You can also download the white paper that the tribes released last summer.

The goal of the Treaty Rights at Risk initiative is to reverse the trend of declining salmon runs, despite more than ten years of listings under the federal Endangered Species Act. Salmon continue to decline because we’ve yet to do what we need to do to restore and protect their habitat. The treaty tribes are also asking for the federal government to reassert themselves to protect treaty rights.

State government assumes, when deciding how clean Washington waters should be, that people eat up to a half-pound of local seafood per month.

But it’s not unusual for Jim Peters, a member of the Squaxin Island Tribal Council, to dine with his family three times a week on locally caught salmon, halibut, clams or shrimp – not to mention leftovers.

“It is a ridiculously low amount and does not represent in any way what the majority of Washingtonians are actually eating,” the tribal council wrote of the state rate in a policy document it adopted this year.

Encouraged by tribes and environmentalists, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Department of Ecology is moving toward making a much higher estimate of people’s fish-eating habits that could shape the water-pollution decisions of the next governor’s administration.

A proposal is due in July, but preliminary recommendations range as high as a half-pound a day.

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.”

Undamming the Elwha, the documentary from EarthFix on Vimeo.

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.

Frank sees treaty-reserved rights to harvest salmon disappearing along with diminishing salmon populations due to a loss of habitat. No one is in charge of salmon recovery, in Frank’s blunt assessment.

Twenty tribes organized a Treaty Rights at Risk campaign last August. They see unabated pollution of Puget Sound, with little or no enforcement of water quality, zoning and development rules.

In light of what Frank described in an interview this week as a failure by the state, he wants the federal government directly involved.

First, smolt trapping:

Outmigrating coho salmon smolts will be captured, enumerated and lengths measured. Other species such as chum fry, cutthroat, rainbow trout, and sculpin are also seen in the trap.

And, net pens:

Each month Squaxin NR staff takes samples of coho from the net pens to monitor growth progress and fish pathology. We select pens that are representative of the stocks we have and then seine a random sample of these pens.

Washington state’s Swinomish tribe faces a water rights battle in the Skagit River basin, the likes of which we have seen before. It’s reminiscent of the dispute that broke out around a decade ago in the Klamath River basin in California and Oregon. That dispute led to a fish kill of about 70,000 salmon after federal intervention severely reduced water flows in the Klamath and its tributaries.

The Swinomish tribe’s fight, however, is uniquely theirs. The tribe is currently arguing before the Washington State Court of Appeals that the Washington Department of Ecology acted illegally in exercising a rarely invoked “overriding consideration of public interest” (OCPI) state water law loophole.

Using OCPI, the Department of Ecology could designate large quantities of water from the Skagit River and its tributaries for domestic, municipal, commercial, industrial, agricultural and livestock watering uses despite the fact that the river consistently fails to meet the basic flow requirements to sustain its health. This broadening and misuse of OCPI is also the topic of a recent amicus brief filed in support of the Swinomish tribe jointly by Earthjustice and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

The Skagit River system is the third largest in the western United States and the only one in the lower 48 states to harbor all six species of Pacific salmon. The rivers and streams that flow into the Skagit account for a quarter of all the fresh water flowing into the Puget Sound.

The Swinomish people depend heavily on the salmon and other migratory fish of the Skagit River system for “subsistence, culture, identity and economy,” as they describe in their opening brief to the appellate court. Low river flows have already adversely impacted salmon populations and the tribe’s ability to exercise these practices, which are protected by federal treaty. Further state mismanagement could have catastrophic effects on salmon populations and the communities that rely on them.

Key to those efforts is repairing and protecting quality spawning and rearing habitat for salmon, said Lorraine Loomis, fisheries manager for the Swinomish Tribe.

“While effective harvest and hatchery management can help provide limited fishing opportunities, wild salmon continue to decline because their habitat is being lost and damaged faster than it can be restored. This puts our treaty rights at risk,” Loomis said. “Habitat is the key to salmon recovery.”

The Tacoma News Tribune also posted up a story on the effort.

From the Cowichan News Leader:

Dozens of West Coast chiefs and Native leaders representing 66 tribes met with scientists in Duncan this week in an effort to find new approaches to climate change.

A few hundred participants took part in a three-day Coast Salish gathering at the Qu’wutsun’ Cultural Centre to discuss what most agreed was a  critical period for both the ecology and the economy.

“There’s no profit in truth,” said Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission member Darrell Phare of Washington state’s Lummi Nation.

