Creek Watershed

Squaxin Island Tribe Tracking Coho in Sherwood Creek

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ALLYN – A pair of smolt traps is helping the Squaxin Island Tribe get a better picture of natural salmon production in the Sherwood Creek watershed.

“The Sherwood watershed is one of the most complicated systems in the tribe’s treaty-reserved fishing area,” said Joe Peters, fisheries management biologist for the Squaxin Island Tribe. Tribal biologists are unsure about how many coho are rearing annually in Shumacher Creek, a tributary to Sherwood Creek, which flows into Mason Lake. Sherwood Creek flows out of Mason Lake.

One smolt trap – a safe and effective devices for catching and counting juvenile salmon as they migrate to sea – is installed at the mouth of Schumacher Creek in the upper watershed just above Mason Lake. Another is operating near the mouth of Sherwood Creek close to where it enters Puget Sound.
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More Than Lack of Rain Causes Water Shortage

LACEY (July 12, 2005) – While the drought threat has lessened this summer, for fish the problem is getting worse every year because of development-caused low stream flows.

“Low stream flows from little rain is no different to fish than low flows caused by development,” said Jeff Dickison, assistant natural resources director for the Squaxin Island Tribe. “While droughts may come only every few summers, lack of water because of development gets worse every year.”

“In some places, even in normal precipitation years, we run out of water for fish because of the impact of development,” said Dickison. A good example is Lake Lois and the Woodland Creek watershed near Lacey, which regularly sees a significant drop in water level every summer.

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Restoration Projects Would Improve Salmon Habitat In Salt Creek

PORT ANGELES (December 7, 2004) – The Salt Creek Watershed has about 50 miles of fish habitat, but half of it is inaccessible to salmon and trout, according to a recently completed assessment of the area.

The study, developed by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, will be presented at a public meeting on Dec. 13 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Crescent Bay Lions Club. The two groups, along with the WRIA 19 Citizens Facilitation Group, have scheduled the public meeting to discuss the results of the assessment with local landowners and others interested in the watershed.

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Tribe, Coalition Working With Landowners To Survey Salt Creek Watershed

SALT CREEK (July 30, 2003) – In the late 1940s, low water levels in Salt Creek left juvenile coho salmon marooned along a stretch of the stream running through John McFall’s property. Using buckets and a wheelbarrow, McFall scooped up the small salmon and transferred them to a nearby tributary flowing with water.

“Three years later, I started seeing salmon return to the tributary where I placed those fish,” said McFall, whose family has owned and worked land in the Salt Creek watershed for about a century. “To this day, I can take you up there around Thanksgiving time and show you spawning salmon.”

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