After harvesting Fraser River pink salmon in the San Juan Islands in March 2011, Forsman worked with the tribe to have more than 8,000 pounds of pink salmon canned at the Swinomish Fish Co. cannery and delivered to Suquamish.

Human services staff member Jackie Demain-Severson labels cases of pink salmon for Suquamish tribal members.

Forsman has been fishing and donating some of his catch to the tribe for a number of years, but it was only distributed to Suquamish elders and the tribe’s food bank. Last year, he approached the tribe’s fisheries department about conducting a subsistence harvest to benefit the entire community. In May 2012, tribal members received one case of canned pink salmon while elders received two.

“I heard two cases of salmon were available and I couldn’t believe it,” said tribal member Vicky Doyle. “That’s a lot of salmon.”

Remaining fish will go to the Suquamish food bank.

Since fish is a part of the tribal members’ traditional diet, it’s important to make sure it’s available to tribal community. Health benefits of salmon include servings of Omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and Vitamin D.

“Each can has enough for two sandwiches,” said tribal member Marjorie Lawrence. “I know elders who put it in ramen. It’d be a good substitution for chicken on top of a Caesar salad.”

“The whole crew feels good about this,” Forsman said. “We want to continue a tradition that has been around for a long time. It is our goal to make this an annual distribution effort for the Suquamish community.”

###

For more information, contact Clae Williams, Suquamish Human Services, at 360-394-8413 or kwilliams@suquamish.nsn.us; Jay Zischke, Suquamish Tribe fisheries management biologist/marine fish manager, at (360) 394-8444 or jzischke@suquamish.nsn.us; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

Amanda Stygar and Shane Miller survey Twanoh State Park for shellfish. Click on the photo for more photos.

“While the habitat restoration work for salmon at the mouths of these waterways has been important, the shellfish beds nearby have been either washed out because the streams are naturally shifting or they are being buried by the sediment washed out following restoration,” she said. “The shellfish species should recover, but it will take a long time.”

The shellfish restoration work includes mapping beach sediment, studying the beach slope, determining existing clam and oyster populations and surveying marine vegetation.

The tribe will determine if any of the beaches need to be modified before being seeded, such as adding gravel or shell to create a harder substrate that shellfish need. Hood Canal beaches are typically inhabited by Pacific and Olympia oysters and littleneck clams.

“Establishing this baseline of data will help us better determine the amount of clams and oysters available for harvest by tribal members and use the additional information we gather to help ensure healthy shellfish populations in the future,” she said.

Funding for this project comes from the Laird Norton Family Foundation.

###

For more information, contact: Margaret Homerding, Skokomish Tribe shellfish management biologist, at (360) 877-5213, ext. 525 or mhomerding@skokomish.org; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

The Seattle Times’ Lynda Mapes has been blogging about the sediment recently, including posting aerial photos of the river mouth.  Her post explores how the sediment will help rebuild the beaches near the river mouth and compares the beach ecology near the Elwha River with the beaches near the less-developed Dungeness Spit.

The Peninsula Daily News published a story about the sediment plume while discussing the impacts on fish in the river.

From the story:

So far, the sediment is not killing fish.

“They’re not dying, but we can see some irritation on some of their gills,” said Robert Elofson, river restoration director for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.

The industrial water-treatment plant that feeds the state-of-the-art $16.4 million new fish hatchery at the tribe was built specifically for the dam removal project.

…

Already, fish are being seen in the river.

Last summer, about 600 coho were released into the Little River and Indian Creek — Elwha River tributaries between the dams — to shield them from high sediment loads coming down the main stem of the river.

Those fish produced about 100 salmon redds, or nests, and those salmon have hatched.

“We’re seeing fry in both streams now,” Elofson said.

Deconstruction of Glines Canyon Dam will cease Tuesday and remain that way through the end of June for a “fish window.”

Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe chairman Jeromy Sullivan was pleased to hear of the news – from the story:

Port Gamble S’Klallam Chairman Jeromy Sullivan said Tuesday he’s excited about the governor’s approval of the supplemental budget and the upcoming discussions of the cleanup. The three S’Klallam bands – Elwha, Jamestown and Port Gamble – have shellfish harvesting rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Point No Point, rights adversely affected by contamination.

“Ecology has made it pretty clear that a cleanup plan is a priority, the cleanup process itself is a priority,” Sullivan said. “The Tribe’s always been concerned with the cleanup, making sure it’s done correctly. We’re not interested in how or who is responsible. The outcome is what we’re looking for. The product of a clean bay is the most important thing.

“If we can open up the geoduck bed, and improve conditions for oysters and shellfish, it will be positive for everybody.”

From the story:

“Shellfish have always been an important part of tribal culture here in western Washington and this initiative will help protect and restore shellfish by increasing accountability for activities that pollute beds and threaten our treaty rights,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “As co-managers, the treaty Indian tribes stand ready to work with our state, federal and local partners, the shellfish industry and others to accomplish (its) goals.”

Thomas Mabe, a Seafood Industry Board member for the Suquamish Tribe, said that on their lands, shellfish harvesting provides jobs for five divers and 14 other employees — and generates $7 million in annual revenue.

“It’s a pretty substantial business for us,” Mabe said.

And because business is thriving, the Suquamish are eyeing expansion into niches like salmon, sea urchins and sea cucumbers — which have demand both locally and across the Pacific Ocean in Asia.

“This area has been heavily affected the past few decades by the presence of more than 30 fish-blocking culverts, in addition to residential development and logging along the streambeds,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s habitat program manager. “Partnering with property owners to restore damaged salmon habitat has had positive and rewarding results.”

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe habitat manager Mike McHenry and property owner Dave Colthorp walk along Nordstrom Creek. The large logs were installed to improve salmon habitat on Colthorp's property.

The focus of the past year’s work has been installing logs and rootwads into creeks flowing through the owners’ property, plus planting native vegetation along the streambeds, including cedar, dogwood, shore pine and cottonwood. Slowing down the water velocity by installing logs helps build pools for salmon, which use them for rearing, feeding and hiding from predators.

Coho, chum, steelhead and cutthroat all inhabit the highly productive Salt Creek watershed. As many as 30,000 young salmon have been counted making their way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Salt Creek.

