Behind the Scenes: Tribe’s River Restoration Crew Gets the Job Done
LOWER ELWHA (November 19, 2008) - The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's habitat restoration crew is midway through its effort to build 50 engineered logjams on the Elwha River before two…
Port Gamble starts water quality and plankton monitoring programs
PORT GAMBLE BAY (July 9, 2008) – An upclose study of plankton in Port Gamble Bay and Hood Canal could provide telling results about the health of Puget Sound for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries department.
The tribe is monitoring plankton levels along with water quality because plankton are the most basic level of the food chain for the marine ecosystem. The study will also show biologists how the ecosystem itself is changing.
Study shows how shorelines have changed in 150 years
LITTLE BOSTON (February 6, 2007) – History is helping show the way for salmon recovery efforts in Kitsap County and on the Olympic Peninsula.
A tool created recently by the Point No Point Treaty Council (PNPTC), allows anyone, from government agencies to private citizens, to access details about the history of certain shorelines and estuaries along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Hood Canal. The tool, in a report format, can be accessed at the PNPTC Web site, www.pnptc.org.
Hoh Tribe’s Planting Effort Using Science To Combat Insect
HOH RIVER (March 21, 2005) – Plant a tree and it will grow.
It’s not that simple though when the tree is a Sitka spruce planted to reforest Olympic coast timberlands.
Populations of spruce-tip weevil, an insect that causes spruce to grow uncharacteristically bushy and low, exploded in spruce forests planted in the mid -1980s. Infestation was so prevalent, that many private timberland owners stopped replanting spruce -the signature species of temperate rainforests – and a key component of salmon habitat.
Fish Restoration Efforts Get Boost From Improved Monitoring Capabilities
FORKS (August 20, 2003) – The waters of Owl Creek muddy up immediately when Jill Silver, biologist for the Hoh Tribe, uses her hand to swirl the gray clay lining the river bottom. The gooey mud is washing into the creek from a large deposit of clay on the bank and Silver suspects it is harming fish. Tracking and monitoring sites where clay is moving into streams is part of a pilot watershed monitoring program the Hoh Tribe is beginning this year.
While the tribe has actively monitored many aspects of salmon and salmon recovery over the years, the new program will merge all the different layers of information into one computer database linked to a new Geographic Information System (GIS). The new tool will help analyze complex habitat and water questions based on thousands of hours of past and current research.
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.”
Nisqually Tribe, Enhancement Group Explore Off-Channel Habitat
NISQUALLY (June 20, 2003) — A river is more than just a line on a map; every side channel, slough and tributary stream helps create a complex and living river. The Nisqually Indian Tribe and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group are surveying off-channel habitat in the Nisqually River basin to target areas for protection and restoration. The information gathered during these surveys will guide the tribe and enhancement group in decisions on future habitat projects.
Old Maps Give New View Of Hood Canal’s Future
KINGSTON (Jan. 24, 2002) -- When Captain George Davidson of the US Coast Survey mapped Hood Canal beginning in 1855, he probably didn't realize that his work would one day…