing protein, vitellogenin. The protein was present in all male fish, but at levels that may not lead to feminization in adult fish. The tribe is concerned that chronic low levels of emerging contaminants could combine to have a toxic effect on fish.

“The Arlington Wastewater Treatment Plant is upgrading its system to filter some of these compounds out of the water before it is discharged into the river,” said Jennifer Sevigny, a biologist with the Stillaguamish Tribe. “We are documenting what is there now and what we find after the upgrades are complete. Arlington is a small municipality and they are way ahead of larger cities in trying to improve water quality.”

Emergent contaminants reach waterways through a variety of point and non-point sources, such as agricultural runoff, septic systems and stormwater in addition to wastewater treatment plants.

“We are looking at only one source of contamination in this study and we are fortunate to have a local wastewater treatment plant that is concerned about addressing the problem,” Sevigny added.

For more information, contact: Jennifer Sevigny, biologist, Stillaguamish Tribe, 360-631-2372 or jense@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

The Lummi Natural Resources Department is reconnecting tidal channels and restoring wetlands to provide essential rearing habitat for juvenile salmon along Smuggler’s Slough. In a separate but related project, Lummi is creating the first tribal wetland and habitat mitigation bank in the country. The wetland and habitat mitigation bank will generate credits to offset any unavoidable impacts of development elsewhere, including homes built on tribal members’ land assignments and Lummi Nation economic development projects.

While the two complementary projects share the goal of restoring habitat and fish passage, the funding is separate. Restoration project grant money cannot be used for work that generates mitigation credits.

Smuggler’s Slough once provided fish passage between Bellingham Bay and Lummi Bay, but it was turned into a drainage ditch in the 1930s when most of the Nooksack River delta and associated estuary was converted to farmland.

Restoring tidal and riverine flows to the slough will let juvenile salmon access highly productive fresh water and salt marsh wetlands. The project will provide fish access to 6.7 miles of slough habitat and wetlands, and restore tidal flow to 640 acres of potential salt marsh habitat.

The Lummi Nation has been evaluating the restoration of the Nooksack estuary since 1998 and seeking funding for the restoration project since 2005 when a habitat assessment by the tribe targeted Smuggler’s Slough for restoration. Some of the former estuary had been deeded to tribal members after it was turned into farmland. The tribe bought that property outright or obtained conservation easements using funding from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Wetlands Reserve Program and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service through the Department of Ecology’s Coastal Wetlands Program.

Additional funding for the restoration project comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Wetlands American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Coastal Program and Tribal Wildlife Grant, and the state Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program.

The tribe is funding the wetland and habitat mitigation bank for now, but eventually, the mitigation bank will be supported though the sale of mitigation credits sold to developers in exchange for rehabilitating and enhancing wetland areas. The mitigation bank project will purchase and install self-regulation tide gates that will re-open the Lummi Bay delta to controlled tidal flows and fish passage. In addition to hundreds of acres on Smuggler’s Slough, the tribe has set aside 1,000 acres of the Nooksack delta and 760 acres of the Lummi delta for the mitigation bank.

“We have a shortage of buildable land for homes on our reservation, because so much of it is wetlands,” said Merle Jefferson, natural resources director for the tribe. “These two projects not only will restore fish and wildlife habitat and improve water quality for shellfish beds, but also will generate income to stimulate the local economy.”

For more information, contact: Jim Hansen, Lummi Nation Restoration Coordinator, 360-384-2340 or jimh@lummi-nsn.gov; Jeremy Freimund, Lummi Nation Water Resources Manager, 360-384-2212 or jeremyf@lummi-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

“These fish are survivors,” said Roger Lien, fish biologist for the Quileute Tribe. After four to five years at sea, the fish return to their river of birth at a difficult time. Low flows go hand in hand with higher water temperatures, placing enormous stress on the fish and making them susceptible to disease. Water temperatures near 70 degrees can be lethal to salmon.