“Growing up in the Port Angeles with Klallam tribal members, it has been great to learn more and more about their culture and how important these fish restoration projects are to them,” said property owner Dave Colthorp, who lives on Nordstrom Creek, a major tributary to Salt Creek. In addition to the wood installation, a 5-foot wide fish-blocking culvert on his property was replaced with an 18-foot-wide metal culvert in 2009.

“I appreciate the tribe’s respect for my property and for me as a property owner throughout this restoration project,” he said.

There wasn’t a tree anywhere near the creek when Steven Carlyle moved to his property 22 years ago at the confluence of Bear and Salt creeks. It was the result of the mid-20th century mindset that removing trees and straightening creeks would “help” fish get into the upper watersheds, McHenry said.

Since planting trees over the years and working with the tribe’s habitat program, Carlyle’s seen the positive results of the work.

“When I moved here, I would see just five or six fish in the stream,” Carlyle said. “Now, there are easily 30 or more moving upstream every year. The improvement to the habitat is definitely working.”

“It’s a good sign to see that eelgrass was found nearly all the way around the bay,” said Lohna O’Rourke, the tribe’s environmental biologist. “This provides a baseline of what’s there now and we can track the growth or decline over time.”

Prior to hiring Marine Resources Consultants last summer to survey the bay for marine vegetation with an underwater video camera, the tribe had data showing only what existed along a portion of the southern and western shoreline.

“The state Department of Natural Resources’ survey of the bay in 2000 had similar results to what was found last summer, so it’s encouraging to see that there hasn’t been a decline of vegetation in 12 years,” said Jim Norris, owner of Marine Resources Consultants. More detailed findings of the survey will be out in a final report due later.

Junvenile summer chum and other salmon species depend on the eelgrass beds as they make their way out to sea from the Jimmycomelately Creek at the southern end of the bay. Salmon use eelgrass beds to rest, feed and hide from predators.

“The tribe and its many partners spent millions of dollars restoring the Jimmycomelately Creek and estuary to bring summer chum back to the watershed,” O’Rourke said. “Making sure there is eelgrass for the young salmon before they leave  the creek is vital.”

Having this new data also will help the tribe with its studies on the plankton blooms that happen regularly in the southern half of the bay.

These blooms, which typically happen during warmer months, can shade eelgrass, causing it to die. The blooms are fueled by an excess of nutrients in the water that come from a variety of sources such as leaking septic systems and lawn fertilizers.

“Land development and human-caused factors severely impact eelgrass beds, so it’s critical we keep the existing eelgrass alive and well,” she said.

Columbia Helicopter crew member Jim Hindman rounds up the chokes that were used to lower the wood pieces by helicopter into the estuary.

Logs and rootwads were airlifted to the Skokomish River estuary by a dual-rotor cargo helicopter as part of the Skokomish Tribe’s large-scale effort to restore salmon habitat.

Woody debris had been missing from the Skokomish tidelands for the past 80 years after 200 acres of tidelands were diked and developed to create Nalley Island in the 1930s. Upstream activities such as logging, land conversion and dam building prevented woody material from floating down river to the estuary.

The lack of wood in the river and estuary prevented good salmon habitat from forming. Coho, chinook and chum salmon historically have used the tidelands before moving up river to spawn.

Based on aerial photos of the estuary from 1938, the tribe and Mason Conservation District mapped the best places to install logs and rootwads to re-create historic channels. Using a Chinook helicopter, more than 250 pieces of wood were placed within six hours.

“Not only do the logs create habitat for salmon, they help trap sediment which helps trap seeds, promoting re-vegetation and speeding up restoration efforts,” said Shannon Kirby, the tribe’s habitat biologist.

The wood was donated by Brady’s Trucking and Ridge Motorsports Park. This work was funded through a grant from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

The project is part of the long-term Skokomish estuary restoration effort that has been ongoing since 2007.

Lower Elwha Klallam restoration crew member Phillip Blackcrow prepares a plant for transfer to the Lake Mills reservoir. For more photos of the work, click on the picture.

The seeds are being stored at the park’s Matt Albright Native Plant Center in Agnew and at Silvaseed Company in Roy, WA. The tribe and park also have worked with commercial nurseries around the Pacific Northwest to supplement the production of native trees, shrubs and grasses.

“While the dams are coming down, we’re hoping to get a head start on the vegetation establishing itself,” said Josh Chenoweth, a botanist with the park. “So far at Lake Mills, we have 25,000 plants in the ground.”

The site is lacking developed soils. Instead, revegetation must occur on deep layers of inorganic silt and clay or on terraces of sand and gravel that have accumulated in the reservoirs over the last 80-100 years. Vegetation to be planted includes Douglas-fir, twinberry, nootka rose, cedar, Suksdorf’s wormwood and various types of willows, in addition to dozens of other grasses, trees and shrubs.

“We’re trying a variety of planting methods, from bare roots to container plants,” Chenoweth said. “As we plant, we’re letting the site teach us what will work. We’ll see what survives, and what doesn’t, and go from there.”

The crews started planting the Mills site in November 2011 soon after the Glines Canyon dam deconstruction started in September 2011. Revegetation of the former Aldwell reservoir won’t start until the fall of 2012. The overall revegetation work is expected to be completed by 2018.

Coho salmon smolts being transferred from Gorst Hatchery in Bremerton to Agate Pass near Suquamish.

“Working with the U.S. Navy to help move the coho smolts has been key to the success of the program since we revitalized it in 2010,” said Jay Zischke, the tribe’s marine fish manager. Between 2003 and 2010, the tribe’s net pen operation was on hiatus due to rearing and budget constraints. Prior to 2003, the tribe was releasing coho smolts into Agate Pass for two decades for both tribal and non-tribal harvesting.

Young fish for this year’s transfer were bred at the state’s Minter Creek Hatchery near Purdy in 2010, then transferred in January to the tribe and city of Bremerton’s Gorst Hatchery. In March, the smolts were then transferred to the naval base at Keyport, using tanker trucks from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

At Keyport, approximately 320,000 smolts were loaded onto a tribal barge, which ferried the fish to the Agate Pass net pen. The pen is slightly smaller than an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The fish will spend nearly three months in the pen acclimating to the saltwater environment and imprinting on the area prior to being released in June.

