Farming interests in Skagit County often seem at odds with salmon habitat restoration, but an ongoing project by the Swinomish Tribe aims to show that it doesn’t have to be that way. The tribe owns the land known as the Smokehouse tidelands along the Swinomish Channel south of the Swinomish Casino and Lodge. Historically, the […]
Climate change threatens not only the environment, but also tribal communities whose culture, livelihood and identities depend on natural resources. “Current climate change assessments omit key community health concerns, which are vital to successful adaptation plans, particularly for indigenous communities,” said Jamie Donatuto, environmental health specialist for the Swinomish Tribe. “Recent assessments show that indigenous […]
Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) are studying shellfish contamination on the Swinomish reservation and nearby Fidalgo Bay. Both the Swinomish Tribe and Samish Nation have partnered in the project with OSU’s Superfund Research Program, focusing on clam contamination on tribal lands. Butter clams were sampled from sites in Fidalgo Bay near an oil refinery, […]
Swinomish tribal member Todd Wilbur, director of fish and game enforcement for the tribe and board member of the Skagit River System Cooperative, passed away Nov. 17. Wilbur also was chairman of NWIFC’s inter-tribal wildlife committee. He was interviewed in October 2013 for the Tribal Voices Archive Project: From Legacy.com: He was born in Pasco, […]
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 […]
Earlier this month, Swinomish tribal fishermen used a purse seine to harvest Fraser River sockeye in the San Juan Islands for ceremonial and subsistence use. Some of the fish was distributed for tribal members to cook or can, and the rest was stored for ceremonial use during the winter. (more…)
The never-realized plans to build a nuclear power plant on Kiket Island has a legacy that’s proven useful to the Swinomish Tribe. The 1969 power plant proposal attracted researchers to study the island’s ecology. Among these was then-graduate student Jon Houghton, who established permanent transects around Kiket Island to study intertidal ecology and measure, among […]
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 […]
Swinomish Tribe Chairman Brian Cladoosby was elected president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) this week. His two-year term begins today. According to the Skagit Valley Herald: “I am deeply humbled to have been selected to serve tribes around the nation as president of NCAI,” Cladoosby said in a prepared statement. He begins […]
Indian Country Today Media Network posted a story about eight tribes, two from within Western Washington, that are ahead of the curve when it comes to adapting to climate change. The Swinomish Tribe and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe were the two highlighted from the Pacific Northwest. Since passing a climate change proclamation in 2007, the Swinomish […]