“The run has never been real robust and it’s highly variable, but it’s an important one,” Lien said. “That’s why the Quileute Tribe saw it as a good candidate for supplementation.”

Each year, the tribe captures wild male and female chinook from mid-July to September to spawn and rear about 200,000 of their offspring cooperatively with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at the agency’s Sol Duc Hatchery. The fish are later transferred to the tribe’s Lonesome Creek Hatchery before being released in the Sol Duc River.

The supplementation effort aims to support, not replace, natural salmon production in the system. Adequate numbers of returning adults are allowed to pass upstream to maintain natural escapement – the number of fish needed to spawn and perpetuate the run. Summer chinook provide important fishing opportunity for tribal and non-tribal fishermen.

“There isn’t much in-river fishing opportunity in the summer, so these fish can help put food on the table and provide for cultural ceremonies,” Lien said.

The tribe is working with WildLands and S & K Environmental Restoration, a division of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, which developed the rotary stinger to plant trees more efficiently than traditional methods.

View a demonstration of the rotary stinger below.

The tree planting is part of a project that began last summer to restore 140 acres of salmon habitat around Hansen Creek, a tributary to the Skagit River near the Upper Skagit Tribe’s reservation.

The restored freshwater floodplain habitat will develop 53 acres of river delta and 87 acres of forested wetlands in the Skagit County-owned Northern State Recreation Area.

The past 60 years of dredging and levee maintenance has degraded spawning habitat and interfered with natural stream processes. “We have all six species of salmon in the Skagit watershed,” said Scott Schuyler, the tribe’s natural resources director. “Hansen Creek supports chinook, steelhead, coho, chum and pink salmon, but it has been straightened, narrowed and disconnected from its floodplain fan and wetlands.”

The Upper Skagit Tribe is removing parts of the levee and building log jams that will restore natural sediment movement and improve salmon habitat. The project will restore nearly 2 miles of side channel habitat, as well as hundreds of feet of mainstem habitat to support fish productivity.

The tribe is partnering with Skagit County and several federal and state agencies. The restoration is expected to cost more than $2.6 million. In June, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awarded nearly $1 million to the project. Last spring, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $105,000 to the project through Puget Sound Partnership funding.

“I think this restoration project is an excellent example of the tribe’s spirit for action, your ability to leverage resources and to create partnerships,” said Michelle Pirzadeh, EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator in Seattle. “The tribes have a long history of demonstrating their ability to care for natural resources in a way that’s sustainable and we can learn a lot from them.”

Other funding partners include National Association of Counties – Coastal Initiative funds, Washington State Centennial Clean Water and Salmon Recovery Funding Board funds, in addition to matching contributions from Skagit County.

The fragmentation of habitat in Puget Sound has resulted in the loss of freshwater wetlands important to salmon survival. The Hansen Creek restoration is an important part of the salmon recovery effort. Puget Sound chinook and steelhead are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act, and Skagit coho are listed by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife as a species of concern.

“Salmon habitat has suffered centuries of abuse,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “The tribes are undoing that damage one step at a time. We all have to work together to get Puget Sound healthy again.”

For more information, contact: Lauren Rich, environmental planner, Upper Skagit Tribe, 360-854-7006 or LaurenR@upperskagit.com; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Danny Snyder, fisheries technician for the Squaxin Island Tribe, checks coho salmon that were caught in the tribe's salmon fishery.

ARCADIA – The Squaxin Island Tribe is closing its coho fishery at a popular tribal fishing site to protect a unique run of wild chum salmon.

Coho fishing is closed at Arcadia Beach, a tribally owned boat launch that is one of the easiest spots for tribal fishers to access. The beach also is situated on the migration route of chum salmon returning to Kennedy Creek at the same time tribal fishermen are targeting coho in the area. The normal tribal coho fishing season will remain open throughout South Sound.

“Usually, chum and coho migrate during different time windows, but Kennedy Creek chum tend to show up early, so they can be caught during coho season right around Arcadia,” said Joe Peters, the tribe’s fisheries management biologist.

