The Nisqually Indian Tribe – with help from the federal and state government – is trying to find out how much a winter-time visit of marine mammal eating transient orca whales might have benefited endangered steelhead. The orcas preyed on marine mammals, whose numbers had been spiking around Puget Sound in recent years. Recent research […]
Over at Keep Seafood Clean, you should read an essay by Lower Elwha vice-chair Russ Hepfer about why a strong water quality rule would protect all Washingtonians: State government has wrestled for decades with updating the standards that are supposed to protect us from toxics in our water that end up in the food we […]
Nano Perez and Tom Friedrich were surveying the Nisqually River for spawning steelhead when they came upon a wounded bald eagle. The tribal staff members were on hand yesterday when the bird was released, healthy, back to the river. From King 5: The soon realized the beaver was a bird. “Kind of hopping around – […]
Mark Trahant in Indian Country Today looks at the formation of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and how the tribes up there are drawing on the experience of tribes down here: On May 8, 2015, 28 tribes on the Kuskokwim River started down another path, assuming co-management of fish in the river system by creating […]
Carl Burke, a contract lobbyist working for Puget Sound Anglers and the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, made a strong statement about how his employers feel about the North of Falcon process during a recent state senate workshop yesterday. Burke said: The issue we have with the tribes occasionally, specifically in the North of Falcon, is […]
Late last week, the Puyallup Tribe released 30,000 steelhead into the upper White River. This is an interesting hatchery program that is showing real results in saving a disappearing run of steelhead. We wrote more about it last year: The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is releasing young steelhead from an acclimation pond in the upper […]
Nisqually tribal surveyors are hitting the water with a new piece of equipment that will help them better track endangered steelhead. “We’ve been adapting our surveying techniques to gather more precise information on not only how many steelhead make it back each year to spawn, but where exactly they spawn,” said David Troutt, natural resources […]
Al Jazeera America posted up a new story today that shows how the Fish Wars from decades ago still echo in the battle over hatcheries, tribal fisheries management and salmon recovery: In 1992, the tribe won a long battle to remove the dams and rehabilitate the entire watershed. The Lower Elwha and their federal partners […]
Treaty tribal and state salmon co-managers reached agreement late Tuesday on a package of fishing seasons that will fairly share the burden of conserving weak wild salmon stocks while providing limited harvest opportunities. “Cooperation on both sides helped to ensure that everyone will be able to fish this year,” said Lorraine Loomis, chair of the […]
The Swinomish Tribal Community issued this press release yesterday: The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community filed a lawsuit in federal court today against BNSF Railway (BNSF) for violating the terms of an easement agreement allowing trains to cross its Reservation in Skagit County. Train tracks running across the northern edge of the Reservation were laid in […]
