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, Quinault and Snohomish watersheds by looking at habitat, fish populations, harvest, water quality and quantity, permits and compliance.

“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.

“This is a great accomplishment,” said Shawn Yanity, fisheries manager for the Stillaguamish Tribe. “Last year, we had a First Salmon Ceremony for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. The opening of Port Susan gives us another opportunity that we haven’t had for ages – to provide traditional food for our ceremonies.”

Port Susan is a protected bay where the Stillaguamish River meets Puget Sound. Threats to its water quality include a dozen dairy operations, three wastewater treatment facilities and a densely developed residential community called Warm Beach.

The state Department of Health closed the area to shellfish harvest because of fecal pollution in 1987, and for years, nothing was done to clean it up.

The Stillaguamish Tribe has limited opportunities to harvest shellfish, so the natural resources department made it a priority to reopen the beds in Port Susan. In 1998, the tribe started sampling the water to determine and address sources of fecal coliform contamination, with the help of the Snohomish County Surface Water Division, Stillaguamish Diking District and the Snohomish County Conservation District.

“The Warm Beach community was really helpful in giving us access to dairies and the places they kept horses,” said Don Klopfer, biologist for the tribe. “When our tests showed that some of the contamination came from horses, they moved their horses away from water sources.”

The tribe shared its data with the Snohomish County Health District, which investigated and corrected problems, such as leaky septic systems and illegal sewer hookups.

In 2002, the state Department of Health got involved, processing the tribe’s water samples at its lab. The department completed a sanitary survey report last week, finding that the most recent water samples passed the shellfish water quality standard.

Nearly all of the shellfish beds to be reopened in April are owned by the Nature Conservancy, which manages the tidelands as the Port Susan Preserve.

For more information, contact: Don Klopfer, Stillaguamish Tribe, 360-547-2687 or dklopfer@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Jody Brown, Stillaguamish Tribe, 360-547-2686 or jbrownr@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@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.”

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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.

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.”

(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.

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

Makah tribal member Evan Bowechop, 16, is reminded of the history as he counts the living shells in the surf where they are found on Hobuck Beach, near Neah Bay. It’s part of his summer intern job with the Makah Natural Resources Department. He and partner Michael Murner, 17, conducted a survey of the olive shell population that will help Makah natural resource managers get an idea of the numbers and locations of the small, snail-inhabited shell.

“The idea is to have the interns do this survey each summer so we can start to establish population patterns,” said Jonathan Scordino, marine mammal biologist for the Makah Tribe. Even as the interns worked one foggy morning, a group of tribal members was harvesting the shells a little further down the beach.

While tribal members collected the shells, Murner and Bowechop continued their survey, counting more than 1,000 in patch.

Each year, students work in a variety of natural resources departments within the tribe, learning about different kinds of jobs and assisting with the natural resource management activities. The hope is that some tribal members will become interested in pursuing advanced education in a related field and come back to work for the tribe. The interns finished the summer by presenting a paper to tribal members about their activities, including one by Murner on the olive shells as well as assigned topics. “It was an interesting summer,” said Bowechop.”It kept me busy and I learned a lot.”
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For more information, contact: Russ Svec, Makah Fisheries Program Manager, (360) 645-3156; Jonathan Scordino, marine mammal biologist, Makah Tribe, (360) 645-3176; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

A construction crew on the Mashel River starts on a logjam.

EATONVILLE –New logjams in the Mashel River – being built this summer by the Nisqually Indian Tribe – will provide habitat for fish and help protect property from damaging floods. The series of logjams will help protect riverside property which sustained damage during last winter’s 100-year flood, while also providing vital habitat to salmon.

“Right now, both people and salmon are in danger because water just flows too quickly through this stretch,” said David Troutt, natural resources director for the tribe. The property’s owner lost an outbuilding and several hundred feet of bank to the flood.

“Bank hardening and logging that have decreased the ground’s ability to soak up water has made the damaging impacts of floods worse,” Troutt said. The logjams will both protect the banks while also slowing the flow of floodwaters.

The tribe’s project will tie into a planned logjam effort by the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to protect a highway bridge. The DOT project to install logjams is planned for 2010.

Logjams are important features in the lifecycle of salmon because they create good habitat for juvenile salmon. Because of the loss of large streamside trees, logjams are largely missing from rivers like the Mashel. “Over the years logging took away most of the material that eventually would have formed logjams,” Troutt said. “Juvenile salmon use logjams as places to hide from predators and find food.”

This year’s logjam project will also tie into an extensive logjam project that was built in the last few years just upstream. “We’ve seen direct evidence that the logjams we’ve built in the last few years not only blunt the impacts of floods, but also boost juvenile salmon populations,” Troutt said.

A large rock berm that had protected the city of Eatonville’s Smallwood Park was replaced by a series of large logjams. “Two significant floods have battered those structures, but they’ve survived,” Troutt said.

At the same time, surveys have found a booming juvenile coho population around the jams. “Our biologists found more than 2,500 coho living in the same part of the Mashel, up from around 900 before the logjams,” Troutt said. “These fish are finding the river a much better place to be now.” In addition to coho salmon, the logjams are also expected to benefit chinook and steelhead, both of which are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Lack of high quality habitat is the major factor in declining salmon populations on the Nisqually River,” Troutt said. “This project shows that you can restore and protect habitat while protecting people as well.”

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For more information, contact: David Troutt, natural resources director, Nisqually Indian Tribe, (360) 438-8687. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org.

Anderson was named the department’s permanent director Saturday by the nine-member commission Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. Anderson had been serving as interim director since last December, when Jeff Koenings resigned from the position.

“Phil is a fair and honest man,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “He is a strong advocate for the long-term interests of the region. He understands conservation and has a deep-rooted appreciation for the natural resources that make the Pacific Northwest so beautiful.

“He also knows the challenges to this ecosystem,” Frank added. “We will not always agree, but Phil has earned the respect of tribal leaders.”

WDFW press release:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/do/newreal/release.php?id=sep1209a

News stories:
Seattle Times:
State Fish and Wildlife Commission hires Phil Anderson as the department’s permanent director

Tacoma News-Tribune:
New Fish and Wildlife director knows job

“There was simply more food in the system in the last couple of years because decaying pink salmon carcasses fed practically every sort of organism in the river,” said Russ Ladley, resource protection manager for the Puyallup Tribe. “This shows that salmon restoration doesn’t just benefit one species, because all of the species in the river are interconnected.”

