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Upper Skagit’s Sustainable Forestry Turns Maples to Guitars

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Pacific Tonewoods general manager Eric Warner shows a guitar with a back made from a maple tree.

Two maple trees harvested from Upper Skagit Tribe timberlands have a musical future ahead of them.

The trees were sold to Pacific Rim Tonewoods, a specialty sawmill upriver from the Upper Skagit Reservation that sells lumber to guitar makers Taylor and Martin, among others. While most guitar tops, sound boards and braces are made from spruce, maple is often used for the back, in part because of its decorative figuring. Figures are not the same as a wood’s grain; they are the distinctive pattern trees have when cut perpendicular to the grain direction.

The mill’s owner, Steve McMinn, toured a parcel of timberland that the Upper Skagit Tribe owns near its casino off Bow Hill Road. Among several hundred trees, he found one that had the fiddleback, or flame, figures popular on guitar backs. When the parcel was harvested, he discovered another maple with a quilt pattern.

The trees sold for two to three times more than other maples sell to a regular sawmill. The lucrative sale is part of Upper Skagit timberland services manager Robert Schuyler’s plan to develop a sustainable forestry operation. (more…)

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Treaty tribes released 40 million salmon in 2014

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe conducts its annual coho salmon spawning at the House of Salmon hatchery, November 2014.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe conducts its annual coho salmon spawning at the House of Salmon hatchery, November 2014.

Treaty Indian Tribes in western Washington released more than 40 million hatchery salmon in 2014 according to recently compiled statistics.

Of the 40 million salmon released, 13.7 million were chinook. Significant numbers of chum (16.9 million) and coho (8.6 million) were also released in addition to 658,00 steelhead and 456,000 sockeye. Some of the salmon released by the tribes were produced in cooperation with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state regional enhancement groups, or other sport or community groups.
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Squaxin Island Tribe, partners, winning battle with invasive weeds

Brian McTeague, Natural Resources Quantitative Services Manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe, notes the location of knotweed along Skookum Creek.
Brian McTeague, Natural Resources Quantitative Services Manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe, notes the location of knotweed along Skookum Creek.

After three years of work, the Squaxin Island Tribe and the Mason Conservation District, have controlled the spread of salmon-killing knotweed in the Skookum Creek watershed. “This is a huge step forward,” said Andy Whitener, natural resource director for the tribe. “This shows that through consistent effort, monitoring and cooperation, we can tackle persistently troubling natural resources issues.”

Invasive plants like blackberries, knotweed and reed canary grass out-compete native plants that provide better habitat for fish and wildlife. “A stream might look healthy, surrounded by plenty of plants, and appearing undeveloped, but that doesn’t mean it’s providing good fish habitat,” said Sarah Zaniewski, habitat biologist for the tribe. “If the plants aren’t shading the creek or giving fish the nutrients they need, they’re providing little benefit to fish.”
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Read more about the article Upper Skagit Tribe harvests last full return of hatchery steelhead

Upper Skagit Tribe harvests last full return of hatchery steelhead

darryl schuyler steelheadIt’s the end of an era for Upper Skagit tribal fishermen as the last full return of hatchery steelhead arrives in the Skagit River this winter.

“Our ancestors gave up everything so that we could continue to fish in our traditional areas,” said Scott Schuyler, natural resources director for the Upper Skagit Tribe. “Without hatchery production, we can’t have a meaningful fishery.”

The last full steelhead fishery is especially bittersweet for Schuyler, whose 14-year-old daughter just received her first tribal fishing card. “Maybe she’ll be able to have one day of fishing a year,” he said. “That’s not a meaningful fishery.”

Steelhead are a culturally important species that the Upper Skagit Tribe harvests for commercial, ceremonial and subsistence purposes. Historically, steelhead were available during the long winter months when other species were not available to feed tribal families. (more…)

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Read more about the article Dairy Farm Pollution Costs Lummi Nation
An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon

Dairy Farm Pollution Costs Lummi Nation

An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon
An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon.

Whatcom County’s booming dairy and agricultural industry has cost Lummi Nation shellfish harvesters millions of dollars already, and a recent closure of shellfish beds in Portage Bay is adding to the tally.

