Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

EarthTalk, the environmental section of online magazine Blast was asked: Why did 34 million wild sockeye salmon return to the Fraser River in British Columbia this year? The run had been declining for 20 years before now.

The miraculous sockeye salmon run in western Canada’s Fraser River watershed in the summer and fall of 2010—indeed the biggest run in 97 years—still has fishers, researchers and

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The Lummi Nation’s Skookum Creek Hatchery is working with the University of Idaho’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to study a bacterial disease that attacks coho salmon.

Flavobacterium psychrophilus causes the disease, called bacterial coldwater disease, which is often fatal to salmon raised in hatcheries. The bacterial disease is thought to be passed to the next generation within eggs from infected female fish. The disease …

The Bellingham Herald reports on Salmon Recovery Funding Board grants in Whatcom County, including one to the Nooksack Tribe:

The Nooksack Tribe and a salmon group have received $794,480 to restore salmon habitat in the Nooksack River.

The award was announced Monday, Dec. 20, by the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board as part of $20.7 million in state grants to help threatened salmon.

The projects

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For the past several years, the Upper Skagit Tribe has been monitoring five channels in Rockport, Marblemount and Newhalem to make sure beaver activity doesn’t keep salmon from reaching their spawning grounds.

Beaver had taken over several side channels that were constructed for chum salmon habitat. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife built the channels years ago to replace habitat that had been lost to …

Beavers are tenacious animals whose mission in life is to stop the flow of water so they can create a pond for their lodges. Unfortunately, their dams often block fish passage.

Tribes have had to find creative ways to discourage beaver activity enough to let salmon access spawning habitat.

“Beaver deceivers” have become a popular and inexpensive way to deter the animals, but they aren’t effective …

TULALIP – Coho Creek didn’t exist 10 years ago. Tulalip tribal natural resources staff created the tributary to Quilceda Creek out of a drainage ditch.

“This restoration work is part of our plan to balance development on tribal lands with the preservation of fish and wildlife habitat,” said Tulalip Chairman Mel Sheldon.

This fall, more coho salmon were seen in the restored habitat than have been …

TULALIP – Work is well under way on the Qwuloolt estuary project to return tidal processes to 350 acres of isolated floodplain in the Snohomish River watershed.

“We lost critical salmon habitat in the early 1900s when the Marysville marshes were drained and the area was diked for farming,” said Tulalip tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon. “Restoring Qwuloolt and other estuary wetlands are key to regional salmon …

Tribes and state agencies are fighting shoreline erosion and restoring forage fish habitat in Fidalgo Bay.

The beaches on the west side of March Point near the Tesoro and Shell oil refineries once were prime spawning and rearing habitat for forage fish such as surf smelt, sand lance and Pacific herring. Forage fish prefer to spawn in coarse sand and gravel, but industrial activity, shoreline armoring …

The Olympian had a news story and editorial about the efforts of the Squaxin Island Tribe to restore Shelton Harbor and Oakland Bay. Here is part of their editorial:

The Squaxin Island Tribe recently announced plans to begin work on a fish and wildlife restoration project in Shelton Harbor, which is the southwestern most terminus of Puget Sound.

Over the next year, the tribe will

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The Suquamish Tribe recently acquired 157 acres of culturally important tidelands on Dyes Inlet.

A traditional shellfish harvesting area, the swath of land is also the site of old wintering villages and homesteads, stretching between Chico Creek and Phinney Bay.

The tribe has been harvesting shellfish on the tidelands in cooperation with previous owners since 2004. The tribe plans to seed the tidelands with clams and …