Restoration Projects

Trees floating behind dam contribute to salmon recovery

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ALDER – Over 100 trees that have fallen into the reservoir behind Alder Dam will be put to use constructing engineered logjams to create salmon habitat on Ohop Creek.

“Trees that wash into the lake from the river and get stuck behind the dam need to be removed before they become a nuisance,” said David Troutt, natural resources manager for the Nisqually Tribe, which is spearheading the effort to gather the logs. “We’re just taking them out and putting them to good use.” Juvenile salmon find both food and shelter within logjams. The structures also slow the flow of the creek, easing adult salmon migration.

“We know logjams benefit salmon because we’ve been monitoring other restoration projects. We really see a difference in the section of river with logjams and those without,” Troutt said. “There are a lot more salmon around the logjams.”
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EPA grants $2 million to tribes for Puget Sound projects

NWIFC Chairman Billy Frank Jr. and Executive Director Mike Grayum discuss the Hansen Creek restoration project with Lauren Rich, environmental planner for the Upper Skagit TribeA number of news outlets reported on this week’s announcement of $2 million in EPA grants to tribes in support of the Puget Sound Partnership.

KING 5 News:

More than a century ago, Native American tribes watched settlers dam, dike and straighten the area’s streams and rivers.

Today the federal EPA gave those same tribes millions of dollars to undo some of those changes.

During a ceremony at a 140-acre site near the Upper Skagit Indian Reservation near Sedro-Woolley, the EPA handed over $2 million to 19 tribes to fund several restoration projects. The money will be used at that site to remove dikes and other obstacles from Hansen Creek, a major tributary of the Skagit River.

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Eight new podcasts about the Nisqually

A group of Evergreen Students recently completed a series of podcasts about the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s role in natural resources management. Emily Gwinn, Jennifer Johnson, and Joe Nance completed the podcast below on the restoration of the Nisqually River estuary.

From their write-up:

“Nisqually Estuary” reviews the Nisqually Delta restoration projects just north of I-5, in the Nisqually National Wildlife Reserve (formerly the Brown Farm), and the tribally-owned Braget Farm Site on the east bank of the Nisqually River. It focuses on dike removal and the effects that it will have on the estuary and its species. It also examines the cooperative relationship between local farmers and the Nisqually Tribe to protect the estuary from development.

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USGS mapping Skagit Bay, Deception Pass

The Skagit Valley Herald (subscription required) had an article Sunday about a USGS project to map the ocean floor of Skagit Bay and Deception Pass to show how the seabed looks today and how it looked 150 years ago.

For the scientists with the Skagit River System Cooperative, an agency of the Sauk-Suiattle and Swinomish Indian tribes that works to improve the fisheries in the river basin, the maps of before and after may help them prove a theory.

Confining the river to two channels causes silt-laden fresh water to squirt like a “fire hose” into the Skagit Bay, said Greg Hood, senior restoration ecologist for the tribal cooperative.

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Tribes Release Watersheds Report

OLYMPIA (January 24, 2005) – The treaty Indian tribes in western Washington, in cooperation with the state of Washington, have produced the most comprehensive report to date on the status of salmon habitat in the region. “State of Our Watersheds” compiles decades of data collected by tribes, and state and federal agencies, painting a picture of watersheds across western Washington.

“Tribes have always lived on watersheds, along the rivers,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “We have always had a watershed perspective, and this report tells the story of salmon habitat from our perspective.”

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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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