Manure from dairy cows is discharged either directly or indirectly into the Nooksack River, which flows into Portage Bay. In September, the tribe closed 335 acres of Portage Bay shellfish beds to harvest because of high fecal coliform levels that exceeded National Shellfish Sanitation Program standards. Continued poor water quality led to the closure of two additional areas in December, bringing the total to nearly 500 acres of shellfish beds that are unsafe to harvest. More areas may have to be closed in the coming months if conditions are not improved. (more…)

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Decades old co-management benefit today’s South Sound chum salmon

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Michael West, fisheries technician for the Squaxin Island Tribe, samples a chum salmon in a South Sound creek.

Fisheries management decisions made decades ago by the Squaxin Island Tribe and their state salmon co-managers are still paying dividends for the Kennedy Creek chum run.

In the early 1980s – just a few years after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the tribe’s status as a salmon co-manager – the tribe and state made some dramatic changes.

“The most drastic step was that the tribe stopped fishing for four years to help build the run back up,” said Joe Peters, harvest management biologist for the tribe. “Such a big change wouldn’t work everywhere, but there was habitat for the chum to return to on Kennedy Creek.”

The state also stopped mining chum eggs out of Kennedy Creek to support their hatchery programs.
(more…)

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Read more about the article Tulalip Tribes Keep Track of Hatchery Salmon

Tulalip Tribes Keep Track of Hatchery Salmon

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Tulalip fisheries technicians spawn female chum salmon at the tribes’ Bernie “Kai-Kai” Gobin Hatchery.

Tribal and state co-managers continue to improve their ability to track hatchery salmon in the Snohomish watershed.

Both the Tulalip Tribes’ Bernie “Kai-Kai” Gobin Hatchery and the state’s Wallace River Hatchery recently installed new chillers to better mark hatchery chinook, coho and chum salmon.

“One hundred percent of all Tulalip chinook, coho and chum, and all regional chinook hatchery production, is now marked by location and brood year,” said Mike Crewson, Tulalip salmon enhancement scientist.

By altering the water temperature during incubation, hatchery managers can leave a distinct pattern on each fish’s otolith – a mineral structure often referred to as an ear bone, which accumulates daily rings. When fish return as adults, their otoliths are examined under a microscope to identify where and when they were released. (more…)

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Coho Salmon Eggs Put to the Stormwater Test

WSU toxicologist Jen McIntyre checks the condition of an embryo that was exposed to urban stormwater runoff. More pictures from the study can be found by clicking on the photo.
WSU toxicologist Jen McIntyre checks the condition of an embryo that was exposed to urban stormwater runoff. More pictures from the study can be found by clicking on the photo.

Peering through a microscope at the Suquamish Tribe’s Grovers Creek Hatchery, biologist Tiffany Linbo uses two pairs of tweezers to gently peel the protective layer off an 18-day-old fertilized coho salmon egg.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) biologist needs to do it without piercing the yolk sac so Washington State University (WSU) toxicologist Jen McIntyre can take a closer look at the embryo’s health and development, such as heartbeat, blood flow and eye size.

Linbo and McIntyre are looking at eggs that have been exposed to urban stormwater runoff collected from roadways in Seattle; they want to know if the embryos show signs of developmental toxicity. (more…)

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Read more about the article Tribes partner with OSU to study clam contamination
Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.

Tribes partner with OSU to study clam contamination

Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.
Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.

Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) are studying shellfish contamination on the Swinomish reservation and nearby Fidalgo Bay.

Both the Swinomish Tribe and Samish Nation have partnered in the project with OSU’s Superfund Research Program, focusing on clam contamination on tribal lands.

Butter clams were sampled from sites in Fidalgo Bay near an oil refinery, and from the relatively pristine Kukutali Preserve. Kukutali is co-managed by the Swinomish Tribe and the state of Washington.

“We predominantly are looking for chemicals that come from fossil fuels,” said Blair Paulik, OSU Ph.D. candidate. “We were interested in seeing sites that were the extremes within the area. We expect if there’s going to be an area that’s more contaminated it will be near the refinery. We expect Kukutali to be less contaminated.”

The samples are being analyzed in Professor Kim Anderson’s lab at OSU’s department of environmental and molecular toxicology. (more…)

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