Olympic Peninsula treaty tribes are helping monitor fishers that have been reintroduced to Olympic National Park. Starting this summer, and for the next several years, the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown…
The Kitsap Sun has reported that the U.S. Navy will pay $9 million to Hood Canal tribes as part of a mitigation agreement for natural resources impacted by the construction…
The Vibrio bacteria has been troubling oysters that were harvested by several Hood Canal tribes this summer.
While there are several types of Vibrio, the strain parahaemolyticus has been causing most of the problems with Pacific oysters in Hood Canal. Tribes affected by the bacterial infestation include Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Skokomish.
SKOKOMISH (October 3, 2008) – A tanker truck has given a lift to the goal of re-establishing natural chinook production in the upper South Fork Skokomish River. Throughout September, the Skokomish Tribe and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) staff hauled adult salmon to the far reaches of the Skokomish River watershed.
More than 80 years ago, President Calvin Coolidge pushed a button that energized Cushman Dam No. 1 on the North Fork of the Skokomish River. The hydroelectric dam dewatered the North Fork, wiping out salmon runs upon which the Skokomish Tribe has always depended.
Cushman Dam No. 1 was joined a few years later by Cushman Dam No. 2, built just downstream. Neither dam allows fish passage. Together, the two dams reduced water flows to a trickle, altering the biology and geology of the river system, and deeply affecting Skokomish tribal culture and treaty-reserved fishing rights. On March 7, after decades of efforts, tribal member Dave Herrera pressed a button that restored a small part of the North Fork’s historic flow from Dam No. 2. (more…)
SKOKOMISH (September 10, 2007) – The huge earth-moving machines on the Skokomish tidelands on Monday seemed out of place for an estuary restoration project.
But by using them to remove a mile-long 60-year-old earthen dike, it is expected this 108-acre parcel will soon look like it should – islands of sediment that are flooded during tidal surges, creating good natural fish habitat.
SKOKOMISH (June 18, 2007) – The Skokomish Tribe is embarking on a 16-year-effort to evaluate the effects of releasing hatchery-reared steelhead in Hood Canal rivers to help boost the wild population. This project comes at a crucial time because steelhead were recently listed as “threatened” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
SKOKOMISH (May 17, 2005) – An effort to keep chum salmon carcasses out of Hood Canal this past fall has earned Skokomish tribal fishermen an environmental achievement award from the Hood Canal Coordinating Council.
Concern for the health of Hood Canal, which has been plagued by low oxygen problems, prompted the tribe to do its part to try and help the waterway. The tribe, along with American-Canadian Fisheries Inc., developed a project that kept chum salmon carcasses from being dumped back into Hood Canal.
Every fall, treaty fishermen harvest chum salmon returning to the State of Washington’s Hood Canal Hatchery at Hoodsport. A glut of foreign-farmed raised Atlantic salmon has flooded the market in recent years, driving down prices and market opportunities for Indian and non-Indian fishermen in western Washington. The lack of a market for chum salmon has forced tribal fishermen to turn to the roe market, where salmon eggs can fetch $5 a pound.
HOODSPORT (Nov. 19, 2004) – A joint project between the Skokomish Tribe and a Bellingham fish processor is helping protect marine life by keeping hatchery chum salmon carcasses out of oxygen-starved Hood Canal during tribal salmon fisheries this fall.
“The tribe wants to do what it can to help Hood Canal,” said Dave Herrera, fisheries director for the Skokomish Tribe. “By taking as many chum salmon carcasses out of the canal as possible, we might be able to help decrease the chances of further low dissolved oxygen problems. But carcasses are only a small part of the problem. An increase of nutrients into the canal from septic systems, agricultural practices and storm-water runoff will continue to pose a much greater threat to marine life in Hood Canal.”
SKOKOMISH (July 23, 2004) — A federal order that requires Tacoma Power to increase water flows on the north fork of the Skokomish River will help repair essential spawning and rearing habitat for threatened fish, says the Skokomish Tribe.
On June 21, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission amended a new license for Tacoma Power’s Cushman hydroelectric project in Mason County. As part of that order, FERC granted a motion by the Skokomish Tribe requiring Tacoma Power to promptly begin releasing a minimum water flow of 240 cubic feet per second (or inflow, whichever is less) into the north fork of the Skokomish River. FERC had previously only required 60 cfs, and exempted Tacoma from releasing more water during appeals.