Puget Sound Partnership launched
Yesterday Billy Frank Jr. joined Gov. Christine Gregoire and other dignitaries to announce the Puget Sound Partnership. The Tacoma News Tribune: Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually Indian who is chairman…
Volunteers Rediscover A Late Coho Salmon Run
YELM (March 18, 2005) – Volunteer salmon watchers rediscovered a run of late coho salmon that hadn’t been seen in the Nisqually River for more than a decade.
In late January volunteer salmon watchers started seeing dozens of coho salmon in Nisqually River tributaries, much later than normal. “On some of these streams, volunteers have gone out diligently for months and had hardly seen any salmon,” said Jeanette Dorner, salmon recovery manger for the Nisqually Tribe. “We asked them to keep looking for a few more weeks, and all of a sudden they started seeing coho.”
Nisqually River Chinook Trending Towards Recovery
NISQUALLY (January 19, 2005) – A decade ago, only 400 chinook salmon spawned in the Nisqually River. This year more than 2,600 chinook returned. “Nisqually River chinook are making a comeback because of sacrifices by tribal fisherman and a dedication by the Nisqually Tribe and it’s neighbors to protect and restore salmon habitat,” said David Troutt, natural resources director for the Nisqually Tribe.
“Restoring and protecting habitat, along with restricting fisheries, are the reasons more chinook are returning to Nisqually River to spawn,” said Troutt. Nisqually River chinook are part of a larger Puget Sound population of chinook that were listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1999.
Nisqually Tribe Restores Yelm Creek Salmon Habitat
Almost ten years after a flood ravaged salmon habitat on Yelm Creek the Nisqually Tribe and the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group are repairing some of the damage. “This entire area was underwater in 1996,” said Teresa Moon, project manager for the SPSSEG. “The flood changed a lot across the watershed, for good and for bad.” The tribe and the enhancement group are digging out a pond that was filled with sediment during the flood and opening salmon access to the upper creek by modifying a fish-blocking logjam in a steep canyon.