BLYN - Consider it a "how-to" guide for the next great habitat restoration project. It's been two years since the Jimmycomelately Creek restoration project was completed. But the work didn't…
PUYALLUP (November 6, 2008) - The Puyallup Tribe's Clark Creek salmon hatchery has reached its goal of collecting 1.1 million chinook eggs for the first time since it opened four…
EATONVILLE (October 27, 2008) - The Nisqually Indian Tribe is helping a local landowner reclaim a stretch of Tanwax Creek for salmon. Tribal technicians, volunteers and school groups are clearing…
STEILACOOM (October 3, 2008) – Tribal fishing in Chambers Bay will close about two weeks early to make sure that enough adult chinook make it back to a hatchery to produce the next generation of fish.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is opposing a proposed expanded hunt on the fewer than 1,000-animal herd. To decrease the number of human and elk interactions, the State of Washington is proposing an expanded hunt on antlerless elk along state Route 12 between Packwood and Morton. An expanded harvest on the South Rainier elk herd could cause the weak elk population to crash. The herd's target population is more than 2,100, according to the tribal and state co-managers.
OLYMPIA (August 5, 2008) – A nearly 20 year old landslide is still hurting salmon according to a recently completed analysis of sediment in the Deschutes River by the Squaxin Island Tribe.
“The sediment from that landslide is still working its way through the river system,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe. “It has a relatively high proportion of minute dirt particles that continue to hinder coho reproduction.”
In January 1990, a huge storm hit the Deschutes River blocking an old culvert under a logging road. The resulting landslide sent tons of hillside sediment into Huckleberry Creek, a headwater tributary to the Deschutes.
Sharp cuts in fishing by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians this year will allow sport fishermen to start fishing for chinook on the Puyallup River two weeks early. "The tribe is going to be off the water more this year to reduce impacts on returning chinook, and this gave more opportunity for sport fishermen," said Chris Phinney, the tribe's salmon fisheries management biologist. The cuts by the tribe were agreed to last spring during the tribal and state salmon fisheries management process.
A special fishing season for tribal elders takes place next month. From June 10 to June 13, the river will be open for elders to fish for ceremonial and subsistence use from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Chris Phinney, harvest management biologist for the Puyallup Tribe's Fisheries/Hatchery Department, explained the rules in place. This special fishing season is open only to Puyallup Tribal members aged 50 and older. There will be no helpers allowed and no exceptions to the rules, he said. "They have to be tribal elders to be on the river."
Fewer juvenile wild chinook migrated from the Puyallup River in 2007, likely because winter floods in the winter of 2006 washed away chinook redds – or nests – before the fish had a chance to emerge from the gravel. But, because of good weather this past winter, a record number of pink salmon are leaving the watershed. The Puyallup Tribe of Indians counts outgoing salmon with a smolt trap in the lower Puyallup River, enabling them to estimate the productivity of the entire watershed. A smolt trap is a safe and effective way to capture and count juvenile salmon. Smolt refers to the term “smoltification,” a physiological process juvenile salmon undergo that allows them to migrate from fresh to salt water. According to recently analyzed data, fewer than 10,000 wild chinook migrated from the Puyallup watershed last year, down from a peak of 60,000 fish in 2005. On the other hand, over 100,000 pink salmon have left the system so far this year.
The Olympian ran a story this morning on the Squaxin Island Tribe's request to protect salmon in the Johns Creek watershed: The Squaxin Island tribe, concerned about salmon in the…