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Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, students gather data from Tumwater Creek

Lucas Verstegen, left, and Tyler Hansen, students at North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center, prep a smolt from Tumwater Creek for identification. To view more, click on the photo.
Lucas Verstegen, left, and Tyler Hansen, students at North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center, prep a smolt from Tumwater Creek for identification. To view more, click on the photo.

A group of teenage “citizen scientists” have been helping the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe this spring by studying an urban creek that hasn’t been looked at in nearly 30 years.

Students in the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center’s (NOPSC) natural resources class helped install a smolt trap on Tumwater Creek in early May. Students and volunteers check the trap daily to count and identify the fish, measure water temperature and take pictures.

“We’ve been smolt trapping fish on the Olympic Peninsula for 31 years, but this is the first time we’ve had one in Tumwater Creek,” said Kim Williams, a tribal natural resources technician. “Tumwater Creek is historically known to have a salmon run, but currently we have no fish data after 1991 for this stream.” (more…)

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Collaborative efforts for Elwha River freshwater mussel rescue

[display_podcast] PORT ANGELES (October 16, 2008) – There was a sense of urgency when tribal, state and federal biologists recently snorkeled for 5,000 freshwater mussels along the bottom of a 300-foot-long shallow side channel of the Elwha River. A dredge was slated the next day to dig up the side channel as part of construction of the Elwha Water Treatment Facility.

This mussel rescue was part of larger efforts to prepare the Elwha River for the removal of its two fish-blocking dams; the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam will be removed starting in 2012. The new treatment plant will help filter out river sediment that will be released after the dams are removed. (more…)

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Canoeists complete leg in trip to Lummi

The Bellingham Herald and The Olympian have stories about the Paddle to Lummi:

The Bellingham Herald:

PORT ANGELES — Tribal canoe groups from Vancouver Island and the Washington coast converged here Saturday to complete the first phase of their long voyage to Lummi Nation for the Intertribal Canoe Journey that begins July 30.

(more…)

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Being Frank: Life Without The Orca?

OLYMPIA (June 12, 2006) -- Life just wouldn’t be the same without the orca. For thousands of years, these magnificent mammals have splashed through the ocean waves and skipped playfully through the serene waters of Puget Sound. Tribal culture has been greatly inspired by these awesome black and white giants who have always been a wondrous sign of purity and vitality in the Northwest. Now our brother orca is listed as an endangered species, a fact almost too tragic to perceive. Orcas will disappear from our waters unless we all work together to make sure we have an environment that will sustain them. As it is, we don’t. Our waters are riddled with toxic filth and it is slowly killing them.

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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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