NWIFC Chair and Swinomish fisheries director Lorraine Loomis is featured in a Washington Post article about the effects of the drought on salmon and tribal culture: As a drought tightens its grip on the Pacific Northwest, burning away mountain snow and warming rivers, state officials and Native American tribes are becoming increasingly worried that one […]
Tribal fishing in Tulalip Bay closed in July because a thermal barrier kept many salmon from entering the bay, and low flows prevented others from swimming upriver. Tulalip Tribes closed fishing in the bay July 22, and the state restricted the sport chinook fishery in the “bubble” at the mouth of the bay to catch-and-release […]
The Herald has a long story featuring the Stillaguamish Tribe’s natural resources department, describing the challenges salmon face on the Stillaguamish River. The Stillaguamish is home to three species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act: Chinook salmon, steelhead trout and bull trout. In recent years, however, the river suffered two blows that have […]
Upper Skagit Baker Sockeye Fishery from NW Indian Fisheries Commission on Vimeo. The Baker River sockeye fishery is especially important to Upper Skagit tribal fishermen. It’s one of the few opportunities the tribe has to exercise treaty fishing rights at the site of an ancestral village. With declining salmon populations caused by disappearing habitat, increasing […]
Tightline Adventure, a Native-owned and operated non-profit, is making a series of videos about tribal hatchery facilities. Click to watch a video, shot at the Tulalip Hatchery, featuring the NWIFC automatic tagging trailer that marks millions of juvenile salmon by clipping the adipose fin and inserting coded-wire tags in their snouts before release. Fin-clipping makes […]
Lummi Nation water resources technician Lisa Cook produced a pair of videos about the tribe’s youth outreach progam, which is teaching Lummi schoolchildren about the importance of salmon and other natural resources to their culture. Read related article: Lummi Nation Raises Next Generation of Stewards
Two local news stations featured tribal concerns in their reports about record-setting temperatures and low water flows. KIRO 7 interviewed Jason Griffith, Stillaguamish fisheries biologist. KING 5 spoke to Doreen Maloney, the Upper Skagit Tribe’s executive director of Economic Development & Treaty Entitlements.
Tribal hatchery managers are working to save salmon from potentially deadly water temperatures and low flows. On the Olympic Peninsula, the Makah Tribe’s Hoko Hatchery released chinook three weeks early and sockeye a month early. “In the summer, we’re usually looking at flows of 100 gallons a minute – we’re already at 160 gallons a […]
From elementary school through young adulthood, Lummi Nation youth are learning about the natural resources that sustain their culture. Lummi Nation School students from kindergarten through sixth grade are planting ocean spray shrubs beside the Wex’lium community longhouse. Known in the tribal language as tsingenilhch, the ironwood is fire-resistant when cut into the sticks used […]
After a winter of record low snowfall and Gov. Jay Inslee’s May declaration of a statewide drought, treaty tribes in western Washington are concerned about high water temperatures, low flows and pre-spawn mortality in returning salmon. “This drought will have catastrophic, far-reaching effects for many years to come,” said Scott Schuyler, natural resources director for […]