“We’re pleased to once again help the Suquamish Tribe with this important fish transfer,” said Capt. Stephen Iwanowicz, Commander, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Keyport. “NUWC Keyport and the Navy are committed to building on our strong relationships with our Native American neighbors and being good stewards of our environment.”

Net pen operations like this are common throughout Puget Sound and contribute greatly to fisheries. During the first two decades of the Agate Pass program, 600,000 hatchery coho were released each year from the net pens.

From the story:

Frances Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal chairwoman, said there are few words that can describe how tribal members will feel when they see the first salmon jumping up the canyon.

“Everybody is going to be ecstatic, overwhelmed with it,” she said.

The tribe has long sought the removal of the two dams.

When the older Elwha Dam was finished 99 years ago 5 miles from the river’s mouth, it decimated the stream’s once legendary salmon runs and deprived the tribe of a valued natural resource.

“There are words you can’t express when you are down there taking a look” at the canyon, Charles said.

“I just feel it’s overwhelming. Beautiful.”

A juvenile coho plunges into the Port Gamble net pens. Click on the picture for more photos.

A quarter million juvenile coho salmon took a quarter-mile ride through a 4-inch pipe when the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe recently transferred the young fish from shore to the tribe’s floating net pens in Port Gamble Bay.

The fish came from the Washington Department Fish and Wildlife’s George Adams Hatchery near Shelton. Arriving in a tanker truck, the fish first were transferred into a 2,300-gallon fiberglass holding tank, then flushed through the pipe into the net pens.

This is the second year the fish have been transported via the pipeline. For decades prior, a barge was brought to the town of Port Gamble, where the fish would be piped from the tanker truck to a tank on the barge, which was then towed to the net pens by a seine boat. The fish then would be offloaded into the pens.

“Using the pipe system means less handling of the fish and less stress on them as well,” said Paul McCollum, the tribe’s natural resources director. McCollum brought this method with him from Alaska where he previously worked.

While the tribe typically receives approximately 400,000 fish from the state, cold water disease at George Adams Hatchery killed thousands of the fish this year, McCollum said.

The fish will be reared in the pens until June, when they will be released. Coho average three years in age, with the first half of their lives in freshwater. The fish then spend 18 months at sea before returning to freshwater again as adults to spawn.

The fish are harvested by both tribal and non-tribal fishermen. Most of the fish have a tiny coded-wire tag in their snout to identify their origin and date of release, providing fisheries managers with important migration, survival and other data needed for fisheries management.

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

From The Kitsap Sun:

Piping juvenile coho salmon from the shore to net pens in Port Gamble Bay has proved to be less stressful for the fish and easier on the crew making the transfer, said Paul McCollum, natural resources director for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.

For nearly 30 years, the tribe moved salmon from trucks into a barge and floated the barge out to the offshore net pens. But McCollum said the piping method — used commonly in Alaska, where he previously worked — places the fish into the pens about an hour faster than using the barge.

“The faster you get them out of high-density conditions, the better,” McCollum said.

The tribe finished building its new hatchery in 2011 as part of the Elwha River restoration project, which includes the removal of the river’s fish-blocking Elwha and Glines Canyon dams that have been in existence for nearly a century. The dams are currently being dismantled and are expected to be fully removed by 2014.

From the story:

The hatchery, built in 1978, was replaced by a new one last May as part of the $325 million federal Elwha River restoration project.

The tribe kept the water flowing through the old hatchery, on Hatchery Road near the tribal center, and into Bosco Creek, connected to the Elwha River, expecting fish to continue to follow the scent of the water to return there when spawning.

The tribe planned to collect the returning fish and bring them to its new hatchery on Stratton Road.

Robert Elofson, the tribe’s river restoration program director, said the fish are instead choosing to come to the new hatchery, possibly following the fish food that makes its way from the hatchery into the river.

Elofson said the old hatchery’s fish ponds likely will be filled in, but offices will continue to be used by the tribe’s Natural Resources Department.

From the story:

Efforts to restore the legendary salmon run are ahead of schedule, Elofson told a group of about 20 at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Training Center on Thursday night.

“There’s only about 5,000 salmon coming back [now], and they expect between 300,000 and 400,000 salmon coming once the river is restored,” Elofson said.

The 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam are being taken down as part of a $325 million federal project to restore the river’s ecosystem and salmon runs.

It is the largest dam removal project in the U.S. to date, Elofson said.

Last summer, about 600 coho salmon were released into tributaries between the two dams — the Little River and Indian Creek — to shield them from high sediment loads coming down the main stem of the river.

“It worked out very well,” Elofson said.

“About half of those came back over the lower dam and returned, but half of them stayed up there.”

The Suquamish Tribe's shellfish coordinator Luke Kelly pulls out the whale's baleen plates to dry on the deck of the tribe's barge.

The Suquamish Tribe recently pulled up the bones of a gray whale from Agate Pass, with hopes of rebuilding the skeleton for educational purposes.

The tribe acquired the remains of the juvenile whale in July 2011 after the mammal beached itself and died near Silverdale. After biologists gathered tissue samples, the tribe wrapped the whale in net material and towed it to Agate Pass to let it naturally decompose.

While the soft tissue had completely decomposed, many of the bones were found to be broken or too brittle to use, including the skull, which was partially crushed by the weight of the rest of the bones.

“It’s too bad we’re not able to rebuild the entire skeleton, but there are parts that we could still use in educational environments or the tribal museum,” said Viviane Barry, the tribe’s shellfish management biologist. “The baleen plates look like they’re in good condition, as do two of the jawbones, which are about six feet in length.”

The fibrous baleen plates, made of keratin, filter food from the water and mud that rushes into the whale’s mouth as it feeds near the ocean floor. Barry added that the whale’s tail vertebrate and some ribs also came up in good condition.

Historically, tribes would trade parts of the whale with each other, since not all tribes had access to them within their fishing areas. Tribal members would use every part of the animal, including blubber for cooking and bones for tools.

Gray whales typically migrate between Baja California and Alaska and can range from 16 feet to 45 feet in length. Once listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, gray whale populations along the West Coast have rebounded to near historic levels. The average gray whale lifespan is 20-40 years.

More photos of the retrieval can be found at go.nwifc.org/whalebones.

From the story:

(NOAA biologist John) McMillan and biologists with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe have found almost 100 other egg sacks like this one in the Elwha and her tributaries.