“Nature only deals in truths. We can ignore its signs, but it will come back to us…those people in government are totally afraid of the truth. It all goes back to making money.”

Scientists expect dramatic temperature changes by 2050, which will heavily effect areas like the Cowichan Valley, where communities have thrived off the river’s extensive ecosystem.

Climate change, glacier retreat, hydrological boundaries, greenhouse gases, global warming and rising water levels were up for discussion and frustration about how little is being done in response.

The resolution, which passed 7-0, was more of a formalization of support for the tribe’s restoration project rather than a call for action on the part of the city, public works director Chris Searcy clarified.

The project is spearheaded through the Puyallup Tribe’s fisheries department with the intent on restoring and enhancing salmon habitat, Searcy said. Planning began during the previous administration and was the highest ranking project for the Puyallup River Watershed.

Here is an earlier story about the tribe’s goals for Boise Creek.

By 11:30, the rocks were nearly red hot and we scooped the unburned coals from the cooking pit and packed in our root vegetables. Salal, which has amazingly fireproof leaves, was placed directly on the hot rocks and then covered with a mattress of sword ferns. We placed carrots, onions, yams, and potatoes on top of the sword ferns, and then placed more sword ferns on top. Then we poured water over the entire thing and quickly covered it with burlap and a couple inches of soil to seal in the steam.

You can read an earlier post and watch a video on the Food Sovereignty project here.

A Columbia Helicopter crew member watches a log be placed by helicopter into one of the main channels in the Skokomish Estuary:

Archie Cantrell, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, pours spring chinook into a tanker truck before they are transferred to the upper White River.

From Environment News Service:

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community will inventory, manage, protect, and enhance wildlife and habitat resources on the 118 acres of tidelands, nearshore, and old growth forests of Kukutali Preserve on the Swinomish Reservation in Washington state.

A key element will include the creation of a 50-year management plan for the Kukutali Preserve by the Tribe and Washington State Parks as co-owners and managers of the Preserve. The restoration project is designed to protect the threatened Skagit Chinook salmon by providing protection to critical rearing habitat.

The smallest observed coho salmon run ever on the Puyallup watershed was counted in 2010, according to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’s recently released annual salmon report. Only 720 adult coho were seen by spawning surveyors during the 2010 season, which is the lowest recorded run in almost 20 years. The next lowest run was 976 coho in 2003.

The more than 200 page report is available here (pdf link, 51 MB). It is the most comprehensive monitoring and evaluation report available on the status, trends, responses and use by various life history stages of ESA listed Spring/Fall Chinook and winter steelhead; as well as non-listed coho, pink, chum, sockeye, and bull trout within the Puyallup/White River Watershed (Puget Sound ESU).

Monitoring and evaluation efforts include extensive spawning ground escapement surveys for Chinook, coho, pink, chum and steelhead. The tribe collects the population data during its survey season, which begins in mid-August, continues through the winter, and ends in mid-June. Additional elements include sampling adult anadromous salmonid returns at the USACE fish trap on the White River; adult and juvenile salmonid migration and mortality monitoring at the Electron Forebay fish collection facility (Puget Sound Energy) and operation of the juvenile rotary screw trap on the Puyallup River (Puyallup Tribe).

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.”

More after the jump:

King 5:

The Olympian:

The bow of a steel boat dipped just inches from the water under the weight of car tires and other debris gathered from the beach.

The driver was coming into the Arcadia Point boat launch to bring back the morning’s haul of garbage, a twice-annual tradition for the local shellfish growers.

About 60 volunteers manned 15 boats, launching at Arcadia Point east of Shelton and spanning 80 miles of South Sound beaches.

The first team set out at 7:30 a.m. Unlike past years, the crew were welcomed by sunny skies and calm waters.

“We found a sleeping bag and tent from a camp left behind, corroding,” said Darren Brownfield, a field technician with the Squaxin Island Tribe. “It’s disgusting. It shows disrespect to our island and our people.”

Brownfield’s team also found tires and partially submerged barrels.

In their brief, Earthjustice and CELP argue that the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) cannot allow more water to be withdrawn from the troubled Skagit River and its tributaries for new junior water uses because such new uses would further impair stream-flows. Impaired stream-flows damage salmon, other wildlife and communities that depend on the water.

The tribal community’s appeal, filed in 2008, challenges Ecology’s 2006 revision to the in-stream flow rule for the Skagit River and its tributaries.