The tribe counted more than 100 bull trout – the entire run – at a trap on the White River, a tributary to the Puyallup, where fish are collected before being trucked over Mud Mountain Dam. While still a small return, it was more than double the previous record return in 2003.

More than 400 wild juvenile steelhead were captured by the tribe from an out-migrating smolt trap on the lower Puyallup River. That’s the second highest count since the tribe began counting in 2000 and four times higher than the three-year average.

“This year’s pink run is also looking pretty big, so hopefully we’ll see similar benefits down the road,” Ladley said.

“It’s important to keep in mind that the entire bull trout run is only about 100 fish,“ Ladley said. “This is an incredibly small run, but its important to note the up-tick this year. I also wouldn’t say this is the largest bull trout run ever, just the largest since we’ve been counting in the last few decades.”

Bull trout and steelhead in the Puyallup River watershed, along with chinook salmon, are listed as threatened on the federal Endangered Species Act.

Counting bull trout and steelhead is part of a yearly effort by the tribe to track fish populations in the Puyallup River watershed. The tribe’s most recent yearly report on salmon, trout and char populations can be found at: http://go.nwifc.org/hrw6y8

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For more information, contact: Russ Ladley, resource protection manager, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, (253) 845-9225.

“There really isn’t anywhere for fish to go in Ohop Creek right now,” Joe Kane, executive director for the land trust, which owns the project site. “More than a century ago, Ohop Creek was ditched to clear the area for farming.”

The new channel will stay cooler for salmon and include features like logjams that benefit both juvenile and adult fish. “It went from a shallow, meandering stream that was very good for salmon to a straight deep ditch,” Kane said. The Nisqually Land Trust owns the 120 acres of property on which this year’s project is happening.

After the new channel is finished, they will wait a year before rerouting the creek into the new bed. “If we rerouted the creek this year, there would be a risk of everything being washed away in a flood,” said Kim Gridley, project manager for the group. “By waiting a year after digging the channel, creek-side plants will have time to grow and stabilize the bank.”

This summer’s one-mile-long restoration project could be the first step in restoring most of the Ohop Creek valley for salmon and other wildlife. Eventuallyseven miles of Ohop Creek might be restored under a plan being developed jointly with local landowners. “This initial phase will teach us a lot about how habitat restoration might look like throughout the valley,” Gridley said. “Before habitat restoration happens anywhere else along the Ohop, we’ll need to find a way to balance the needs of salmon and people.”

“The landowners in the valley have a huge stake in what happens with the creek,” Troutt said. “Salmon restoration will happen on the Ohop only if property owners are full participants.”

Ohop Creek is one of two major tributaries to the Nisqually River that can produce sustainable populations of chinook. “Because there are only a few places other than the mainstem of the Nisqually River where chinook spawn, increasing the quality of habitat in those places is important,” Troutt said. Nisqually River chinook are part of the Puget Sound chinook population listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“We also expect to see a big benefit to coho salmon, which return in very small numbers to the Nisqually watershed,” Troutt said. After a similar project on the nearby Mashel River, coho densities tripled within the restoration area. Ohop Creek also supports pink salmon, and cutthroat and steelhead trout.

“Bringing salmon runs back to the Nisqually means restoring habitat where we can. Restoring habitat is the most imporant thing we can do to recover salmon,” Troutt said. “Ohop Creek is a huge opportunity for us to do a lot of good for salmon.”

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For more information, contact: Kim Gridley, project manager, SPSSEG, (360) 412-0808. Joe Kane, executive director, Nisqually Land Trust, (360) 458-1111. David Troutt, natural resources director, Nisqually Indian Tribe, (360) 438-8687. Emmett O’Connell, South Sound information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of non-Indian anglers have been fishing for salmon, mostly chinook, since Aug. 1; the river has been open for non-salmon species since early June. Salmon sport fishing in the river is scheduled to continue through mid-December.

The Washington Department of Health (DOH) cited “human waste from sport fishers” as the reason for the closure, which will remain in place indefinitely. Officials from DOH and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) were scheduled to tour the river and tidelands today.

“The fact that the Skokomish Tribe must close an important shellfish harvest area as a direct result of non-Indian activities that are authorized by WDFW is an outrage and violates the tribe’s treaty rights,” said Skokomish Tribal Chairman Charles “Guy” Miller.

The area that is now closed, known as Potlatch East, is a harvest area for the tribe and includes tribally owned tidelands. The tribe currently has more than 170,000 oysters available for harvest on the beaches affected by the closure. In addition, plans to open tidelands along the eastern portion of Annas Bay, which have been closed for years, have now been shelved indefinitely as a result of the contamination.

The tribe recommends the following actions:

• An immediate closure of the recreational fishery in the Skokomish River until the current emergency shellfish closure is lifted,
• Clean-up of human waste and garbage along the Skokomish River from Purdy Creek downstream to the culvert replacement project site on U.S. highway 106,
• Implementation of a public awareness campaign prior to the re-opening of the recreational fisheries,
• Placement of adequate portable toilets and garbage facilities in key locations prior to the re-opening of the sport fishery,
• Adequate numbers enforcement officers to reasonably assure compliance of fishers in the recreational fishery.

The problem isn’t new, tribal officials said. In 2003, DOH and WDFW addressed the problem in a report entitled “Skokomish River Detailed Implementation Plan for Fecal Coliform Bacteria,” which addressed the pollution issue and potential solutions.

“We think it is particularly important that the recreational fishery in this area be closed immediately to prevent the problem from getting any worse,” Miller said. “The area also needs to be cleaned up. Simply waiting for floodwaters to flush the area is an unacceptable return to the philosophy of ‘dilution is the solution.’ The tribe is working hard to eliminate sources of fecal and nutrient contamination in Hood Canal. This contamination contributes to poor water quality leading to beach closures and oxygen depletion and we need some cooperation from WDFW.”

The small number of Skokomish tribal fishermen who harvest salmon in the lower river do not contribute to the problem, tribal officials said.

“Our people are taught to respect themselves and the environment in which they live. You take care of your needs before and after you go out, and don’t use the riverbank as your bathroom,” Miller said.

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For more information, contact: Charles “Guy” Miller, Skokomish Tribal Chairman, at (360) 426-4232 or gmiller@skokomish.org ; Joseph Pavel, Skokomish Tribe Director of Natural Resources at (360) 877-5213 or jpavel@skokomish.org; Dave Hererra, Skokomish Tribe Fish Policy Analyst, at (360) 877-2100 ext. 2070 or dhererra@skokomish.org; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

Returning tidal flow to former estuaries is an important step toward restoring salmon habitat. Puget Sound chinook salmon are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, an excavator made the final berm cut to allow full tidal flow to 200 acres of the Crescent Harbor salt marsh on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island for the first time in about 100 years.