These eggs were laid by coho from the tribal hatchery near the mouth of the river, but they are descended from native Elwha coho salmon. This winter hundreds of adult hatchery coho were transported above the first dam. [Here’s a link to the video of the transport.]

Mike McHenry, a biologist with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, says even though the parents of these eggs are from the hatchery, the offspring will grow up wild.

“For all practical purposes they will be living in natural habitats and adapting and being subjected to natural selection and doing their thing,” he says. “It’s game on. We’re into recolonization now.”

These coho eggs will hatch in early spring. The young will hang out in the river for about 18 months and then head to the ocean. By the time they come back, the dams will be gone.

Since August, natural resources staff members have been seining dozens of locations within the restored 349-acre area, as well as 330 acres of tidelands nearby that escaped development.

Skokomish Tribe natural resources staff pull in a beach seine within the Skokomish Tidelands. The tribe is seining monthly as a way to monitor what marine life is taking advantage of the restored habitat.

The project area includes 219 acres of tidelands (formerly Nalley Island) that was restored in 2010 and 130 acres that was restored in 2007, mainly through culvert and dike removal.

The tribe is looking for juvenile chinook, chum and coho salmon. The beach seining efforts have also included finding pacific herring, surf smelt, sculpins, pipefish, flounders, gunnels, anchovies and shrimp.

“The undeveloped tidelands are about the closest thing to a natural salt marsh in the Skokomish estuary,” said Matt Kowalski, the tribe’s steelhead biologist. “This area creates a great opportunity to compare what is living here versus what is coming back to the newly restored areas.”

In the late 1930s, a large portion of the Skokomish estuary was converted from a pristine estuary to the Nalley Farm. Dikes and ditches were used to drain the former tidelands, which had been rich with marine life. In 2007 and 2010, the tribe started restoring the tidelands to their natural state.

“The project’s goal to restore riverine and tidal hydrology within the treatment areas is expected to allow natural physical and biological process to restore the salt marshes wetlands,” said Alex Gouley, the tribe’s habitat manager.

The tribe hopes to start a third phase of restoration in 2012, which will include removing remaining smaller culverts and dikes by hand.­

For more information, contact: Alex Gouley, Skokomish Tribe habitat manager, at (360) 877-5213 or agouley@skokomish.org; Matt Kowalski, Skokomish Tribe steelhead biologist, at (360) 877-5213 or mkowalski@skokomish.org; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dike and a private dike built on each side of the Dungeness River have protected the homes and property behind them for decades.  Now, the dikes are leading to flooding problems for landowners.

Ward Road property owners Mel Groff and Rod Normandin discuss how the Dungeness River has affected their properties in the past year.

Concerned residents approached the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe for help to prevent future flooding from destroying their homes. Tribal natural resources staff explained the powerful hydrology of the river, including how the large trees the residents have seen anchoring into the streambed will help stabilize the riverbank.

“We tried contacting local, county, state and federal officials to help us with this, but no one was responding, so we went to the tribe,” said resident Mel Groff. “What’s going to happen when the river floods again and does even more damage? We’re going to get flooded out of our homes.”

The tribe has a vested interest in this situation, because the federal government has a trust responsibility to protect natural resources, such as fish habitat, said Scott Chitwood, the tribe’s natural resources director.

“Poor dike planning has harmed fish and wildlife habitat and put natural resources at risk for years,” Chitwood said. “Now property owners are being affected.”

In 1964, the Army Corps built 2.3 miles of dike on the east bank of the lower river to block floodwaters from flowing across farmland and through the Dungeness community before entering Dungeness Bay.

Without the historic outlet to the east, floodwaters could only spread west. In response, a private property owner on the west side of the river constructed a 4,000-foot dike on the west bank in 1983.

Meanwhile, residential development was occurring on Ward Road, just upstream of the dikes. Flooding along the road, which had always been minor, became progressively worse.

In December 2010, Ward Road and adjacent properties received their worst flooding, though river flows were nowhere near record high levels.

The Ward Road property owners believe that the flooding was caused by excessive trees, rocks and debris that flowed downstream. The neighbors have watched the riverbank continue to erode and move closer to the road.
The dikes have prevented the river from depositing its sediment into the once-expansive Dungeness River floodplain. Now the only places left for river sediment to accumulate is in shallow Dungeness Bay, which is filling in, and the river channel, which is building up. With the sediment buildup and downstream dikes constricting the river, flood waters spill out of the river channel, causing increased flooding of the Ward Road properties.

Unfortunately, because the dikes were built by a federal agency and a private owner, the tribe can’t do anything to prevent the flooding. However, the Corps is currently considering a proposal, endorsed by the tribe, Clallam County and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to move a segment of its dike away from the river and reconnect the stream with part of its former floodplain.

“There are various potential flood hazard reduction projects commonly performed on Washington rivers,” said Randy Johnson, the tribe’s restoration planner. “But restoring the Dungeness River’s lost floodplain by setting back the dikes appears to be the best solution for meeting the needs of Dungeness salmon and resident.”

For more information, contact: Scott Chitwood, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe natural resources director, at (360) 681-4616 or schitwood@jamestowntribe.org; Randy Johnson, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe restoration planner, at (360) 681-4631 or rjohnson@jamestowntribe.org; Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

From the article:

(Barnard Construction) had to quit dam removal work temporarily Nov. 1, the concern being that any further lowering of the two dams’ reservoirs would harm fish through the release of sediment.

That hiatus was expected to last until the first of next year.

But an interagency team of biologists monitoring the return of fish to the Elwha River determined that the late fall runs of chum salmon had trickled to an end, Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman, said last week.

By Nov. 1, the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam had been lowered by 48 feet and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon dam by 32 feet. Water from the reservoirs has been spilling over the deconstructed dams, changing the hydrology of the reservoirs as well as the lower river. Only the last five miles of the river were free flowing before dam removal began.

An aerial view of the Lake Aldwell delta in October 2011, following the start of the removal of the Elwha Dam. (Photo: Kim Sager-Fradkin, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe)

“Since the Elwha Dam is about 40 percent gone, the reservoir behind it, Lake Aldwell, isn’t really a reservoir anymore,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s habitat program manager. “It’s starting to look like a river channel. The delta at the south end of the reservoir is more exposed and sediment is being transported downriver.”

