The Nooksack Tribe’s successful efforts to restore salmon habitat on the North Fork Nooksack River were covered by the Bellingham Herald:
Chinook salmon are already taking advantage of a new stretch of spawning channel on the north fork of the Nooksack River that was improved in the past year through a project overseen by the Nooksack Indian Tribe. (more…)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently awarded $16.4 million from its American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 funding to Washington state. Each of the six projects directly or indirectly involve seven western Washington tribes. Four tribes are direct recipients of funding; the other two involve either tribal contributions or benefit from the project.
The Bellingham Herald covered the Lummi Nation’s First Salmon Ceremony:
About 600 Lummi Indian Tribe members and guests gathered Thursday, May 14, at Lummi Nation School to celebrate the arrival of the first salmon – a celebration marked by both hope and fear for the future of the fish that defines tribal identity.
“When I was a young boy, I heard my grandfather say, when he was eating a salmon, ‘This is good medicine,'” said Merle Jefferson, the tribe’s natural resources director.
The First Salmon Ceremony is a key cultural observance for the Lummi and other Coast Salish tribes. For generations, the tribes have conducted these ceremonies to honor the salmon and assure their return. (more…)
Cooperative natural resources co-management at its best was displayed during this year's North of Falcon process for setting Indian and non-Indian salmon fishing seasons in western Washington. The results were…
LUMMI NATION – The Lummi Nation has entered into a partnership with Whatcom County and the Whatcom Land Trust to re-align a portion of a county road that runs past the tribe’s Skookum Creek Hatchery. This section of the road segment serves primarily as access to the hatchery and to a system of logging roads.
Moving the road off the bank of the South Fork of the Nooksack River will allow the tribe to restore habitat to its natural condition, by replanting native vegetation in the riparian area and building logjams for instream cover and complexity. The project ranked first for restoration benefit in a habitat assessment of the upper South Fork conducted by the tribe’s Natural Resources department in 2007. (more…)
The Bellingham Herald: A Lummi Nation project would move a portion of Saxon Road off the banks of the south fork of the Nooksack River, allowing the tribe to restore…
The Skagit Valley Herald (story not available online) reported last week on the SRF Board funding in Skagit County, which included several Skagit River System Cooperative and Upper Skagit Tribe project:
Local habitat efforts get state’s second-largest share of grant
A grant agency saw the value of protecting salmon in Skagit County. Organizations here have received $6.3 million from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board to restore salmon habitat.
Projects in Skagit County are getting the second-largest grant total in the state behind King County’s $7.1 million.The board awarded more than $60 million in salmon recovery grants statewide.
The Bellingham Herald reports on Salmon Recovery Funding Board projects in Whatcom County. Lummi Nation was the largest single recipient in the county:
Whatcom County, a salmon conservation group and local tribes on Wednesday received $3.5 million in grants to help struggling salmon populations and restore their habitats in the Nooksack River.
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Efforts range from a Lummi Nation plan to catch adult chinook salmon in the south fork, spawn them and raise juveniles to increase the population’s chances of survival; to a Nooksack Indian Tribe plan to build four logjams on the south fork near Tawes and Caron creeks to provide pools that cool the water for salmon.
The Skagit Valley Herald (subscription required) editorialized in favor of the plan to hunt 30 bulls in the Nooksack elk herd:
In the ever-narrowing space between human and animal habitat, the resurgence of the Nooksack elk herd is good news, but not without complications.
The Bellingham Herald printed a column by Merle Jefferson and Elden Hillaire, responding to the Department of Health's recommendation about salmon consumption. The state Department of Health recently warned consumers…