…

“Along with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, we will not stand by to see critical tributaries of the Skagit reduced to trickles simply because Ecology is unwilling to uphold the law and protect the instream flow reservations that preserve the river and its wildlife,” said Suzanne Skinner of CELP. “The Skagit must be conserved for future generations and we will work to protect the precious water that salmon and people need to survive.”

The conservationists’ brief challenges Ecology’s claim that the “public interest” exemption creates a loophole to ignore protecting basic in-stream flows whenever Ecology finds it convenient or generally desirable to do so. Rather, the public interest doctrine is meant to be used in limited emergencies such as fire suppression or health emergencies. That limited, temporary, emergency use was Ecology’s long-standing position until very recently when it started to stretch the emergency exception into a big, permanent loophole.

Read the press release.

One of Arum’s longest running cases involved the Makah Indian Tribe, which lives on the northern tip of Washington’s coastline. The Makahs have an ancient whaling tradition, and their right to hunt the marine mammals was guaranteed in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. But they had not hunted whales since the 1920s, when commercial whaling nearly wiped out the gray whale. When that animal was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994, the Makahs saw an opportunity to reconnect with their tradition. They announced their intent to resume hunting whales as their ancestors had done, from a cedar canoe with a harpoon. The lines were drawn for an epic legal battle — treaty rights vs. animal rights.

The federal government chose to honor the 1855 treaty, and major conservation groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club did not object to the Makah whaling plan, even though the hunts would be in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. But there was widespread and determined opposition. American, British, and Australian animal-rights groups, along with tour-boat operators, kayakers, and Congressman Jack Metcalf (1927-2007), a Republican from Whidbey Island, sued to stop the plan. They contended that federal agencies had ignored laws in approving the proposed hunts and that more time was needed to study the environmental impact. In September 1998, with Arum representing the tribe, the Makahs prevailed. U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess of Tacoma approved the tribe’s plan to kill up to 20 gray whales in five years. The whale hunt could proceed.

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.

An ongoing effort to improve salmon habitat in the lower Nooksack floodplain received another round of federal funding, the state Department of Ecology announced recently.

Phase 3 of the Smuggler’s Slough restoration project obtained an $804,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for acquisition of 101 acres of wetlands and salt marsh along the lower reach of the slough off Lummi Bay, south of Ferndale.

To complete the acquisition of conservation rights on the properties, and to make habitat improvements, Lummi Nation will contribute $350,000 and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board will add another $125,000, Ecology spokesman Curt Hart said.

In previous phases, Ecology in partnership with the tribe acquired 406 acres farther upstream on Smuggler’s Slough. The slough historically was a salmon passage connecting Bellingham and Lummi bays, but it was converted in the 1930s into a drainage ditch as much of the estuarine habitat in the lower Nooksack floodplain was converted into farmland, a 2009 report by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission 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.

At the annual Treaty Days commemoration in the Swinomish Smokehouse January 21, one leader talked of how, as a child, he saw his parents get arrested for fishing without a state license, even though Article V of the treaty was their license to fish. Another talked of being harassed recently for hunting elk in traditional hunting areas, another for harvesting cedar.

And so, the battle to protect treaty rights continues. Doing so takes tenacity and it takes education so the individual knows how to defend the treaty in courts and in the halls of government of the dominant society, they said.

“One hundred and fifty seven years ago, the treaty was signed. We gave up a lot,” said Tulalip Tribes Chairman Mel Sheldon. “(The U.S.) wanted us to live on reservations, they wanted us to learn to farm. The assimilation effort was on. But because our ancestors had the hearts of warriors, we have our language and our way of life today.”

The Treaty of Point Elliott was, in a sense, a bill of sale: In exchange for a large swath of land – bordered roughly by Canada to the north, Seattle to the south, the Salish Sea to the west and the Cascades to the east – the U.S. government promised cash, reservations, health care and schools. The 82 Coast Salish leaders who signed the treaty on January 22, 1855 also reserved the rights of their people to fish, harvest and hunt in their “usual and accustomed grounds.”

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 Seattle Times:

Like so many dairy farmers, the Werkhovens felt the pinch in 2008 when milk prices plunged, hay prices rose and there was the ever-present issue of finding appropriate ways to dispose of waste. Right and left, dairies were going under — even those like the Werkhoven Dairy, which has operated for decades.