An unusually high number of chum were caught at Arcadia during coho season last year. That led the tribe to close its chum fishery for a couple of weeks in November to ensure enough fish made it back to Kennedy Creek to perpetuate the run. Benefits to the chum outweigh the loss of fishing opportunity for coho, Peters said.

In addition to closely monitoring tribal harvest, spawning surveys are conducted by the tribe on area creeks to determine how many fish have returned to reproduce.

Restricting fishing in a particular area is a common method of fisheries management. Squaxin Island Tribe fishers only harvest coho outside South Sound inlets. “The outside-the-inlet fisheries method ensures we are only targeting healthy stocks of hatchery coho,” Peters said. “More than 90 percent of our catch consists of hatchery fish when we harvest outside of the inlets.”

Like most South Sound chum stocks, the Kennedy Creek chum run is strong, with more than 30,000 fish returning annually, Peters said. “Still, we want to boost the overall run to be as certain as we can that enough fish get back to the creek every year,” he said. “Our extensive monitoring of harvest and escapement allows us to adjust our fisheries quickly, even in mid-season.”

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For more information, contact: Joe Peters, fisheries management biologist, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3813. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

“We’re using the tide to manipulate the oysters,” said Chris Whitehead, the tribe’s shellfish biologist.

Oyster tumbling involves stuffing young oysters into mesh bags, attaching a buoy and securing the bags to a single horizontal stainless steel rod held in place by rebar stakes driven into the muck at low tide. The oyster seed-filled bags pivot on the rod and float as the tide rolls in and sink back to the bottom as the tide recedes. The ebb and flow of the tides agitates the oysters from one end to the other, or “tumbles” them. The action mimics nature, encouraging the oysters to break off new growth at the bill, and harden their shells as they mature.

Tribal biologist Chris Whitehead adjusts a mesh bag full of oysters on Sequim Bay.

The tumble bag system helps the Pacific oysters focus growth energy to the cup, rather than the bill; the latter is typical to the region. The deeper cup shell gives the Pacific oysters the look of Kumamoto oyster highly valued by consumers worldwide. The growing method has been used successfully at other shellfish growing operations throughout the region.

“This is a pilot study for us this year, but if we have a successful harvest this fall we may scale it up next year,” Whitehead said. Oyster farming has come a long way, from long-lining mother shells to suspending bags in several feet above the substrate to the tumble bag system, he added.

The tribe hopes to provide opportunities for tribal members to come and harvest from their native shores as well as to supply shellfish to enterprises such as the tribal casino, deli and golf course.

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For more information, contact: Chris Whitehead, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe shellfish biologist, at (360) 681-4630, or cwhitehead@jamestowntribe.org; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The tribe's river restoration staff fills in a 1,500-foot long hatchery outfall ditch as part of the lower Elwha River floodplain restoration work.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has begun preparing the lower Elwha River’s floodplain for the influx of sediment expected to come down the river after the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams are deconstructed starting in 2011.

“This work in the floodplain will help restore natural habitat forming processes in preparation for the expected release of the 20 million cubic feet of sediment trapped behind the dams,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s habitat program manager. “Our goal is to reconnect as much of the historic floodplain to the mainstem as possible. We are basically undoing historic channelization actions that have simplified the river.”

With $2 million in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the tribe will be constructing 20 engineered logjams, removing three manmade dikes, replacing two culverts with a larger culvert and a bridge, and planting native vegetation. This summer, the tribe filled in an unused 1,500-foot-long hatchery outfall ditch that was built in the middle of the floodplain in 1977. All this work will help improve the river’s function ahead of the dams’ removal.

Historic aerial photos show the lower river functioning as a natural floodplain before the hatchery outfall ditch was constructed. The ditch severely altered the flow of the river. The filling of the ditch, plus the removal of the dikes, manmade ditches and culverts, will allow water to flow throughout the floodplain, creating better habitat for salmon, where the fish can rest, feed and hide. The restoration work will also will help filter out the dam sediment as it flows into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The Elwha River is the largest tributary draining into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and historically, was one of the largest producers of salmon in the region. Puget Sound chinook and Puget Sound steelhead, both federally listed salmon species, reside in the Elwha River.

