Fish And Wildlife

Quileute Tribe Boosts Sol Duc Summer Run

Quileute Jack and Ruben with chinookThe Sol Duc River on the northwestern Olympic Peninsula runs at its lowest and warmest when summer chinook return to its waters every year. Despite being in one of the world’s greatest temperate rain forests, near-drought conditions often occur in late summer before the fall rains begin in earnest.

“These fish are survivors,” said Roger Lien, fish biologist for the Quileute Tribe. After four to five years at sea, the fish return to their river of birth at a difficult time. Low flows go hand in hand with higher water temperatures, placing enormous stress on the fish and making them susceptible to disease. Water temperatures near 70 degrees can be lethal to salmon. (more…)

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Upper Skagit Tribe buys waterfront property in La Conner

The Skagit Valley Herald:

The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe recently purchased 6 acres on the La Conner waterfront, including a warehouse and small pier, for $6.8 million.

The land, acquired from La Conner Pier LLC, is directly across the Swinomish Channel from the Swinomish Indian Reservation.

About a half-dozen organizations lease property on the land formerly owned by the Roche Harbor-based limited liability corporation. Among the lessees are the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and two manufacturers, Alpac Components Co. and Comptex Inc. (more…)

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Boat ramp and trails close as restoration continues on Wiley Slough in Skagit delta

WDFW released the following press release about the Wiley Slough restoration project, in partnership with the Skagit River System Cooperative, the natural resources management arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes:

OLYMPIA – Beginning July 15, the 175-acre Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area will be closed to public access as crews resume work on a major estuary-restoration project at the mouth of the Skagit River.

The closed area includes the public boat ramp and the dike-top trails along the Skagit River and Wiley Slough.

Crews will be removing approximately 6,500 feet of dikes and levees, allowing tides and the river to reclaim the area south of a newly constructed setback dike that was completed earlier this year. The restoration project began in 2008, when crews installed a new, larger tidegate farther upstream on Wiley Slough. (more…)

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Suquamish Hopes for Early-Timed Chinook Run At Gorst Soon

A Gorst Hatchery juvenile chinook before being released into Gorst Creek.

In a few years, fishermen might be able to hit the water for chinook in Sinclair Inlet a month earlier than they can now.

Hatchery chinook generally return to the inlet near Gorst in August and September. An effort to expand the run timing would have fish swimming into Sinclair Inlet in July. (more…)

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Future of Voights Creek unclear in state budget

From Joe Turner at the News Tribune:

Reader points out to me that the no fish hatcheries will close is misleading too. The budget says (on Page 397): “During the 2007-09 biennium, the department shall not make a permanent closure of any hatchery facility currently in operation.” So, reader wonders, “if that means that since Voights Creek hatchery hasn’t been in “operation” since it was damaged in the floods that this leaves a door open for it to be permanently closed.”
(more…)

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Treaty Tribes, State Develop Salmon Seasons That Protect Weak Wild Stocks

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OLYMPIA – State and tribal salmon co-managers have crafted a conservation-based package of fisheries for 2009 that will protect weak wild runs while providing limited harvest for treaty tribal and state sport and commercial fisheries.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the annual cooperative season-setting process known as North of Falcon. The name refers to a cape on the northern Oregon coast that marks the southern boundary of where the treaty tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon cooperatively manage fisheries.
(more…)

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