The salt marsh had been cut off from fish access, with a minimal tidal exchange through a tide gate built in the 1900s.

Representatives from the SRSC, which is the natural resources management arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes, joined U.S. Naval officials at NAS Whidbey Island to watch the tide reconnect with the existing narrow channel.

“Our ancestors walked this earth right here before there were any non-Indians,” said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Tribe. “They lived out here when all of this was marsh land, so to have the tidal flow reintroduced is really amazing.”

The SRSC partnered with the Navy in 2007, to fund and design the restoration, acquiring grants from the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program and Salmon Recovery Funding Board. The Whidbey Island Conservation District assisted with engineering.

Marking the success of another project, on Tuesday, Aug. 18, crews removed the last of the old dikes and levees that prevented the tide from flowing into a former estuary around Wiley Slough in the Skagit River delta.

The state-owned parcel of land, known as the Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area, was converted from an estuary to a recreational area in 1962 – using dikes, drainage ditches, culverts and tide gates.

The 175-acre Wiley Slough restoration was proposed in 2002. It was completed in partnership with the tribes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Seattle City Light and the conservation group Skagit Watershed Council, with funding from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, NOAA Restoration Center and the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program.

For more information, contact: Steve Hinton, director of restoration, Skagit River System Cooperative, 360-466-7228 or shinton@skagitcoop.org; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

As Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for the tribe, Peters’ primary job duty is to monitor the tribe’s 24-hour marine mammal stranding hotline to dispatch rescuers to marine mammals stranded on nearby beaches. Peters also assists with marine mammal research objectives such as marine mammal surveys within the Makah treaty-reserved fishing areas.

“Having Seraphina available really helps improve our response time to marine mammals on the beach,” said Scordino. “Better response time improves protection of human and canine health,” he said.

Marine mammals such as seals can carry diseases fatal to humans and dogs visiting local beaches. “By getting to these sick marine mammals sooner we can minimize the potential of the spread of these diseases,” said Scordino.

Sea lions, for instance, may carry leptospirosis, a disease that affects the kidneys and is frequently fatal. If humans or dogs come into close contact with a sick sea lion or its feces, that infection may spread.

Scordino was forced once to euthanize a sea otter that was clearly unhealthy. The otter carried wounds indicating that he’d had a fight with a dog on the beach. The otter was later found to have canine distemper, a disease fatal to dogs.

Layers of fat that insulate marine mammals from the cold water of the ocean causes them to overheat when they become stranded on a beach. Once a marine mammal has died the insulation of the fat also traps heat within the body which causes the animals’ organs to decompose quickly. The decomposition makes determining the cause of death almost impossible, Scordino said.

“Getting to these animals in a timely manner allows us to perform necropsies to determine the cause of death and gives us clues to trends in marine mammal populations,” said Scordino.

Peters, a veteran of the tribe’s fisheries program, already has responded to one stranding. A several hundred-pound elephant seal was on the beach for molting. Elephant seals come ashore to shed their hair annually, as well as to breed and give birth. Peters kept other people away until the seal ambled back into the water. “It was exciting,” she said. “This is really interesting work.”

“Her job is part public relations, part public health and part marine mammal survey,” said Scordino. While other agencies will respond to marine mammal stranding calls in the Neah Bay area, Peters is less than an hour away. To report a marine mammal stranding in the area, call 360-640-0569.

A grant from the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program funds Peters’ position. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program provides grants or cooperative agreements for recovery and treatment of stranded marine mammals, and data collection from living or dead stranded marine mammals.
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For more information, contact: Russ Svec, Makah Fisheries Program Manager – (360) 645-3160; Jonathan Scordino, Marine Mammal Biologist for the Makah Tribe, (360) 645-3176; Debbie Preston, Coastal Information Officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

“I’m familiar with the issues that concern Pacific Northwest tribes,” EchoHawk said. “I just have some catching up to do. I’m glad to have this opportunity to listen and learn from you.”

EchoHawk recently was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as assistant secretary for Indian Affairs. A member of the Pawnee Nation, Echohawk was elected Attorney General of Idaho in 1990, the first American Indian in U.S. history elected as a state attorney general. He also served as a county prosecutor in 1986 and two consecutive terms in the Idaho legislature. Prior to his appointment, he was a law professor for 14 years at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.

“We’re grateful that Larry accepted our invitation,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and member of the Nisqually Tribe. “Larry’s from the Northwest but has been away from Indian Country for a while, teaching law. He asked us to help get him up to speed.”

Tribal leaders shared their concerns that the federal government has failed in the past to uphold their treaty rights.

“The key words in all of the treaties are: ‘The right to take fish,’ ” said Rebecca Miles, chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and member of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. “Every single word has been litigated in federal court to interpret what is the tribes’ right to take fish. Every battle we have won.”

“We are gatherers and we are harvesters, all of us,” Frank said. “This is our homeland. This is where we live. We don’t leave. We have to take care of our country. We manage fish from Alaska all the way to Mexico. We are managers, the tribes, every one.”

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer, NWIFC, 360-438-1180 or meyer@nwifc.org; Charles Hudson, CRITFC, 503-731-1257 or hudc@critfc.org.

Thirteen engineered log jams (ELJs) installed last summer in the river above Lake Quinault subtly deflected high river flows away from Alder Creek side channel, one of the few remaining areas used by sockeye, or blueback, salmon for spawning. Sockeye are culturally and economically vital to the QIN.

Land use practices in the Upper Quinault River valley removed most of the mature forests and large wood from the river and its floodplain, destabilizing the river. Side channel salmon habitat has been disappearing from the Upper Quinault as the river channel moves rapidly across its floodplain. There once was more than 55 miles of sockeye spawning side channel habitat along the river; now there are fewer than 5 miles.

“The river has responded to the engineered logjams in the way we expected,” said Bill Armstrong, salmon resources scientist for the Quinault Indian Nation. – it is a very exciting time.”

Protecting salmon habitat wasn’t the only successful outcome of the pilot project. Just as important was successfully demonstrating the upper Quinault River restoration approach and the ability of the QIN to get the job done. “Because of the success of the pilot project, we have secured significant support from the local Quinault valley community and other stakeholders for future projects in the watershed, setting the stage for a collaborative restoration effort,” said Armstrong.