“I’m just glad my dad wasn’t around to see it,” Andy Werkhoven said. Sam Werkhoven, who started the dairy in 1959 with 25 cows, died several years ago.

When Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes, strolled into their pasture one day with an idea on how to turn manure to money, Andy Werkhoven was ready to listen.

The Tulalips were interested because the Werkhoven Dairy is at the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers, the historic fishing area for the tribe.

Williams’ idea was forming a nonprofit group, Qualco Energy, and buying an anaerobic digester to turn manure to methane, which in turn, powers a generator that puts electricity on the grid.

Sponsored by the Nisqually Tribe and the City of Roy, the event featured displays of salmon and salmon restoration, educational activities, and speakers from organizations involved in salmon restoration.

Before several people addressed the crowd, Nisqually Tribe elder Bob Sison kicked off the event by blessing Muck Creek and the salmon.

“Heavenly Father, creator of heaven and earth, grandfather, eagle spirts, all our ancestors — look upon us today and bless us, guide us … (to) restore these waterways for our salmon to return,” Sison said. “There has been troubles in the past for the salmon. Bring them back in abundance the way it was years ago.”

“Grandfather, look upon us,” he added. “Teach us the way it was, the way it must return.”

Muck Creek was fully restored in the fall of 1998 and the first Roy Salmon Homecoming was in January 1999. The Nisqually Tribe, Pierce Stream Team, Joint Base Lewis-McChord and other groups have collaborated on many restoration projects along Muck Creek.

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.

Six years of multi-party water rights negotiations in the Nooksack basin of Whatcom County have been suspended while the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe seek federal support to quantify their water rights.

At issue is how much water should remain in various reaches and streams of the Nooksack River, and how much should be available for other uses.

…

“Treaty-reserved water rights are outside the state system, and the only way that the tribes can have documented and clearly defined water rights is through a quantification judgment,” said Merle Jefferson, Lummi Natural Resources Department Director. “We encourage others to support our request to resolve this long-standing issue so that we can all have certainty and can plan accordingly.”

“There is no surprise here,” said Bob Kelly, Chairman of the Nooksack tribe. “We all knew that federal court action would be needed to establish the Indian water rights. We made a lot of progress together, and, if the parties continue to cooperate, this can be noncontroversial.”

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.

From the Marysville Globe:

“Rob is a great listener,” said Libby Halpin Nelson, environmental policy analyst for the Treaty Rights Office of the Natural Resources Department of the Tulalip Tribes, who serves as a liaison to the U.S. Forest Service. “The Tribes were using these forest for their cedar already, but he helped foster better communication and partnership in the forests’ stewardship between the Forest Service and the Tribes, who have a lot in common interests. They both want to see these resources sustained.”

Tulalip Tribal Chair Mel Sheldon Jr. explained that what’s now the managed as the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is within traditional territories where the Tribes and their ancestors have been hunted, fished and gathered herbs, medicines and food, for ceremonial and spiritual purposes, for thousands of years. He praised Iwamoto for working to understand the Tribes’ treaty rights on those lands, and to assist in translating them into actions that will aid the Tribes in continuing their culture.

“We’ve been very honored to work with you,” Sheldon said. “You’ve respected our government, and even when faced with tough problems, you’ve always found solutions to them. I wish you weren’t retiring, because you’re leaving behind big shoes to fill, but you’ve also left us with some great memories.”

Among the achievements during Iwamoto’s tenure was the development of a Memorandum of Agreement, between the Tulalip Tribes and the U.S. Forest Service, to improve communications and work together to steward the resources and places of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest that are vital to the Tribes’ culture. This came after Iwamoto and his staff took the Tribes up on their invitation to meet the Tribes’ Natural and Cultural Resources staff in 2005, to hear their ideas and concerns regarding the Forest Service’s management of the National Forest lands.

And that’s important because if the state acknowledges that people are eating more creatures that live in the water, that means the water needs to get cleaner. This past fall Oregon upped its number to 175 grams per day.

Fran Wilshusan, habitat services manager for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Council, says by setting the higher standard in Oregon, that state took a big step toward regulating polluters and cleaning up their waters.

“If we have the opportunity to move it up to the 175 grams or higher,” Wilshusan says, “then we have an opportunity to protect the surface waters from further toxic loading but also to protect the human health for all of us who live in the Puget Sound region.”

…

It took Oregon several years to get the seafood consumption amount changed.