In addition, construction crews have removed remnants of nearly 100 year old pilings from Lake Aldwell. Also removed was a logboom that prevented boats from going over the dam. The wood was allowed to flow downriver with the expectation that it will contribute to salmon habitat in the lower river.

“Following the big rains we had in late November, the river was flowing at 10,000 cubic feet per second at one point,” McHenry said. “A lot of dynamic stuff is happening with the high flows.”

Near the mouth of the river, the tribe has noticed a small increase of fine sediments building in the estuaries.

“The fine sediment plume from the mouth of the river into the Strait is much more pronounced than prior to removal activities.  Its configuration varies during the course of the day,” said Matt Beirne, the tribe’s environmental coordinator. “We haven’t seen significant sediment deposition in the estuary just yet, but we have seen elevated turbidity levels from the finer fraction of sediment.

“Although the removal of the dams appears to be ahead of schedule, we don’t expect to see significant  sediment  deposition within the estuary until we experience greater mobilizing flows through the system.”

For nearly 100 years, fish have been blocked from the upper Elwha River watershed by the two dams, which were built without fish ladders. More than 20 million cubic yards of sediment have built up behind the dams, most of which will be allowed to flow downriver and alter the riverbed.

The dams are owned by the federal government; the Olympic National Park is spearheading the removal effort. The project to remove the structures and restore the Elwha River ecosystem, estimated at $350 million, is the largest dam removal project to date in the United States. The project is expected to be finished by 2014.

Suquamish project biologist Anja Huff and USFW biological scientist Steve Damm take water samples at Grovers Creek Hatchery.

The tribe is working with Baldwin, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research zoologist, and Steve Damm, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biological scientist, to figure out if toxins in stormwater runoff are killing adult coho salmon. Vehicle exhaust, brake pads, oil and gasoline are among the main contributors to polluted stormwater.

Scientists have observed adult coho dying within 24 hours of returning to urban streams. In most cases, death occurs before the fish can spawn. Known as pre-spawn mortality, it is commonly seen in streams near large urban areas such as Seattle.

“In urban streams, we are finding 60 to 90 percent of coho salmon dying before they spawn,” Baldwin said. “We want to figure out first what contaminants, if any at all, are causing the mortalities, then figure out how much of it actually kills them.”

At the hatchery, the coho are exposed to the chemicals for 24 hours and then monitored for changes in their behavior. Liver, gill and bile samples are then taken for analysis. The contaminated water is filtered then disposed of at Kitsap County’s wastewater treatment plant in Kingston.

For comparison, another group of coho is placed in a tank of clean fresh water for 24 hours. Like those in the polluted tank, the coho are watched closely and the same tissue samples taken.

Biologists chose Kitsap County as the site for the project because it is an area where development is rapidly turning healthy rural streams into polluted urban creeks because of increasing population and development.

For more photos, go to go.nwifc.org/cohoexperiment

From the college’s website:

With the new lab, NWIC students have the opportunity to use instruments and learn techniques routinely employed by environmental scientists, and by government and private organizations, said NWIC science instructor Joyce McClain. With the experience they will gain, graduates will be able to fill the immediate need for tribal environmental technicians.

The classes will also benefit Tribal Natural Resources and Fisheries employees and tribal fisherman wanting to build on their skills, said Gina Corpuz, instructional manager at the Port Gamble S’Klallam site.

Corpuz said the degree is an important part of the curriculum for the site because Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal members are the original stewards of Gamble Bay.

“Everything that impacts their water, forests and land, changes the quality of life for their tribal community and all forms of life dependent on clean air and water,” she said. “NWIC students who choose Native Environmental Science as their program of study are also choosing to be part of the solution to the global environmental crisis.”

From the story:

Recent rains are bringing forth a surge of chum and coho salmon into streams across the Kitsap Peninsula.

With salmon on the move, this weekend might be a good time for local residents and out-of-town visitors to enjoy the natural wonders of salmon, being careful not to disturb their migration, experts say.

“This will definitely be a good weekend to look,” said Jon Oleyar, a biologist for the Suquamish Tribe who has the unusual job of walking streams to count fish on the east side of Kitsap County.

“The water is running off in a big way right now,” Oleyar said Tuesday. “By this weekend, every stream should have at least something in it.”

From the story:

 PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Standing on the banks of the Elwha River on a crisp November afternoon last week, Mel Elofson eased a slippery pink coho salmon into the cold, green water and watched it swim away.

“It’s a historic day,” he said. “We haven’t had salmon in these reaches for almost 100 years.”

Elofson, who works for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s fisheries department, was part of a team that transported 55 coho salmon into the middle section of the of the Elwha River, re-introducing coho to the area for the first time since the 108-foot Elwha Dam was completed in 1913.

Lower Elwha Klallam hatchery manager Larry Ward releases a tagged coho salmon into the Elwha River, between the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams.

The tribe, with volunteers from state and federal agencies, transferred 50 coho salmon recently from its new hatchery, House of Salmon, to a stretch of river between the Elwha and the Glines Canyon dams, nearly the Highway 101 bridge.

“We are putting these fish in an area that hasn’t had salmon for nearly 100 years,” Ward said. “We plan to track their movements using radio tags but also expect them to start seeding the area.”

The tribe plans to release 600 fish into the river this fall. All the fish will be tagged with spaghetti tags, so they can be identified if harvested. Nearly one-third of the fish also will be outfitted with blue plastic radio tags.  The tags will help the tribe track the fish as they seek spawning grounds in nearby tributaries.

The offspring of these salmon are expected to head to the ocean in spring 2013. When dam deconstruction wraps up in 2014, they will be returning to the river as adults. They will be the first salmon to come back after the dams are removed.

Built without fish ladders, the dams have been in place since the early 1900s and prevented fish from moving past the lower 5 miles of the river. During dam removal, work in the river will be put on hold during fish windows, when fish return to the river to spawn. Deconstruction of the dams for 2011 is finished for the year.

The dams are owned by the federal government; the Olympic National Park is spearheading the removal effort. The project to remove the structures and restore the Elwha River ecosystem, estimated at $350 million, is the largest dam removal project to date in the United States.

First Spawning Season at New Hatchery

As of late October, 600 adult coho salmon found their way to the new hatchery, with more expected through December, Ward said. The fish coming back to the new hatchery are a mix of hatchery and natural salmon. All the fish that return to the new hatchery will be moved to the river to spawn in the wild or will be spawned at the hatchery.