QIN is also returning the forest to 12 miles of barren floodplain in the upper Quinault River watershed in one of the most ambitious river restoration plans in the lower 48 states. More than 1,000 species of sitka spruce, Douglas fir, red alder and black cottonwood poles were planted at the site this spring. Care was taken to ensure roots were put deep enough to receive water even in the summer months.

“We used a backhoe to dig holes as deep as 10 feet for most of the cottonwood poles to make sure the roots were in contact with water in August and September,” said Jim Plampin, silviculturist for the QIN.

Each tree received a plastic collar to discourage beavers from harming the trees. “We’ll plant more trees at this project site in the future and continue to monitor the area” said Armstrong. “Monitoring is a big part of restoration – so we’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. Only then can we modify our designs and methods if necessary to ensure successful restoration of the river into the future.”

The second phase of the project involves more than 100 engineered log jams to be built over two years in a section of river below the first project site. Engineers are now designing those projects. Work would begin this summer if funding is secured. The 50-year project is being conducted in cooperation with many federal, state and county agencies and local landowners.

Learning from their ancestors and gaining intimate knowledge of their homelands is part of subsistence hunting for all Makah tribal hunters. The Makah Tribe has always relied on elk and deer to sustain them and used all parts of the animal for tools and regalia. Only elk antlers were used to make harpoon barbs for whaling. Today, deer and elk meat help feed families in the remote village of Neah Bay while all the while contributing to cultural and spiritual life.

Radio tracking collars are placed on elk calves, allowing Makah wildlife biologists and technicians to record how many survive the first year, the cause of death for those that don’t survive, and the numbers of male and females to reach adulthood in each herd.

Jeremiah Johnson is one of the technicians and he loves being a part of managing the resource that is so important to him and his tribe. “People in the village are always asking me questions about the research we’re doing and how that helps us,” said Johnson. “It’s important work.”

This is the first year of the elk calf study and the fourth year of a black-tail deer study. “We put 20 elk calf collars out this spring and we have a grant pending to continue this study for two more years,” said McCoy. As the calves mature, they are recaptured and fitted with larger collars.

The tribe already has conducted several studies about the elk populations on and around their reservation. One of the studies looked at the quantity and quality of forage and how they affect reproduction rates. Limited and poor quality forage tends to limit elk calf births to every other year.

“To make an informed decision about harvest levels, we need this information,” said McCoy, who said that long term partnerships with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and volunteers from KBH Archers in Bremerton have assisted greatly in the effort to protect and enhance wildlife resources.
“We couldn’t do this important research without the volunteers,” said McCoy. “We’re grateful for the assistance we’ve received over the years.”
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For more information, contact: Rob McCoy, wildlife division manager, Makah Tribe, (360) 645-3058; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

“We have direct evidence that the human population around the bay contributes to water pollution, but it’s hard for people to connect their individual actions with the problem,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the tribe. Recent studies have identified human and livestock fecal coliform as a source of pollution threatening Oakland Bay.

“We can’t clean up Oakland Bay without the help of all the landowners in the watershed,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the tribe. “The first step is to be able to draw the link between where the pollution is coming from and the impact it’s having on human health and people’s jobs.” Oakland Bay is the largest producer of manila clams in the country and private shellfish farmers are among the largest employers in Mason County.

Other results of the survey include:

• Over half of the owners of septic systems that had not been inspected in the last five years said their septic was a not problem.
• Over 60 percent of livestock owners said they didn’t have enough livestock to pose a problem.

These conclusions were gleaned from interviews late last year with over 150 Oakland Bay residents.

“Right now, there is an unfortunate disconnect between what we know about the pollution issues and the best way to solve them,” Konovsky said. “We need to somehow make the connection real to ensure that we all know how to do our part.” In Oakland Bay, it only takes the failure of four septic systems for one year to increase bacteria to levels that would shut down shellfish harvest.

Both Mason County and the Mason Conservation District are poised to help landowners with money for septic tank riser installation and assistance with livestock management. The funds are intended to ease any financial burdens of improving stewardship.

In addition to the massive impact a shellfish harvest closure would have on the local economy, decreased water quality in Oakland Bay is a huge threat to human health and local property values. “Living next to a poisoned body of water is not a great selling point,” Konovsky said.

Three years ago 60 acres of shellfish growing beds at the head of Oakland Bay were downgraded to restricted status by the state because of increasing fecal pollution. The Sa-Heh-Wa-mish Stewardship Initiative, a local effort to reverse the course of increasing pollution in the bay, was founded in response. The federally funded effort includes many local, state and federal agencies.

“This problem is bigger than a lot of people realize,” Whitener said. “The entire community needs to come together to reverse the pollution trend in Oakland Bay. We won’t be able to protect this place until we can convince people there is a problem here and that we need their help to solve it.”

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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.

Suquamish shellfish biologist Paul Williams shows Jean Walat, volunteer coordinator for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, how to catch juvenile crabs with a bag of mesh scrubbers.

The instrument is quite simple to use – attach a mesh bag filled with mesh kitchen scrubbers to a small buoy and place the contraption in Puget Sound. Although simple in construction, this technique for capturing baby crab has been utilized successfully worldwide for a long time.

Fortunately for tribal biologists, once post-larval crabs are ready to settle, they will grab a hold of the first thing that provides enough texture for them to hold onto. By placing the scrubbers along the nearshore, the goal is to capture a subsample of the crab as they wash towards the shore to settle. Thus, with a little luck, when the buoy is pulled 24 hours later, there will be dozens of young Dungeness crabs larvae attached.

That’s the hope of Suquamish Tribe’s shellfish biologist Paul Williams, who is helping to recruit tribes, state and county agencies and volunteer groups to help collect the native crustaceans throughout Puget Sound. Williams is collaborating with Leif Rasmuson, the Skokomish Tribe’s shellfish management biologist, who wrote the initial project proposal and is managing the project in Hood Canal.

“By collecting crab larvae, shellfish managers hope to find out where they came from,” Williams said. “In their last larval stage, they are called megalops due to their huge eyes. At this stage, they grab on to anything they encounter in order to determine if it is a good place to transform to bottom-dwelling, juvenile crab.  So, we just put the scrubbers in their path and they grab on. Having collection stations throughout the region will bring in extensive data about the region’s fluctuating crab population and help us better manage the harvest.”

The focus of the project is the declining Dungeness crab population in Hood Canal. In 2008, there was a drop of 75 percent in the amount of crab caught in the area, down from 700,000 pounds in 2005.

The tribes want to know if the crab found in Hood Canal originated there or if they came from the Pacific Coast or other parts of Puget Sound.