“People think that the current state of the mouth of the river is natural but there are manmade dikes throughout the lower river and estuary that constrict the flow,” said Jim Balsiger, Acting Assistant Administrator of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. “Historically, this river used to have several natural channels and drainages, but now has only one. We want to ensure that the river quickly returns to its natural state when the Elwha’s dams are removed.”

The 108-foot Elwha Dam and the 210-foot Glines Canyon dam are scheduled for removal beginning in 2011.  The dams are owned by the federal government; the Olympic National Park is spearheading the removal effort. The total cost of the project is estimated at $308 million.

Funding for the project comes from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant.  Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NOAA distributed $167 million to 50 marine and coastal habitat restoration projects around the country. The Elwha Floodplain Restoration project was one of 50 projects out of 814 considered nationwide and received $2 million in funding.

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For more information, contact Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe habitat program manager, at (360) 457-4012 ext. 14 or mchenry@elwha.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org

A logjam being constructed in a sidechannel of the Dungeness River.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe hopes to see federally listed Puget Sound chinook and Hood Canal summer chum using these logjams following this summer’s restoration of 18 acres of estuary in the river delta.

The restoration work included building the logjams, creating tidal channels and breaching dikes built for road access in the 1960s to allow water to move freely throughout delta’s two salt marshes. The estuary provides critical rearing habitat for the listed salmon species.

“These marshes have a mixture of salt water from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and fresh water from the river, but as evidenced by the amount of invasive reed canary grass on the banks of the river, there’s not enough salt water getting into the estuary,” said Byron Rot, the tribe’s habitat program manager. “We hope the breaching of the dikes will help introduce saltwater vegetation again and make the habitat even more hospitable to salmon.”

Reed canary grass thrives in freshwater and prevents native plant growth, impacting the natural functions of a wetland. Eliminating the canary grass will allow native dunegrass to flourish. The breached dikes will allow extreme high tides and river flow to flood the area, contributing to the critical habitat needed for salmon. The restoration will also provide improved habitat for ducks.

“It’s a well functioning estuary,” Rot said. “It just needs a little extra help to make sure the native plants are thriving and salmon have a place of refuge.”

Funding for this project came from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

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For more information, contact: Byron Rot, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe habitat program manager, at (360) 681-4615 or brot@jamestowntribe.org; Randy Johnson, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe restoration planner, at (360) 681-4631 or rjohnson@jamestowntribe.org; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

But this summer, thanks to a computer-directed underwater research glider that looks like a motorcycle-sized torpedo with wings, QIN was able to gather four weeks of comprehensive data throughout their fishing area.

The Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP), worked with QIN marine scientist Joe Schumacker to plan a data gathering project for the glider named Phoebe. “This mission provides us with important information about the Quinault traditional ocean waters that would be cost-prohibitive to obtain otherwise,” said Schumacker.

The glider, deployed and recovered by a QIN fishing vessel, gathered salinity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and temperatures at different depths, then transmitted the newly-collected data to CMOP.

QIN is particularly interested in dissolved oxygen levels after an episode of low oxygen left hundreds of normally bottom-dwelling creatures on the nation’s beaches in 2006. Tribal Dungeness crab fishermen were bringing up pots that were either empty or full of dead crab.

“We’re still looking at the results from the glider’s mission,” said Schumacker. “We’re excited to get this kind of information, particularly over Quinault Canyon, which features prominently in the upwelling that feeds marine life in our area comes from.” Nutrient-rich but oxygen-poor water wells up from the depths and feeds marine life. Natural mixing of the water column is important to offset the negative effects of the deep water’s low oxygen levels. The glider mission will help QIN understand where lower oxygen levels occur and if there are any hints of possible fish kills in the offing.