“This has not been an easy path for them.” Fran Wilshusan says, “It won’t be an easy path here in Washington but we have to start out by recognizing and acknowledging that we’re all eating a lot more than 6.5 grams of fish a day.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire, Billy Frank Jr. and Dr. Jane Lubchenco of NOAA listen to Bill Dewey of Taylor Shellfish during the launch of the Washington Shellfish Initiative.

Representatives of western Washington treaty tribes were present at last week’s event celebrating the Washington Shellfish Initiative. The effort would promote growing shellfish and restoring ecosystems in Washington State.

From the Olympian’s coverage of the event:

Supporters of the initiative said the shellfish industry raises clams and oysters that filter and improve water quality. They are part of the Puget Sound cleanup solution, not part of the problem, they said.

“We’re ready to stand by our shellfish growers,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

Bill Taylor’s piece in the Olympian this morning explains the project well:

The Washington State Shellfish Initiative includes an effort to bring together expertise from agencies with regulatory authority over shellfish farms to overcome these challenges, promote healthy marine waters and productive shellfish beds and bring much-needed jobs back to our state. We at Taylor are hopeful that it will provide a more predictable and efficient permit process while continuing to ensure that regulatory requirements are met.

The initiative also includes commitments to restore native shellfish, enhance recreational shellfishing, continue vital shellfish aquaculture research and direct funding and agency resources toward improving water quality in commercial, recreational and tribal shellfish growing areas. Taylor has been involved in the promotion of these efforts for decades, and often in partnership with environmental organizations, state and federal agencies and tribes.

However, we have never before experienced this level of unified commitment from so many critical stakeholders. We believe this is the level of effort required to ensure that the initiative’s goals are achieved.

Treaty tribes want a healthy shellfish industry, because that means our region can still be a source of food that have sustained tribes for generations. Billy Frank Jr. explains this point in a recent column:

Treaty tribal and non-Indian shellfish producers are on the front line of monitoring and protecting water quality in Puget Sound and along the coast. We can measure the health of these waters by the health of the shellfish that live there. Healthy water produces healthy shellfish, and healthy shellfish is good food for all of us.

The problem comes when we stop connecting our food to the place where it comes from. Salmon and shellfish don’t come from the grocery store. They come from nature.

Our lands and waters are naturally productive, just like salmon and shellfish. All they need is a little help to let them do what they do. We should be celebrating the fact that we can still produce and harvest salmon and shellfish in western Washington.

Read the entire column here, but this is a good sample:

“Guys were saying, ‘Yeah, we were sitting around the campfire and we saw this black helicopter come over and we know it was you guys herding elk out of the area so the hunters can’t get them,’ and that kind of deal. I’m going, really guys? Black helicopters? You obviously haven’t been reading the paper about our budget problems.”

As for why so many hunters weren’t seeing elk and where the elk were, well, that depends on who you talk to. I talked to a guy who guides hunters drawn for special branch-antler bull permits and he said they saw more elk where they were hunting than they usually do. (I won’t say where that is; if a guy’s got a good hunting spot, I’m not about to give it away.) I talked to other hunters who said they saw lots of elk for a day or two and then didn’t see anything after that.

The Midway Creek fish passage project is part of a larger Goldsborough Creek watershed project by the Squaxin Island Tribe.

What we know now is that this proposed development would be the largest to date at Cherry Point, and would substantially impact the ability of Lummi fishermen to exercise their treaty rights.

The Gateway Pacific pier, planned to be 3,000 feet long and 100 feet wide, would dwarf the existing piers currently operated by BP Cherry Point, Alcoa Intalco Works and ConocoPhillips.

The pier would be large enough to accept massive Cape-size ships – which are too big to even travel through the Panama Canal, can carry 250,000 dead weight tons, and may require as many as four tugboats to guide them into port.

This increased vessel traffic will present a particular hazard to tribal fishers in their comparatively small fishing boats and will interfere with fishing.

Other Lummi Nation concerns about the terminal include:

• Impacts to irreplaceable cultural resources and traditional cultural properties.
• Blocked access to treaty-protected tribal fishing grounds.
• Increased risk of vessel/tanker collision, resulting in potential oil spills.
• Degraded water quality associated with storm water runoff from the facility.
• Eliminated wetlands.
• Reduced instream flows needed for impaired Nooksack River salmon and resulting habitat degradation.
• Increased train traffic, blocking Slater Road, hurting the local economy.
• Global climate change and other air- and water-quality impacts associated with using coal as an energy source.