“The current scientific literature has limited information regarding Hood Canal crabs, but the literature from other regions shows the distinct possibility that recruitment limitations could be a cause for the decline in the crab population that managers are observing in the canal,” Rasmuson said. “With any hope, this project will allow managers to gain insight into the early life stages of this commercially important species and help to determine how fluid populations are throughout the state.”

When crab eggs hatch, the larvae drift with tidal currents for up to six months before settling down to mature into adults in estuaries and other nearshore areas. Biologists hope to determine the source of the baby crab based on their size and when they settle in a specific location.

While this study is looking at natural fluctuation of larvae coming from outside Puget Sound, a number of factors may contribute to the decline including overfishing, low dissolved oxygen and disease.

Williams and Rasmuson are looking for volunteers in Hood Canal, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, the San Juan Islands and Whidbey Basin. Detailed training sessions will be provided throughout Puget Sound. More information can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/megalopasite/.

Support for this project comes from King County, Suquamish Tribe, Skokomish Tribe, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Tribe, Point No Point Treaty Council, Port Townsend Marine Science Center, Puget Sound Restoration Fund and Hood Canal Coordinating Council.

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For more information, contact Paul Williams, Suquamish Tribe shellfish biologist at (360) 434-7432 or pwilliams@suquamish.nsn.us; Leif Rasmuson, Skokomish Tribe shellfish management biologist, at (360) 877-5213, ext  525 or lrasmuson@skokomish.org; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

In a few years, fishermen might be able to hit the water for chinook in Sinclair Inlet a month earlier than they can now.

Hatchery chinook generally return to the inlet near Gorst in August and September. An effort to expand the run timing would have fish swimming into Sinclair Inlet in July.
As part of its annual spring release of juvenile chinook from the Gorst Hatchery, the tribe recently released 900,000 juvenile chinook, which are expected to return in July and August 2012. The tribe also released another 900,000 juvenile chinook that will return in August and September 2012.

The early returning fish are from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Minter Creek hatchery on Carr Inlet in South Sound; the later returning fish are from the tribe’s Grovers Creek hatchery in Indianola.

“When these fish return in three years, we want to see if we can have a longer fishing season in Sinclair Inlet by bring in an early-returning fish,” said Mike Huff, Gorst Hatchery manager.  “We have experienced good survival from the Grover’s Creek-timed fish we have been releasing for years – so some studies will be necessary to determine how well the Minter-timed fish perform at this location.

“These fish are for everyone, tribal and non-tribal fishermen,” he said. “The more we have, the better opportunities for all.”

Like all hatcheries that produce fish specifically for harvest, the Suquamish Tribe marks their hatchery chinook so they can be distinguished from their wild cousins. Puget Sound chinook and Hood Canal summer chum are listed at “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Isolated terminal fisheries in places like Sinclair Inlet, where abundant hatchery fish are not intermingled with natural runs, allows for the opportunity to take advantage of our enhancement efforts,” said Jay Zischke, the tribe’s fisheries management biologist. “By focusing our hatchery efforts in locations where wild fish are not, we can benefit from our investment while protecting weak wild runs.”

“By expanding the run timing, we’re hopefully going to be able to give both sport and treaty fishermen a longer season overall, and more opportunity for chinook fishing,” he said.

The Gorst facility is a partnership between the Suquamish Tribe, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the City of Bremerton and volunteer efforts by the Kitsap Poggie Club.

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For more information, contact Jay Zischke, Suquamish Tribe fisheries management biologist, at (360) 394-8444 or jzischke@suquamish.nsn.us; Mike Huff,  hatchery manager, at (360) 394-8440 or mhuff@suquamish.nsn.us; or Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The tribe has planted a streamside buffer near Bells Creek, where invasive knotweed, elk and beavers threaten the survival of the freshly planted trees.

Last year, Lummi Natural Resources placed large pieces of wood in Bells Creek to create protected pools for spawning coho salmon, steelhead and bull trout. A history of removing wood and straightening the channel for flood control had left the creek devoid of quality salmon habitat.

The next step was to plant trees in the 2-acre buffer along the creek near its confluence with the North Fork Nooksack River and within 17 acres of existing hardwood stands nearby. Whatcom Land Trust owns the property.

Conifers such as cedar, fir and spruce are essential for healthy salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Trees provide shade that cools the water, keeping it at an ideal temperature for fish. Over time, wood falls into the stream and further enriches the habitat.

However, invasive Japanese knotweed spreads rapidly and takes over river banks, impeding the growth of native plants. Mechanical removal encourages spreading. Herbicidal methods require multiple treatments and aren’t always effective.

“When we first came out here, we didn’t realize we had as much knotweed as we did,” said Frank Bob, Lummi tribal member and habitat restoration assistant. “We originally planned to just plant around the outer edges of the knotweed, but since we had so much of it, we decided to plant trees in the open space between the knotweed.”

To keep knotweed from blocking the sun and crowding out the young trees, Lummi crews are stomping the stalks to bend them back.

“It doesn’t kill it,” Bob said. “All we can do is buy the trees time to grow taller than the knotweed.” As with herbicide, this method will require continued maintenance and Lummi Nation only has funding to maintain the area for two years after planting.

Bob plans to enlist volunteer groups to help.

“We definitely can get people out here to stomp knotweed,” said Lindsay Taylor, volunteer coordinator for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. “Especially younger student groups — kids love to destroy stuff.”

With the knotweed out of the way, young cedars still are vulnerable to nibbling from elk and beavers. Spruce trees apparently are less appealing to elk than cedar, so the tribe planted sitka spruce alongside the cedars. Once the cedar is no longer vulnerable to browsing, tribal staff will cut back the spruce. If the cedar dies, the spruce will continue to grow.

The tribe is discouraging beavers by wrapping protective wire cages around the trees.

“We lost about 300 trees before we put up the cages,” Bob said.

Additional funding comes from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Pacific Coast Salmon Treaty.

For more information, contact: Frank Bob, Lummi habitat restoration assistant, 360-384-2267 or FrankB@lummi-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Rain or shine, in smooth waters or blustery wind, the crew pulls beach seines and sets fyke traps to count and measure fish before returning them to the water. Crew members also record water temperature, salinity, depth, velocity, substrate and vegetation. As a result, SRSC, the natural resources arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes, has a 15-year (and counting) comprehensive database of the way fish use nearshore habitat.

The nearshore is a nursery to a variety of fish including sculpins, perch, smelt, herring and salmon. Puget Sound chinook salmon, listed as “threatened” by the federal Endangered Species Act, depend on estuaries for extended rearing during outmigration.