No fish have returned to the old hatchery, Ward said, most likely because the tribe isn’t pushing out water from the old facility to attract fish to return there. The new hatchery is pushing out water toward the river to attract fish to come to the facility.

More photos can be viewed at: go.nwifc.org/cohotransfer

From the Kitsap Sun:

Chris Weller: Retiring after 26 years with the Point No Point Treaty Council, Weller has been at the center of many salmon-restoration efforts in Hood Canal. They include the Summer Chum Conservation Initiative, which is credited for reversing a downward trend for threatened summer chum. Weller has been one of the few biologists in the region able to bridge the gaps between harvest, hatchery and habitat needs of salmon, Lawlis said.

From the article:

Meanwhile, chum salmon are just beginning to move into streams on the Kitsap Peninsula, where their transition from saltwater is normally timed by rains and higher streamflows, according to Jon Oleyar, who monitors fish in the streams for the Suquamish Tribe.

Curley and Blackjack creeks in South Kitsap, both known for their early runs, have chum in them now, he said.

Chico Creek, home to the largest chum run on the Kitsap Peninsula, began to get some fish over the weekend as rains caused the stream to rise.

“Overall, the creek is low, even with the rains we had,” Oleyar said. “The creeks have water in them but not as much as the fish would like when they head upstream.”

Because their biological clock is ticking, the chum will begin entering most streams soon even with little or no rain, Oleyar said. Coho salmon also are working their way upstream at the moment, he said.

Tribal biologists expected up to 14,000 net pen produced coho to return this year. At this point, probably a few thousand have shown up and they expect more to arrive with the first heavy rains. If that’s the case, we are in for another couple of weeks hunting down schools of coho, flailing away from the beach or a boat, and with a bit of luck, bringing home some decent size salmon.

 

The town and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe share the nearby waterway, Port Gamble Bay. The waterway has been used both economically and culturally by Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal members for generations. A top priority for the tribe the past few years has been protecting the bay from further pollution and development.

Until recently, OPG was offering the land to Kitsap County in exchange for development rights in the historic town. Many were opposed to this proposal, including the tribe, which had concerns about pollution impacting the natural resources of the bay, of which the tribe relies upon for economical and cultural purposes.

Stories about the partnership:

North Kitsap Herald

Kitsap Sun

From the Seattle Times:

Jeromy Sullivan, chairman of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, said the deal could help ensure protection of valuable shellfish beds in Port Gamble Bay.

“We have an obligation to our ancestors, our elders and our youth to ensure that Port Gamble Bay will be restored and protected for the future.”

“Many watersheds on the Olympic Peninsula have been affected by historic logging practices in the last century, as well as forest fires, both of which removed streamside vegetation and simplified fish habitat,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s habitat biologist.  “As a result, we’ve lost wood in the river channels, so we’re putting it back while the forest slowly regrows.”

Large woody debris is an important part of salmon good salmon habitat.

Stephen Johnson, from Helifor, watches as a log is lowered by helicopter into East Twin Creek.

The helicopter placed trees as large as 50 feet long and 30 inches in diameter, and weighing up to 10,000 pounds.

Some of the trees had large rootwads, which act like an anchor in the creek. The rootwad helps slow down the water to create shallow pools where fish rest and feed. They also help create gravel beds suitable for salmon to spawn and create redds, or salmon egg nests.

The Twin River watershed is home to coho and chum salmon, cutthroat trout and coastal steelhead.

The tribe has been doing habitat restoration in the Twin River watershed since 2002. Efforts included working with private and public land managers to restore old logging road systems that were poorly constructed and were causing landslides that disrupted the fish habitat in the river, said McHenry.

Partners with the project include Washington Department of Natural Resources and private property owners.

Tribal singers welcome attendees to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's dam removal celebration dinner Sept. 17.

The thunderous beat of drums in the tribal gym sounded louder than usual: the beat harder, the men’s voices deeper, the women’s voices louder, the smiles bigger during the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s dam removal celebration Sept. 17.

For nearly 100 years the tribe waited to celebrate the moment – the demolition of the Elwha River’s two fish-blocking dams, which have violated the tribe’s treaty rights the moment they were constructed in the early 20th Century. The dams blocked all but the lower five miles of the river, decimating salmon populations.

Prior to dam removal, a week of celebration included storytelling, drumming, a fundraising gala for the tribe’s education program, interviews with elders and a two-day conference on river restoration efforts with scientists from all over the world.

“We’re numb. We’re excited. We’re enthused,” said tribal chairwoman Frances Charles on the eve of the Elwha dam demolition. “There’s no words for how we’re going to be feeling when we see that machine rock n’ roll and take that brick out of the dam. Our elders are going to be so joyful with what is taking place out there. They’re saying they just can’t believe we’re able to witness what is going to be taking place tomorrow.”

“I feel sorry that my ancestors and grandparents aren’t here to see the dams removed,” said elder Adeline Smith. “That’s the only sorrow I have. I wish they were here to see it.”

“My grandma and grandpa lived on the river,” said tribal member Byron Bennett, wearing a black shirt with the words, “It’s About Dam Time 9-17-11.” “Grandpa was one of the original signees of the reservation. He grew up on the river and was a proponent for dam removal.”

As the excavator tore into the Elwha dam Sept. 17, Bennett was said he was thinking of his dad and grandfather.

“The river is going to be given a second chance to restore itself,” Bennett said. “With this project and Mother Nature running her course, we will turn the river back. We are essentially turning the clock back 99 years on this project.”

For many of the younger generation, all they have known is the effort to remove the dam.

Tribal councilman Anthony Charles grew up fishing with his family in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the river. He is making sure his 11- and 13-year-old children get the same experience.

“I think the youth get the importance of dam removal. They may not understand but they get it,” he said. “For me, it’s all that our elders have been talking about it and it hasn’t happened fast enough.”