Our Lummi ancestors had a village at Cherry Point because of its unique deep-water resources. Today, this site is also one of the most commercially valuable ports on the West Coast.

As we have in the past, Lummi Nation will conduct its due diligence to ensure that if this project is developed, negative impacts will be avoided or minimized and any unavoidable impacts appropriately mitigated.

Our Lummi people would expect no less than a thorough investigation when an important aspect of our Lummi schelangen hangs in the balance.

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:

For many communities, the consequences also go beyond just health concerns.

“Traditional families are still very active in the smokehouse. They are still fishing for their primary source of living,” says Jamie Donatuto, an environmental specialist for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, in La Conner, Wash. “Fish are not just a source of nutrients, they have cultural and spiritual meaning for these people.”

Donatuto has been working with the Swinomish tribe for more than a decade on the issue. She recently conducted a survey and found that if tribal members had access to as much safe seafood as they wanted, they would consume more than 100 times the state’s estimate.

“In the Pacific Northwest, fish consumption is a way of life. It’s an important cultural hallmark of tribal nations that live here,” adds Elaine Faustman, a professor of environmental and occupational health studies at the University of Washington.

In fact, as she points out, it’s not uncommon to find kids “teething on salmon jerky.”

On-the-ground habitat restoration projects will be the focus of a new coalition to jumpstart salmon productivity in the Deschutes River watershed. The Squaxin Island Tribe and the cities of Olympia, Lacey and Yelm are establishing the Deschutes Watershed Environmental Stewardship Coalition.

“The Deschutes coalition will be an ongoing alliance to fund and conduct on-the-ground projects to restore a healthy watershed,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the tribe. “The coalition will put words into actions and start restoring productivity to the Deschutes River.”

Initial projects are slated for the 197-acre farm on the Deschutes River near Lake Lawrence that the cities recently purchased as part of mitigation for their new water rights.

King 5 also covered the deal last night:

The city of Olympia published a staff report that has more background on the proposed agreement.

In response, the Swinomish Tribe has put together a fact sheet to clarify some points:

• Skagit County specifically agreed to stop issuing building permits if new wells would be harmful to salmon. Both the Department of Fish and Wildlife and Ecology have stated that new wells will be harmful to salmon.
• The Swinomish Tribe did not begin litigation over water issues; Skagit County did by suing Ecology in 2003.
• Skagit County specifically agreed to the closure of tributary subbasins once the reservations established in 2006 are exhausted.
• The Swinomish Tribe does not have any litigation over water rights currently pending against Skagit County. The Swinomish Tribe’s lawsuit against Ecology is not seeking to create new law, but is seeking to make Ecology implement and enforce existing laws.
• Skagit County’s efforts to deflect attention away from the County’s responsibility to stop issuing building permits in the Carpenter/Fisher subbasin and cast the Swinomish Tribe as interested in controlling land use is unfair and inaccurate. The Swinomish Tribe’s only purpose is to protect salmon and instream flows, not to control growth.
• Given the necessary funding, the City of Anacortes and Skagit PUD have both offered to provide piped water to meet additional demand. We have provided legal support when Skagit County and the Skagit PUD have tried to expand service to rural residents. Expanding piped water reduces impacts to instream flows and provides safe and clean water to property owners.
• The Swinomish Tribe will continue to do what is necessary to protect salmon and the instream flows upon which salmon depend.

Read the complete fact sheet here.

The key to confirming the ISA findings is getting a live sample of the virus in the lab, so scientists can study its intact genome.

That’s part of why Bruce Stewart is here at the Muckleshoot tribal hatchery.

The creek behind the hatchery churns with coho salmon, just returning from two years in the open ocean. While at sea, these hatchery fish have been exposed to the same viruses as wild salmon so they’re a good representation of what might be out there.
Hatchery workers net the salmon from the creek, their dappled red bodies flopping around madly.

A quick thwack on the head with a wooden baton and the salmon lies still. Then hatchery workers cut the eggs out of it’s belly.

Semen from the males is mixed with the eggs taken from the females and then set aside to incubate.

During this process 60 of these fish are set aside for Bruce Stewart. He’s hunched over a long table sticking a syringe into the abdomen of the female cohos and sucking out a clear liquid.

“So what I’m doing is taking ovarian fluid from each of these females,” he explains. “We know that ovarian fluid is a highly sensitive fluid for viruses.”