Monitoring this habitat is a crucial, yet often underfunded, aspect of the salmon recovery effort, said Eric Beamer, SRSC’s research director. Without it, nobody knows whether a restoration project did what it was supposed to do.

“Restoration science is rather new and the designs used are often untested and unique by site,” Beamer said. “It is critical to learn what actually happens at sites. The restoration might work better than predicted, worse than predicted, or just different than predicted. If we monitor, we can find out what actually happens and often take corrective action.”

SRSC’s best example of funding to monitor the effectiveness of a project was $50,000 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Deepwater Slough restoration. At the time of completion in 2000, it was the largest estuarine project on the West Coast. But $50,000 was only 2 percent of the total project cost and it wasn’t enough, Beamer said.

Beyond measuring the effectiveness of a particular project, long-term monitoring on a larger scale is essential to understanding and maintaining salmon recovery.

“This kind of monitoring evaluates the response of the entire chinook salmon population to natural and human-caused changes to the environment,” Beamer said.

SRSC intends to monitor whether chinook populations are increasing or decreasing in response to multiple factors:

• Restoration that has occurred.
• Existing habitat that is or is not protected.
• Environmental changes such as global climate change, which could alter flooding, sea level rise and marine survival conditions for salmon.

The essential data collection includes:

• Spawner surveys and test fisheries to estimate chinook escapement.
• Lower mainstem river smolt trapping to estimate the number of wild chinook juveniles that successfully rear in freshwater habitat of the watershed.
• Estuary trapping to estimate the number of wild chinook juveniles that successfully rear in the estuary.
• Nearshore beach seining and tow-netting to estimate the number of wild chinook juveniles that successfully rear in the nearshore.
• The indicator stock program and regionwide catch sampling to estimate harvest of Skagit chinook production.

“It’s nice when monitoring confirms what we think is happnening,” Beamer said. “But monitoring results are especially important when things don’t go exactly as planned. That way, you can do course correction.”

For more information, contact: Eric Beamer, research director, Skagit River System Cooperative, 360-466-7228 or ebeamer@skagitcoop.org; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

These steelhead aren’t hatchery fish though – they are part of the tribe’s captive steelhead broodstock program. The tribe started the program in 2005 to ensure that the remaining Elwha River steelhead aren’t wiped out during the 2011 deconstruction of the Elwha River’s two dams, 210-foot Glines Canyon and 108-foot Elwha.

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe hatchery technician Keith Lauderback and Western Washington University intern Melanie Roed examine a steelhead for blood and scale samples.

Puget Sound steelhead are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. Currently, fish cannot get past the dams and can spawn only in the lower 5 miles of the river.

Every summer since 2005, the tribe has collected steelhead fry from the river and raised them in its hatchery. The fry collected are believed to be remnants of the river’s naturally spawning stock. Fry collected in 2005 are now four-year-olds and were spawned this spring; their progeny are expected to be released as two-year-olds in 2011. They’ll do the same for each successive year.

“We’ve found that wild steelhead tend to emigrate to the ocean as two year olds, so we’ll try to rear them to that age before we release them,” said Larry Ward, a fisheries biologist and hatchery manager for the tribe. “We’ve been successful at raising the 2005 stock to spawning maturity, so things are going well so far.”

The tribe collected blood and scale samples, as well as kept track of the genetic makeup of each fish. Two or three males were spawned for every female and the fertilized eggs are incubating in the tribe’s hatchery. More than 250,000 eggs were taken and fertilized from the 2005 fish this spring.

Collaborators on the project include National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish & Wildlife. Funding for the project comes from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.

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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.

“Trees that wash into the lake from the river and get stuck behind the dam need to be removed before they become a nuisance,” said David Troutt, natural resources manager for the Nisqually Tribe, which is spearheading the effort to gather the logs. “We’re just taking them out and putting them to good use.” Juvenile salmon find both food and shelter within logjams. The structures also slow the flow of the creek, easing adult salmon migration.

“We know logjams benefit salmon because we’ve been monitoring other restoration projects. We really see a difference in the section of river with logjams and those without,” Troutt said. “There are a lot more salmon around the logjams.”

The lake and dam are owned by Tacoma Power, which is turning the trees over for the restoration project for free. The tribe only has to pay for transporting them to a storage site.

To restore Ohop Creek, the tribe and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group will dig a new mile-long creek channel and build logjams “Ohop right now is basically a long straight ditch, not a very good place for salmon,” said Kim Gridley, project manager for the enhancement group. “The project will create a richer more varied habitat for salmon.”

Restoring creeks like Ohop is important because it is one of only two tributaries to the Nisqually River that produce chinook. “If some catastrophic event – for example a devastating flood – were to wipe out the entire population of chinook along the mainstem, salmon from Ohop Creek would be able to repopulate the rest of the river,” Troutt said. “By having separate populations in different rivers and creeks in the same watershed, you strengthen the entire population.”

In addition to Puget Sound chinook and steelhead, both of which are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act, Ohop also produces coho and pink salmon and cutthroat trout.

“Suitable trees like these are pretty hard to find and can be pretty expensive,” Troutt said. “The budget for any particular salmon habitat restoration project is pretty tight, so anywhere we can save money on a major cost is great.”

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For more information, contact: David Troutt, natural resources manager, Nisqually Indian Tribe, (360) 438-8687. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, NWIFC, (360) 528-4304, eoconnell@nwifc.org

“We’re looking at the effects of these blooms on such factors as water quality and toxins in shellfish,” said Chris Whitehead, tribal shellfish biologist. “We also hope that the information will help contribute to the development of a harmful algal bloom early warning system.”

Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe biologist Lohna O'Rourke takes a water sample from Sequim Bay.

Harmful algal blooms occur naturally when water temperatures rise or when there are excess nutrients in the water. The blooms can cause toxins such as domoic acid to develop in shellfish.  While not harmful to the bivalves, humans can become ill if they consume toxic shellfish.

The tribe’s effort focuses on sampling shellfish and water at four sites each week at the same time through September 2009.

The Washington Department of Health (DOH) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been conducting minimal studies of the bay to determine when toxins are in the water. But the tribe, which uses the bay for a wide range of cultural and economic uses, believes more information is needed to get a better grasp of the bay’s overall health.

“There seems to be a gap in the data collected by DOH and NOAA, since they’re not collected at the same time or at the same location. That makes it difficult to link water toxin levels and algae counts with toxin levels in shellfish,” Whitehead said.

Funding for the study comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The University of Washington is also collaborating on the project.

