Adult Salmon

Trees floating behind dam contribute to salmon recovery

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ALDER – Over 100 trees that have fallen into the reservoir behind Alder Dam will be put to use constructing engineered logjams to create salmon habitat on Ohop Creek.

“Trees that wash into the lake from the river and get stuck behind the dam need to be removed before they become a nuisance,” said David Troutt, natural resources manager for the Nisqually Tribe, which is spearheading the effort to gather the logs. “We’re just taking them out and putting them to good use.” Juvenile salmon find both food and shelter within logjams. The structures also slow the flow of the creek, easing adult salmon migration.

“We know logjams benefit salmon because we’ve been monitoring other restoration projects. We really see a difference in the section of river with logjams and those without,” Troutt said. “There are a lot more salmon around the logjams.”
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Cooperation Shows the Way

For years, Skagit County has been a battleground between fishermen and farmers. After a recent court victory the Swinomish Tribe is finding a way for the once warring sides to come together for the good of salmon habitat.

A few years back, the Swinomish Tribe sued Skagit County Dike District No. 22 for building tide gates without the permits they needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In September, a federal judge ruled that the district had violated both the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

With the judge’s ruling on their side, the Swinomish Tribe took the issue out of the courtroom. Instead of forcing the district to pay federal fines, the tribe suggested that the two become partners in restoring 200 acres of estuary in the Skagit delta.
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Climate change threatens Northwest icons

The Skagit Valley Herald has a series this week about climate change. One story highlights the challenge to salmon survival:

Several recent studies using computer models indicate that climate change will affect salmon in several ways:

* Rising seas could reduce habitat size for young salmon, which may spend several weeks in the estuary preparing for the change from fresh water to saltwater.

* Lower summer stream flows could mean that juvenile salmon, especially coho, will have less habitat and food during the one to two years they spend in the river.

* Increased incidents of flooding will wash away more salmon eggs from streambeds.

* Warmer stream temperatures can cause the fish what amounts to heat exhaustion.

* Higher stream temperatures reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen, making it difficult for salmon to breathe.

* Warmer oceans, such as in an El Niño year, bring other species, such as squid, north where they compete with adult salmon for food.

* Warmer seas prevent the upwelling of the nutrient-rich cold water, reducing the amount of plankton and bait fish, which are an important part of the food web that salmon need.

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Being Frank: A Tribute To Kenny Braget

Kenny Braget's voice will always be with us. A cattle rancher and a neighbor of mine in the Nisqually Watershed, Kenny lived the life of a steward. He proved the belief that actions speak louder than words. No one's actions spoke louder than Kenny's. My lifelong friend passed away this summer, but his legacy will live on.

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Tribes Study Salmon Migration On The Hamma Hamma River

ELDON (June 16, 2003) — Using a small net, Greg Sullivan scoops the remaining salmon from a smolt trap’s holding tank and counts his catch before releasing the juvenile fish back into the river. “That’s the last of them for today,” says the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s natural resources technician, who checks the trap on the Hamma Hamma River twice a week. “That makes 1,253 juvenile salmon. By far the most I’ve seen here at one time.”

And that’s a good sign. The more fish that show up in the smolt trap’s tank, the more accurate of a count the tribe can get on how many juvenile salmon, or smolts, are migrating from the freshwater of the Hamma Hamma River into the saltwater of Hood Canal. The smolt trap is part of a project conducted by the Port Gamble and Skokomish tribes, a local landowner, Long Live the Kings, the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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