A five-year monitoring effort has shown that the Fisher Slough restoration project has benefited juvenile chinook even more than predicted in the Skagit River Salmon Recovery Plan. The Nature Conservancy led the project to restore tidal marsh habitat and connectivity in the Skagit watershed using a dike setback and a floodgate. Once the project was […]
The Tulalip Tribes and Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) recently completed a six-year study of juvenile chinook salmon use of small coastal streams in the Whidbey basin. “Small coastal streams are often overlooked as potential salmon habitat because many flow seasonally and do not provide spawning habitat,” said Todd Zackey, the marine and nearshore program […]
The Tulalip Tribes recently improved rearing habitat in a small coastal stream popular with juvenile chinook. Known to locals as “the gulch,” the unnamed stream had one of the highest densities of juvenile chinook of all the coastal streams sampled in the Whidbey basin by the Tulalip Tribes and Skagit River System Cooperative. During one […]
Work is set to begin this summer to restore salmon habitat in Illabot Creek, a tributary to the Skagit River. Once a winding, multi-channeled creek, Illabot was straightened and diked in 1970 when a bridge crossing was constructed on Rockport-Cascade Road. Straightening the creek degraded salmon habitat by creating a steeper gradient, reducing channel area […]
The Skagit Valley Herald reports on a fish die-off in Browns Slough. Last week, hundreds of shiner perch and some fingerling chinook were found dead near Fir Island Road: Other than the dead fish, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Because there was no obvious cause of the fish deaths, Wildlife called in Ecology, which […]
Fish access and tidal flow were restored in March to a high-priority pocket estuary near the Swinomish reservation. The Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) removed a portion of Similk Bay Road and a non-functioning tide gate that isolated about 8 acres of estuary in Turners Bay. SRSC is the natural resources extension of the Swinomish […]
The Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) removed an 80-foot-long, 8-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide culvert from Tenas Creek, a tributary to the Suiattle River. The culvert had provided vehicle access across the creek on a U.S. Forest Service road, but it was a barrier to resident fish species and was at risk of failing and sending sediment to […]
The Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) celebrated the success of two major estuary restoration projects this week. Returning tidal flow to former estuaries is an important step toward restoring salmon habitat. Puget Sound chinook salmon are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. On Wednesday, Aug. 19, an excavator made the final berm […]
WDFW released the following press release about the Wiley Slough restoration project, in partnership with the Skagit River System Cooperative, the natural resources management arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes: OLYMPIA – Beginning July 15, the 175-acre Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area will be closed to public access as crews resume work […]
The Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) has found evidence that beavers living in the tidal marsh are creating prime salmon habitat. The SRSC is the natural resources arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes. The Seattle Times reports: Today, only about 6 percent of the tidal scrub shrub habitat is left in the Skagit River […]