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For more information, contact: Chris Whitehead, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe shellfish biologist, at (360) 681-4630, or cwhitehead@jamestowntribe.org, Kelly Toy, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe shellfish manager at (360) 681-4641 or ktoy@jamestowntribe.org, Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians counts outgoing chinook with a smolt trap in the lower Puyallup River. The trap allows young salmon to be safely captured and released, providing an estimate of the watershed’s productivity. Smolts are juvenile salmon undergoing “smoltification,” a physiological process that allows them to survive their transition from fresh to salt water.

In early May, more than halfway through the out-migration season, only 34 chinook have been caught in the trap. That’s down from 2,500 chinook last year.

Because only a portion of the young chinook are caught in the trap, the must carefully analyze capture data before determining the size of the outmigration. A mild winter in 2007 resulted in the largest wild chinook outmigration ever recorded in the river: 89,000 wild chinook.

“It is possible that we’re seeing just a very late out-migration, but its much more likely that the chinook were killed during the winter floods,” said Russ Ladley, resource protection manager for the tribe.

A flood in 2006 had a similar impact on the 2007 out-migrating chinook population. After analysis, the tribe determined that only 10,000 chinook left the watershed that year, down from a peak of 60,000 fish in 2005.

“Because of habitat degradation, spawning and rearing habitat throughout the Puyallup watershed is limited,” Ladley said. “One flood can do a lot of damage.”

Historically, floods in the Puyallup Watershed were not as dangerous to salmon. “The nature of the watershed has changed dramatically, with dikes being built up right next to the river. An increase in impervious surfaces such as parking lots make stormwater all the more destructive,” Ladley said. “Water flows through the system at a much higher rate now, making floods more destructive for people and salmon.”

Low numbers of juvenile chinook migrating out to the ocean this year will mean even fewer adult chinook returning in three or four years from now, and that will mean restricted fisheries. “Chinook fisheries on the Puyallup, even fisheries on abundant hatchery stocks, are driven by impacts to the number of wild chinook returning in a particular year,” Ladley said. Puyallup River chinook are part of the Puget Sound stock listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“To sustain strong chinook runs from year to year, the fish need habitat to support them,” Ladley said. “In the past few years the tribe has worked with partners throughout the watershed to restore habitat for juvenile salmon, but those projects have only covered a fraction of the entire watershed.”

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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.

KING 5 News:

More than a century ago, Native American tribes watched settlers dam, dike and straighten the area’s streams and rivers.

Today the federal EPA gave those same tribes millions of dollars to undo some of those changes.

During a ceremony at a 140-acre site near the Upper Skagit Indian Reservation near Sedro-Woolley, the EPA handed over $2 million to 19 tribes to fund several restoration projects. The money will be used at that site to remove dikes and other obstacles from Hansen Creek, a major tributary of the Skagit River.

Skagit Valley Herald:

The earthen berms that keep Hansen Creek on a straight and narrow course through the Northern State Recreation Area will be breached later this year, creating new salmon habitat.

The stream will flow onto 35 Skagit County-owned acres once used for farming, said Lauren Rich, an environmental planner with the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. In about five years, the resulting wetlands and streambed will start to look natural, she said.

It’s all part of an ongoing project to restore 140 acres of salmon habitat in the county’s 726-acre recreation area on Helmick Road, an effort that also will help with flood control.

Also:

Tacoma News Tribune

The Auburn Reporter

“The Sherwood watershed is one of the most complicated systems in the tribe’s treaty-reserved fishing area,” said Joe Peters, fisheries management biologist for the Squaxin Island Tribe. Tribal biologists are unsure about how many coho are rearing annually in Shumacher Creek, a tributary to Sherwood Creek, which flows into Mason Lake. Sherwood Creek flows out of Mason Lake.

One smolt trap – a safe and effective devices for catching and counting juvenile salmon as they migrate to sea – is installed at the mouth of Schumacher Creek in the upper watershed just above Mason Lake. Another is operating near the mouth of Sherwood Creek close to where it enters Puget Sound.

“By counting the coho that migrate through both parts of the watershed, we’ll get a better idea of how productive the upper watershed is compared to the entire watershed,” said Peters. Tribal technicians mark each of the coho caught in the upper trap so the fish can be identified if they are caught again in the lower trap.

“We’ve had a smolt trap at the mouth of Sherwood for years, so we have a good idea of the total production of the system,” Peters said. “But, we don’t know how many come out of Shumacher into the lake and then how many of those end up leaving freshwater entirely.”

Unlike other salmon species that leave for the ocean almost immediately after emerging from the gravel, coho spend an extra year in freshwater. “Because they spend so long in freshwater, coho are much more vulnerable to habitat degradation,” Peters said.

The two-trap study dovetails with a juvenile coho survey conducted last summer by tribal biologists. Using habitat and stream temperature data, biologists looked for places where juvenile coho were rearing throughout the watershed.

The tribe operates smolt traps on five creeks across the South Sound to track the health of salmon populations. The traps operate until the end of June, when most salmon smolts have migrated to sea. Tribal staff check the traps at least twice a day, noting species types, sizes and lengths.

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

“It’s only recently that we’ve realized the threat invasive species may pose to our long-term restoration goals for the Dungeness River,” said Hilton Turnbull, the tribe’s habitat biologist. “There’s not a lot of research available from our area on this species but we’ve been watching it spreading rapidly since 2004 and are concerned it’s affecting salmon habitat.”

The purple flower-bearing bush starts out small as a backyard shrub, but it can quickly grow to be 18-feet tall and 20-feet wide in less than a decade. It can produce as many as 40,000 seeds per single flower head, which spread by wind and water. With a 30-year lifespan and rapid reproduction cycle, the Asian plant out-competes native trees such as red alder, cottonwood, cedar and other conifers. Native trees provide shade that keeps the river cool and help form prime salmon habitat after they fall into the river, creating pools of water for salmon where they rest, feed and hide from predators. Buddleia can’t achieve the same effect.

Butterfly bush is commonly planted to provide habitat for butterflies.  However, the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board has found that it is rarely used by butterflies as a host plant and may in fact displace the native plants needed by butterflies for reproduction.

“Because it spreads rapidly, it can quickly take over the native species,” Turnbull said. “A healthy functioning river with native plants is critical to the successful restoration of the Dungeness River.”

Turnbull has spent the past three summers mapping the shrubs and eradicating them along 10 miles of the river, from its mouth to the Dungeness River Fish Hatchery. So far, the tribe has treated 83 acres of streamside habitat and selectively replanted native species in place of the Buddleia thickets. The tribe’s natural resources staff cuts the Buddleia at its base and applies an herbicide directly to the stump to kill the root system.

