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 Vivaine 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 vertebrae 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.

Photo: Jason Gobin, Tulalip Tribes

The Tulalip Tribes and the U.S. Forest Service have partnered to enhance huckleberry fields for tribal gathering in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Wild mountain huckleberries are sacred to northwest tribes, but traditional gathering areas have suffered from generations of fire suppression and forest management activities favoring old growth forests that don’t support mountain huckleberry species.

For the past two years, Tulalip staff helped thin forest stands in the Darrington Ranger District to reduce competition from older trees. A controlled burn is planned to rejuvenate the huckleberry fields by reducing the tree canopy. Northwest tribes have a long history of using fire as both a cultural practice and a forest management tool.

“For thousands of years, tribes nurtured the landscapes they depended upon for their health and survival,” said Hank Gobin, director of the Tulalip Tribes Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve. “That included land-management practices to maintain a diversity of plant and animal populations, like burning for wildlife forage, and pruning or burning for huckleberry.”

Huckleberry plants in the North Cascades thrived after the mature forest was harvested in the 1980s, but fruit production has declined as conifers have re-established themselves. It may take several years after the controlled burn to see a measurable increase in fruit production.

Tulalip’s partnership with the Forest Service is an example of cooperative management intended to ensure sustainability and access to treaty-reserved resources on public lands. In western Washington, reservation lands alone do not provide enough food, traditional plants and other resources to sustain tribal culture.

“Contrary to what many may think, the northwest was not an untouched wilderness before white explorers and traders arrived here; instead, it was home to the tribes for the last 10,000 years,” said Ray Fryberg, director of the Tulalip Tribes Natural Resources Department. “Our ancestors figured out long ago a way to treat the lands with respect, with a kind of stewardship that sustained and enhanced the plants and animals they needed.”

For more information, contact: Francesca Hillery public affairs coordinator, Tulalip Tribes, 360-716-4013 or fhillery@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov; Kari Neumeyer, information officer, NWIFC, 360-424-8226 or kneumeyer@nwifc.org.

Scott Mazzone, shellfish and marine biologist for the Quinault Indian Nation, and Melissa Minder, research associate and Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) database manager, work to inventory all the species of life in the plot on the Quinault Indian Nation reservation. Surveying the plot annually will help QIN establish a baseline of marine life and note changes.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska graphically demonstrated the need to quantify baseline populations of marine and intertidal life. To accomplish the task, QIN and other tribal communities are using a common data-gathering method established by the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe). MARINe is a partnership of agencies, universities and private groups committed to determining the health of the rocky intertidal habitat and providing this information to the public.

“QIN has been planning this kind of cataloging for years,” said Scott Mazzone, shellfish and marine biologist for QIN. MARINe has been conducting intertidal surveys for more than two decades, but has seen interest surge in using their methods to create a common method for collecting data. “What’s been really interesting is how the methods can be used by various entities to gather specific information that is of interest to them, but still contributes to overall inventory,” said Melissa Miner, research associate and MARINe database manager. She is also the Washington regional coordinator.

A 2-acre intertidal site south of the Raft River will allow QIN personnel to inventory a variety of species including sea stars, blue mussels and other sea life. By visiting the site once a year, Mazzone and QIN fisheries technicians can track the numbers of intertidal species and determine changes based on weather and ocean conditions.

“We’re also interested in climate change and its effects, but that’s a long-term study – decades really. But as the water gets warmer, we would expect to see mussels move higher up in the intertidal areas and see other southern species appearing,” Mazzone said. “As the ocean becomes more acidic, we would also expect to see fewer new barnacle sets because they have trouble forming shells.”

“QIN has been collecting some of this data for 25 years, but now we are doing it the same way as everyone else, and that makes it easier for everyone to share important information about the health of our marine resources,” said Mazzone.
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For more information, contact: Scott Mazzone, shellfish and marine biologist, Quinault Indian Nation, (360) 276-8215; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

Quinault Indian Nation with the assistance of Hoh Tribe fisheries staff, conduct razor clam surveys on Kalaloch Beach south of Forks.

The co-managers use seawater to pump razor clams to the surface inside a 3-foot-wide mesh tube sunk vertically into the beach sand, enabling non-lethal sampling of the population. Depending on the size of the population, QIN and the state set a harvest rate of 25.4 or 30 percent for clams 3 inches or larger. That leaves 70 to 75 percent of the clams to reproduce and increase the population. Harvest is split evenly between tribal and state diggers.