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwifc/sets/72157627705384254/

Blog of Science Symposium – http://blogs.nwifc.org/elwha/

Media Recap of Dam Removal Ceremony:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0918-dam-20110918,0,5450869.story

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/specialreports/elwha/?cmpid=2654

http://peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110918/NEWS/309189975/-8216-prayers-answered-national-figures-join-peninsula-leaders-at

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/sep/17/as-dams-come-down-researchers-stand-by-to/

http://www.king5.com/news/Celebration-as-demolition-of-Elwha-Dam-begins-130043288.html

http://www.kirotv.com/video/29221798/index.html

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/130016438.html

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2011/09/19/rockybarker/franks_impromptu_comments_elwha_recognize_treaty_fights#ixzz1YbTj1tEX

The Aldwell and Mills reservoirs have been lowered 20 feet this summer in advance of the upcoming removal of the 108-foot-tall Elwha and 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon dams.

New river channels are forming in the deltas of the reservoirs behind the Elwha River dams, as seen here in the south end of the Aldwell reservoir.

“The deltas of the Aldwell and Mills reservoirs are exposed and new river channels are forming,” said Mike McHenry, the tribe’s fisheries habitat manager. “Reservoir shorelines that have been underwater for decades are finally being exposed, revealing old sandbars and stumps from logging.”

A top priority of the reservoir restoration project is to prevent invasive plant species from entering the national park, McHenry said. More than 150 exotic species have been identified within the Lower Elwha watershed. As the dams are removed, the tribe and the National Park Service will remove invasive species, such as Scot’s Broom, St. John’s Wort and canary grass, found on the reservoirs’ shorelines.

Within the two reservoirs, restoration crews will seed 261 acres and plant native vegetation on 440 acres including dogwood, cottonwood, willow, alder and Douglas fir.

The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams are owned by the federal government; the Olympic National Park is spearheading the removal effort. The project to remove the structures and restore the Elwha River ecosystem, estimated at $350 million, is the largest dam removal project to date in the United States.

Built without fish ladders, the dams have been in place since the early 1900s and prevented fish from moving past the lower 5 miles of the river. During the next three years, the dams will be removed initially in 7.5-foot sections, then by controlled blasting. Deconstruction starts September 2011.

From the Kitsap Sun:

The land transfer involves the 500-acre Nalley Ranch at the mouth of the Skokomish River; 500 acres of wooded land, including Lake Cushman Park, on the shore of Lake Cushman; and 3 acres with 470 feet of waterfront on Hood Canal.

Tacoma Power placed $11 million into a tribal account, as called for in the settlement, which also allows the tribe a share of the revenues from power production.

Friday’s signing ceremony occurred at Lake Cushman Park, which tribal officials consider an important cultural site.

“Here we are today being able to call ourselves partners in this watershed,” said Joseph Pavel, vice chairman of the Skokomish Tribe, in a prepared statement. “It’s very significant.”

The purpose of the study is three-fold – to prioritize nearshore habitat restoration projects; to determine what species are living where throughout Puget Sound waters; and to learn more about habitat conditions in the nearshore environment.

Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe habitat biologist Hans Daubenberger prepares to lower the SONAR device into Port Gamble Bay.

Weekly since May, the tribe has been beach seining, tow-netting and using the underwater SONAR device to gather information about the size and population of fish found in the top 15 feet of the water column. That includes species such as chinook, coho, steelhead, cutthroat and herring. Puget Sound chinook and steelhead are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Beach seining and tow netting help get a snapshot of what’s out there, but those tools miss the wide open areas that the SONAR can cover,” said Hans Daubenberger, the tribe’s habitat biologist. “It gathers tons of that information – such as the depth the fish are swimming – without hurting the fish.”
The “torpedo” is towed behind a boat through sampling areas and beams sound waves that capture images of fish that swim past. The SONAR information will be correlated with data from beach seining and tow-netting to create a comprehensive database of about fish distribution, abundance and health conditions throughout Hood Canal and Admiralty Inlet.

Funding for the project comes from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and Puget Sound Partnership.

For the past century, sediment has built up behind the 108-foot-tall Elwha and 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon dams. As the dams are deconstructed the next few years, much of that sediment will come down the river.

“We know a lot of sediment will be deposited within the streambed of the lower river but we don’t know how much will be deposited in the estuary and how it will change,” said Matt Beirne, the tribe’s environmental coordinator.

Estuaries are important for salmon because they provide a place for salmon to hide from predators and to feed and grow before heading to sea.

The tribe has set up 15 sediment monitoring locations throughout the 50-acre estuary. Using a specialized measuring device called a Surface Elevation Table (SET), the tribe will determine at regular intervals how much sediment is building up throughout the estuary.

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe natural resources staff use the SET to measure sediment in the estuaries at the mouth of the Elwha River.

The SET uses fiberglass pins to measure the change in height of the deposited sediment. This technique, developed by USGS researchers, has been applied to estuaries throughout the U.S. and internationally.

The tribe also has deployed water quality sensors to collect data on water clarity, salinity and temperature in the estuary. This will show how the sediment-laden water will be distributed in the estuary on tidal, seasonal, and annual cycles.

The tribe also will study how increased turbidity and sedimentation in the estuary may affect juvenile salmonids as the dam removal project progresses.

The dams are owned by the federal government and the Olympic National Park is spearheading the removal effort. The total cost of the project is estimated at $325 million.

“We saw this as a great opportunity for the tribe,” said Rob Purser, Suquamish’s fisheries director. “Historically, tribes would trade parts of the whale with each other, since not all tribes had access to them within their fishing areas. Tribal members would use every part of the animal, including fat for cooking and bones for tools. Today, the younger generation seems attracted to whales, so there is a lot of interest in this mammal.”

Suquamish fisheries staff Ben Purser, Jay Zischke and Ron Harrell prepare the whale for towing from Silverdale.

The whale beached itself on private tidelands on Erlands Point near Silverdale on July 27. The property owner said it was alive when it came shore that morning but died shortly thereafter.  The cause of death is unknown.

Biologists from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Cascadia Research and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gathered samples from the emaciated young male, determining it to be about 3-5 years old. NOAA then asked the tribe if it would be interested in taking possession of the whale and using its skeleton for educational purposes.

Staff from the tribe’s fisheries department wrapped the whale in nets Aug. 3 and slowly towed it from the private beach to a location near the Port Madison Indian Reservation.

The whale was left in the water where it will decompose over the next three to six months with the help of crab and other marine animals; the tribes will then assemble the bones for display.

Fast Facts:
Gray Whales are typically found in Pacific Ocean and migrate between Baja California and Alaska.

The mammals can range from 16 feet to 45 feet in length.