Turnbull is working with other groups and agencies to educate riverfront property owners about the issue and help create “fish-friendly yards.” The main problem he faces is that the plant is sold at local nurseries. Turnbull notes that although the plant has been banned from retail sale in California and Oregon, it is still legal to purchase here, despite being listed as a noxious weed in Washington state.

“We’d like to provide information to retailers advising people not to plant buddleia near a stream or river and we can also recommend native plant alternatives to interested landowners,” he said.

Funding for this project comes from a Bureau of Indian Affairs grant. Support from property owners living on the Dungeness River has also been crucial and beneficial to the effort.

Each spring, the co-managers set fishing seasons during the cooperative North of Falcon process, named for the cape that marks the southern boundary of the tribal and state management area. Fisheries are designed to protect weak wild runs while providing limited harvest for treaty tribal and state sport and commercial fisheries.

“The tribes are committed to working together with non-Indian fishermen for the benefit of the salmon resource,” said Lorraine Loomis, Swinomish fisheries manager and the tribal North of Falcon coordinator. “This harvest opportunity on the Skagit River is the outcome of strong salmon management allowing us to share the resource.”

During the recreational fishery this summer, tribal and sport fishermen will divide the week equally, with each fishing for 3 1/2 days.

“Credit for putting together this historic recreational fishery opportunity should go the Phil Anderson, the interim director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,’’ said Scott Schuyler, natural resources director for the Upper Skagit Tribe. “This fishing package gives everyone a chance to fish.”

The Skagit River is the largest producer of wild chinook in the region. More than 23,000 wild summer and fall chinook are expected to return to the Skagit. The next largest runs of chinook to any Puget Sound river are fewer than 10,000 fish.

Recreational fishing on the summer/fall run has been closed since 1993. Sport fishermen share the tribes’ interest in sustaining harvestable numbers of fish, said Larry Carpenter of Master Marine in Mount Vernon. Carpenter represented anglers during the North of Falcon process.

“We’ve got to continue the run,” Carpenter said. “I grew up fishing the Skagit. Where else can you go along the I-5 corridor to catch a prize wild king salmon?”

A key factor to lasting salmon recovery is habitat restoration, Loomis said. “The largest reason for the decline of salmon is the loss and degradation of habitat,” she said. “The only way to lasting salmon recovery is to repair that damage.”

Restoration projects by the Upper Skagit, Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes so far have improved hundreds of acres of chinook rearing habitat in freshwater banks, backwaters, estuary channels and pocket estuaries.

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

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the annual cooperative season-setting process known as North of Falcon. The name refers to a cape on the northern Oregon coast that marks the southern boundary of where the treaty tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon cooperatively manage fisheries.

“We created North of Falcon a quarter century ago to work cooperatively for the benefit of the salmon resource, as well as Indian and non-Indian fishermen,” said Lorraine Loomis, Swinomish tribal fisheries manager and tribal North of Falcon coordinator. “The tribes are just as committed to the process today as we were then, because it works.”

Tribal and state fishery managers are expecting strong coho runs this year to the Columbia River and many of Washington’s coastal rivers, including the Hoh and Quillayute. For Puget Sound, millions of pink salmon are forecasted to return to the region’s rivers, although chinook and coho runs are expected to be slightly down this year.

Based on those projections, state and tribal fishers will have opportunities to fish for salmon this summer, but many fisheries will be constrained to protect wild salmon listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), especially Puget Sound chinook.

“The North of Falcon process has been a success because we make conservation of wild salmon populations our highest priority, while designing fisheries that respect the needs of the tribes and the state in sharing the harvest opportunity,” said Phil Anderson, interim director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

State and tribal cooperation also is the key to addressing one of the most pressing needs of salmon, which is more high quality salmon spawning and rearing habitat, Anderson and Loomis said.

“Natural salmon production is disappearing along with the habitat,” Loomis said. “Protecting and restoring habitat are two of the keys to salmon recovery.”

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

The tribe hired additional field technicians and acquired an old trout farm to spawn and rear threatened South Fork Stillaguamish River chinook. But because there are so few chinook returning to the South Fork, it has been a challenge to collect enough adult fish to spawn.

South Fork chinook are genetically distinct from North Fork chinook, and always have been smaller in number.

The tribe’s hatchery program in the North Fork has supplemented that population for 20 years, with about 1,500 fish returning to the North Fork each year. Meanwhile, chinook returns to the South Fork have declined to fewer than 100 fish. Among the factors contributing to the population’s decline are habitat degradation from landslides and the smothering of salmon redds.

A juvenile chinook salmon swims in its fish "condo" at the Stillaguamish Tribe's hatchery

The Stillaguamish Tribe has not had a chinook fishery on either population since 1985. When fishing seasons are set for other runs in the region, fisheries are structured to protect those few chinook returning to the Stillaguamish River.

“Chinook salmon are a culturally important food source to the Stillaguamish Tribe,” said Stillaguamish Chairman Shawn Yanity. “We have not fished for Stillaguamish River chinook for nearly 25 years, because we want this population to recover for future generations.”

The tribe hopes to recreate the success of its North Fork hatchery program in the South Fork. Hatchery supplementation is not a substitute for habitat restoration – it is considered genetic maintenance.

“Starting a hatchery broodstock program in the South Fork is the best way to keep the population from going extinct until the habitat can be restored,” Yanity said.

To maintain genetic diversity, the tribe needs to use at least 15 male and 15 female adult chinook. “We have to find the fish and get them by any means necessary,” said John Drotts, the tribe’s natural resources manager.

From left: Stillaguamish Tribe natural resources technicians Kate Konoski, Charlotte Scofield and Jody Pope retrieve a juvenile salmon from a beach seine on the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

The extensive effort to collect broodstock last summer and fall included snorkel surveys and an attempted helicopter retrieval, but there weren’t enough adult chinook salmon to be found.

Now, the natural resources department is trying something different: beach seining for juvenile salmon to hold in captivity until they are old enough to spawn. The tribe received funding for the effort from the state Salmon Recovery Funding board. It has collected about 20 juvenile chinook to test the feasibility of implementing a captive brood program. Efforts to collect adults will continue later this year.

A similar captive broodstock program already is under way for South Fork Nooksack River spring chinook, which also have declined severely in number. The Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe so far have collected about 500 juveniles that are being raised to adulthood in hatcheries.

For more information, contact: John Drotts, Stillaguamish natural resources manager at 360-435-2755 or jdrotts@stillaguamish.nsn.us; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC information officer at 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.