Razor clams are important culturally and economically to the Quinault Indian Nation. Historically, tribal members used a branch from the yew tree to coax the fast-burrowing razor clam to the surface. Today, they use a clam shovel to harvest clams for subsistence as well as commercial harvest. The commercial harvest, occurring on beaches south of Kalaloch, is processed as clam steaks by the Quinault Indian Nation or sold for crab bait. The money earned by tribal members in this commercial enterprise gives an economic boost at a time seasonal jobs are few, and also helps stock home freezers with food.

“The clam populations on certain beaches tend to be pretty variable, such as Kalaloch,” said Scott Mazzone, marine and shellfish biologist for the Quinault Indian Nation. “While numbers are down a little on Kalaloch this year, they are actually better than they were in 2006 or 2007.” Kalaloch is near the northern-most area of the coast where razor clams are found in concentrations along the Washington coast.

A razor-clam specific disease, Nuclear inclusion X (NIX) is likely not affecting clam populations this year. “While we believe NIX is present at low levels in some of the clams on our beaches, it isn’t killing clams like it does when we have outbreaks,” said Joe Schumacker, marine resources scientist for Quinault Indian Nation. A NIX outbreak can wipe out nearly all of the razor clams on a beach. “You see half-dead and dead clams all over the beach during an outbreak,” said Schumacker. The disease does not affect humans who eat clams. The last severe outbreak occurred in the 1980s.

“We’re looking forward this year to another successful razor clam season for tribal and recreational diggers alike,” said Mazzone.

For more information, contact: Scott Mazzone, marine and shellfish biologist, Quinault Indian Nation, (360)276-8215; Debbie Preston, coastal information officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries, (360) 374-5501, dpreston@nwifc.org

Rob McCoy, wildlife division manger for the Makah Tribe, and Shannon Murphy, wildlife biologist for the tribe, weigh and elk calf as part of the tribe's elk studies.

The tribe is halfway through the second year of a bull and calf elk survival study to update survival rate information gathered in the 1980s. “We want to be sure enough mature branch antlered bulls and spikes are making it through each year to maintain a healthy population,” said McCoy. The study is being conducted in an estimated 124,000-acre area that includes Makah reservation and commercial timberlands outside the reservation.

Last year, the tribe implanted 20 bulls with radio transmitters; 21 more were implanted this spring. “Approximately 25 percent of the bulls implanted last year survived hunting and natural predators,” said McCoy. If that holds true for the second year, McCoy is confident that the harvest rates have been appropriate to assure healthy herds as well as hunting opportunity.

Elk calf survival is also a good indicator of herd health. Half of the 40 radio-collared calves from last year survived, a good rate for wildlife. “Cougars are really the only calf predator we documented,” said McCoy. “Deer fawns have multiple predators, such as coyotes, bears, bobcats and cougar.”

A second group of 34 elk calves were collared this spring and the results of their survival will be factored into the study. Calf survival rates combined with cow survival rates indicate whether an elk population is growing.

A three-year Administration for Native Americans Environmental Regulatory Enhancement grant through the Department of Health and Human Services and the Makah Tribe paid for the study. Volunteers from the KBH Archers of Bremerton assisted with the captures along with Makah tribal members and wildlife biologists from other tribes and personnel from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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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

From the Magazine:

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 and the smiles bigger during the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s dam removal celebration Sept. 17.

For nearly 100 years, the tribe has waited to celebrate the demolition of the Elwha River’s two fish-blocking dams, which have violated the tribe’s treaty rights since they were constructed in the early 20th century. The dams blocked all but the lower 5 miles of the river, devastating salmon populations.

The Lummi Nation distributed sockeye salmon to tribal members last month for families to can and store for the winter.

“The tribe puts fish away as much as possible when we have an abundance, for ceremonies and all the functions that the tribe sponsors,” said Randy Kinley Sr., policy representative for the tribe. “It’s very important to take care of your people’s needs culturally.”

The fish was caught during the record 2010 Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery and has been in cold storage.

“The sockeye season was short this year and we wanted to make sure people have the opportunity to put salmon away for the winter,” Kinley said.

Watch the video below:

View more pictures on Flickr.