The mammals eat by turning on its side, scooping up mud from the ocean floor and filtering out the sediment, leaving behind small sea animals such as crab and krill.

It is also called a “baleen whale” because of the plates in its upper jaw that are used to filter out the mud when feeding.

Pictures can be found at: http://go.nwifc.org/graywhale

Video of the landing:

Fisheries manager Rob Purser describes how the tribe plans to do it:

 The whale carcass, which has become buoyant over the past few days, will be wrapped in mesh and towed by boat to an out-of-the-way location in North Kitsap, said Rob Purser, fisheries manager for the tribe. The whale will be suspended in the water and will decompose naturally over three to six months.

After the bones are cleaned and dried, the skeleton will be articulated for public display, Purser said. Decisions have not been made about a final location, he said, but the whale will become part of the tribe’s educational programs and studies of the natural environment.

“Our aim is to establish a year-round counting station using the weir and DIDSON to evaluate salmon populations before and after dam removal,” said Keith Denton, a consultant to the tribe on the project.

Keith Denton demonstrates how to adjust the SONAR instrument in the Elwha River in case of a high water event.

For nearly 100 years, fish have been blocked from the upper Elwha River watershed by two dams, the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam, which were built without fish ladders.  Puget Sound chinook and steelhead are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Developed at the University of Washington for the U.S. Navy to find mines on ship hulls, DIDSON was quickly applied to fisheries management. DIDSON also has been used to track juvenile salmon on the Columbia River and adult spawners in Alaska.

The DIDSON beams sound waves across the river, capturing images of fish that swim past. The weir is like a fence in the water, which enables the upriver bound fish to be collected for information such as species and size.

The weir is removed during periods of high water flow but the DIDSON can be used during almost all flow conditions, Denton said.

“Setting this system up prepares us for long-term monitoring of the river when the dams come down and we will see what’s going up into the upper watershed,” he said.

From the article:

 The reservation will also be protected by a levee that has been raised, widened and fortified with rocks as large as four feet across because the sediment flowing downstream will raise the level of the freed Elwha. The tribe wants all of this, but after a century of living with a tamed river and adapting as development increased on the peninsula, there is also concern.

“What worries me is that the river’s going to be unpredictable after they take the dams out,” said Ron Boulstrom, 46, a lifelong resident of the reservation and a commercial fisherman. “Four more years and I’ll have my house paid off, and I’m making a nice new garage. Hopefully the river won’t take me out.”

Then again, according to tribal lore, the tribe’s creation site was flooded by the dams. And there are the Chinook, also called king salmon, remembered in stories told from generation to generation, but now too depleted to fish.

“Back in the day, we had this whole place, the hills, the mountains,” Mr. Boulstrom said. “I’d like to catch another king out of the Elwha in my lifetime.”

From the article, Ben Parker, of the Squaxin Island Tribe:

 Ben Parker is a young member of the Squaxin Island Tribe who worked with Grossman to collect the water quality data. He’s 23, with broad shoulders and has been on canoe journeys for four years in a row, but his fellow paddlers still give him funny looks.

“They ask me why in the hell I’m dragging a bucket under the back of the canoe,” he says referring to the data-gathering equipment.

Parker says melding science with the traditional canoe journey is valuable.

“I think there are certain ways that we’ve always seen how the planet and how the land here works,” he says. “It offers a new perspective, which is good because there’s lots of ways we can look how to tackle these kinds of problems dealing with pollution and that kind of thing.”

 

Video:

The Swinomish Tribe is hosting this year. Some First Nations from British Columbia have been pulling since end of June and others have started to make their way toward Swinomish ever since. This week, canoes from the Coast and Strait of Juan de Fuca will stop at Lower Elwha, Jamestown, Port Townsend, Little Boston and Suquamish before heading north next weekend for the final push to Swinomish. More information can be found at http://www.paddletoswinomish.org/.

An American dipper on the Olympic Peninsula.

“We chose to look at otters and American dippers because they are so closely tied to the river environment, depending especially on marine-derived nutrients brought upriver by salmon,” said Kim Sager-Fradkin, the tribe’s wildlife biologist. “But because salmon have not made it past the first five miles of the Elwha River in 100 years, we are interested in collecting baseline data on how these species use their environment in the absence of salmon.”

Since 1911, fish have been blocked from the upper Elwha River watershed by the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam, which were built without fish ladders. They are scheduled for demolition starting this September.

“We know that otters and dippers use the Elwha River below, between and above the dams, but we don’t know a lot about their population size, movement patterns, or how their diets have been affected by the lack of salmon above the dams,” Sager-Fradkin said. “We are interested in exploring the differences in marine-derived nutrients in the diets of otters and dippers that occur both below and above the dams.”

The tribe is capturing dippers in mist-nets strung across small river channels in order to collect blood, feather and toenail samples to see how nutrients have been incorporated into their diets.  Otters are caught in box-traps and scat and tissue samples are taken for genetic and diet analysis. They are also implanted with a radio-transmitting device so that tribal biologists can track their movements.

“Getting this information now is important so we can monitor changes after the system is restored,” Sager-Fradkin said. “When salmon are able to swim upriver again, we expect to see marine nutrients reintroduced into the system and back into these animals’ diets.”

This study was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and with additional support from the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Center, USGS-Olympic Field Station and Olympic National Park.

###

For more information, contact Kim Sager-Fradkin, Lower Elwha Klallam wildlife biologist, at (360) 457-4012 ext. 20 or kim.sager@elwha.nsn.us; or  Tiffany Royal, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission information officer, at (360) 297-6546 or troyal@nwifc.org.

Many agencies and groups, including the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, assisted moving nearly 100 fish from the middle of the river to an area upstream into better habitat, out of the way of the river’s two fish-blocking dams, both of which will start to be deconstructed this fall.

From the story:

The protective action is considered important, because removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams is likely to dislodge an estimated 24 million cubic yards of sediment that has collected behind the dams since they were built, according to estimates by the Bureau of Reclamation. Most of that sediment will come from a delta at the south end of Lake Mills. Bull trout caught in the sediment-laden river probably will not do well, researchers say.

“Using the best available science, we’ve taken steps to protect the bull trout population and given them immediate access to high-quality, pristine habitats in the upper river through this relocation project,” said Sam Brenkman, fisheries biologist for Olympic National Park.