“Up until now, the only similar information we can get is from one seasonal buoy in this area and that is just a snapshot of the water quality in that one specific area,” said Schumacker. “Phoebe gives us a look at a large piece of the ocean that we really have not had the ability to examine before.”

QIN wants to deploy sensors that would give early warning of where low-oxygen fish-kills may occur and hopes to conduct more data-gathering missions with Phoebe. “This shows what we can do when we’re involved in the process,” said Ed Johnstone, fisheries policy representative for QIN. “It’s not a substitute for a holistic approach to research needs off our coast, but it’s timely information we can use.”

For more information, contact: Ed Johnstone, fisheries policy, Quinault Indian Nation, (360) 276-8215;Joe Schumacker, marine scientist, Quinault Indian Nation, (360) 276-8215; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501.

The Lummi Intertidal Baseline Inventory (LIBI), funded by the energy company BP, will be crucial in the event of a catastrophic oil spill from activities associated with four nearby oil refineries: BP and ConocoPhillips in Ferndale, and Tesoro and Shell at Anacortes.

“We want to know what’s living here now, so if there is a spill, we will know the extent of the damage,” said Merle Jefferson, Lummi Natural Resources director. “After the Exxon-Valdez spill, they had no pre-disaster data to compare it to.”

Lummi Natural Resources Department staff inventoried the tidelands in four ways:

• Monthly shorebird survey;
• Monthly finfish sampling using a lampara net (similar to a purse seine);
• Visual survey of geoduck and horse clams; and
• Dig survey of other species such as hard shell clams, crabs and worms.

They also contracted with the Oregon-based firm Watershed Sciences to measure tideland elevations from the air using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).

“It’s incredibly ambitious to include everything,” said Craig Dolphin, the tribe’s shellfish biologist coordinating the inventory. “But the LIDAR data and the four surveys have come together to give us great results.”

The dig survey was conducted over a period of four months by four teams of two: a scientist paired with a seasoned clam digger who had traditional ecological knowledge of the area.

The teams dug samples at 366 sites, collecting bags of sand containing eelgrass, clams, worms, and other organisms. The collected samples were taken back to the lab, identified, and counted. So far, at least 150 different species were counted from the dig survey alone, including varieties of clams such as native littlenecks, manila clams, and invasive mahogany clams.

Samples are being preserved and will be used in the native environmental science curriculum at Northwest Indian College on the Lummi Indian Reservation.

Lummi tribal member Jessica Urbanec, the first to receive a bachelor’s degree in native environmental science from the college, is helping sort the samples. She plans to do additional research about native littleneck clams.

“Littlenecks were one of our main staples, a traditional food,” she said. “I’m looking at where they live, what substrates they like, what other species affect them.”

The tribe expects to have a final report by the end of the year.

“Eventually, we’d like to expand the baseline inventory off reservation to encompass all of our usual and accustomed fishing areas,” Jefferson said.

For more information, contact: Craig Dolphin, shellfish biologist Lummi Nation, 360-384-2267 or CraigD@lummi-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

But the tribe stepped up and offered $31,000 to finish raising the fish and added working hours from their own staff to finish the job. “It’s a one-time deal,” said Roger Lien, fisheries biologist for the Quileute Tribe. “The cuts in the state budget occurred after the fish had already been spawned. What we’re doing is saving this bunch so they can be released next year, but the eggs won’t even be collected next year.”

The Quileute Tribe and WDFW work cooperatively on a number of different salmon and steelhead projects out of the state’s Sol Duc Hatchery and in combination with the tribe’s Lonesome Creek Hatchery.

“This helps everybody,” said Lien. “When the guys at the hatchery told us what was going to happen to these fish – we asked them to tell us how much they needed and council approved the cost.”
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For more information, contact: Mel Moon, natural resources director, Quileute Tribe, (36) 374-5695; Roger Lien, fisheries biologist, Quileute Tribe, (360) 374-2478; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-8666, dpreston@nwifc.org