The most touching moments of the celebration marking the beginning of the end of the Elwha dams were tribal. They were the smiling faces on the children of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe who danced, drummed and sang in brand new outfits handcrafted for the occasion.

They were in the voices of the elder women who sang along with the Klallam love song. Who couldn’t smile during elder Ben Charles blessing, interrupted by husky belly laughs?

But the most significant moment came when tribal chairwoman took the carefully planned event off script to invite to the stage Billy Frank Jr. to speak.
Frank is a member of the Nisqually tribe, who, like the Elwha gave up land to the federal government in the 1850s in exchange for the right to fish in the usual and accustomed places in perpetuity. It was a right that was taken away in the 20th Century by an encroaching society that had little interest in the Indians traditional society and culture.

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.”

You can find out more about the symposium (including a program) here.

Here is also some more recent Elwha coverage from the NWIFC:

• Lower Elwha Klallam using sonar to count fish in Elwha River
• Photo Set: Lower Elwha Klallam SONAR camera
• Behind The Elwha Dams: The Drawdown of the Aldwell and Mills Reservoirs
• Photo Set: Aldwell Reservoir Drawdown
• Lamprey study part of Elwha River restoration
• Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to measure sediment from river dams during removal
• NWIFC Flickr: Lower Elwha Sediment Monitoring July 2011

The tribe expects the Brenner fish hatchery to be completed by the end of the year. The tribe has been rearing the fall juvenile chinook from brood years 2008, 2009 and 2010 at its Harvey Creek Hatchery.

Fall chinook, which mostly rear and spawn in the South Fork Stillaguamish, are genetically distinct from summer chinook, which primarily use the North Fork. A hatchery program has been in place in the North Fork for more than 20 years, with about 1,500 summer chinook returning each year.

Stillaguamish fall chinook by comparison have declined to fewer than 100 fish — so few that there aren’t enough adult chinook in the South Fork to capture and use for broodstock.

For three years, tribal natural resources staff have been seining for juvenile fall chinook, which they raise in small compartments, called “fish condos,” until they are large enough to move to a larger space.

In August, fisheries biologist Carlin McAuley from the federal Manchester Research Station visited the Harvey Creek hatchery to ultrasound the 2008 fish to see if any of them had matured enough to spawn. Three fish, likely males, had matured. “We will learn about how long it takes them to fully ripen up and how long they will last before dying,” Killebrew said.

“With these first captive brood fish, we are learning how to raise, monitor and hold wild chinook salmon from infancy to old age and death,” he added. “We have never tried this before with the Stillaguamish Tribe’s hatchery program and it will help us ramp up a full-scale captive brood program to try and keep South Fork fall-timed chinook from going extinct.”

Watch a video about the program below:

For more information, contact: Kip Killebrew, Stillaguamish Tribe, kkillebrew@stillaguamish.com, or 360-435-8770; Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, kneumeyer@nwifc.org or 360-424-8226.

You can listen to his speech below.

Here is a post from King5 on the meeting.

Removal of the 6,670 feet of dike is the last major dike removal project in the Nisqually estuary and caps more than decade of estuary restoration. Since 1999, the Nisqually Tribe and the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge have removed over 10,000 feet of dikes and restored more than 800 acres of estuary.

Because this is the last dike coming down from along the river, the mouth of the Nisqually may choose to move at some point. “Historically, the river was able to move across its wide flood plain here at the mouth,” said Florian Leischner, salmon restoration biologist for the tribe. “But, for the past century, it’s been held in one path by the dikes.”

In addition to removing the dikes, the tribe will also reconnect at least three tidal channels. “These channels are vital to salmon survival in the early part of their life cycle,” Leischner said.

The newly restored estuary is giving juvenile salmon from throughout Puget Sound a place to feed and grow before they migrate to the open ocean. “We’re tracking a lot of benefits for salmon in the estuary since it has been restored,” said David Troutt, natural resources director for the tribe. “Our studies show than the young salmon are benefiting. The salmon that are coming into the estuary are finding the food they need here.”

“Restored habitat means more salmon will return to the Nisqually,” said Georgianna Kautz, natural resources manager for the Nisqually Tribe. “The right to harvest salmon that the tribe reserved in our treaty is meaningless if we don’t have salmon to harvest and the habitat to support them.”

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