Upper Skagit

Upper Skagit’s Sustainable Forestry Turns Maples to Guitars

guitar
Pacific Tonewoods general manager Eric Warner shows a guitar with a back made from a maple tree.

Two maple trees harvested from Upper Skagit Tribe timberlands have a musical future ahead of them.

The trees were sold to Pacific Rim Tonewoods, a specialty sawmill upriver from the Upper Skagit Reservation that sells lumber to guitar makers Taylor and Martin, among others. While most guitar tops, sound boards and braces are made from spruce, maple is often used for the back, in part because of its decorative figuring. Figures are not the same as a wood’s grain; they are the distinctive pattern trees have when cut perpendicular to the grain direction.

The mill’s owner, Steve McMinn, toured a parcel of timberland that the Upper Skagit Tribe owns near its casino off Bow Hill Road. Among several hundred trees, he found one that had the fiddleback, or flame, figures popular on guitar backs. When the parcel was harvested, he discovered another maple with a quilt pattern.

The trees sold for two to three times more than other maples sell to a regular sawmill. The lucrative sale is part of Upper Skagit timberland services manager Robert Schuyler’s plan to develop a sustainable forestry operation. (more…)

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Upper Skagit tracks sockeye’s preferred prey

zooplankton surveyThe Upper Skagit Indian Tribe is sampling zooplankton in Baker Lake and Lake Shannon to track the availability of food for juvenile sockeye salmon.

The results will let fisheries managers know whether the reservoirs can support an increase in sockeye production at Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) Baker River hatchery. The Upper Skagit Tribe took over zooplankton monitoring from PSE two years ago, after the utility’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license was renewed.

“Sampling zooplankton, the preferred prey of sockeye, will let us know what time of year they become most abundant,” said Jon-Paul Shannahan, biologist for the tribe. “That way, we can manage the sockeye hatchery releases when the most food is available.” (more…)

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Upper Skagit Tribe surveys habitat use by juvenile chinook, steelhead

The Upper Skagit Tribe and the University of Washington (UW) are doing a two-year study examining seasonal habitat preferences for yearling chinook and steelhead in the Skagit River.

Not all juvenile chinook salmon migrate out to sea right away. They spend a few months to two years in freshwater and estuarine habitat. This study will help researchers learn more about the fish that stay in the Skagit watershed’s freshwater habitat during the first year of life. (more…)

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Upper Skagit Tribe builds elk exclusion fence near Mosquito Lake

Upper Skagit natural resources technician RJ Schuyler (left) and timberland services forester Robert Schuyler install an elk exclusion fence.

The Upper Skagit Tribe is building an 8-foot-tall, 4,000-foot-long elk exclusion fence as part of a cooperative elk management project near Mosquito Lake in Whatcom County.

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) provided the materials and arranged to have the fence built at the request of the landowners because resident elk were competing with their cattle for available pasture forage and causing some property damage.

While WDFW has an obligation to preserve, protect and perpetuate wildlife, the agency also has to ensure that animals do not threaten human safety or cause unreasonable damage to crops, livestock or property. (more…)

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Upper Skagit Tribe’s BioBlitz counts hundreds of species in restored habitat

Volunteers from Alderleaf Wilderness College investigate scat near Hansen Creek during the Upper Skagit Tribe’s BioBlitz.

The Upper Skagit Tribe recruited scientists and volunteers to help document the plant and animal life taking advantage of restored habitat along Hansen Creek.

A few years ago, the tribe partnered with other agencies to restore 140 acres of freshwater floodplain and wetland habitat within the Skagit County-owned Northern State Recreation Area near the Upper Skagit reservation.

Last summer, Upper Skagit hosted a 12-hour BioBlitz, a “citizen science extravaganza,” to develop a species list reflecting the site’s biodiversity. Volunteers assisted scientists in identifying plants, mammals, birds, macroinvertebrates, fungi and insects. In all, 296 species were documented, including mayflies and midges, herons and warblers, lichen and fungus, and beavers and skunks.

“The Hansen Creek BioBlitz was a great success thanks to all the amazing experts and volunteers who came out and participated,” said environmental specialist Lisa Hainey. “We hope to conduct another BioBlitz at a different time of year to see other species. Who knows what else might be out there?” (more…)

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Upper Skagit Tribe manages elk habitat with Seattle City Light

Upper Skagit biologist Doug Couvelier, right, and timberland services forester Robert Schuyler assess a parcel of Seattle City Light land.

The Upper Skagit Tribe has been contracted to help assess more than 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat that Seattle City Light (SCL) purchased to mitigate for habitat lost due to the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project.

As required by the 1991 Wildlife Settlement Agreement among SCL, tribes, and federal and state resource agencies, the public utility has been acquiring property in the Skagit and Nooksack watersheds.

“Acquisition and protection of the South Fork Nooksack River property is a great example of investing in a nearby watershed that has high habitat mitigation value” said Ron Tressler, a wildlife biologist for SCL. South Fork Nooksack land was identified by tribal representatives and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as important habitat for the Nooksack elk herd.

Degraded and disconnected habitat is one of the main causes of the decline in numbers of Nooksack elk, which went from a population of more than 1,700 20 years ago to about 300 by 2003.

Since then, tribal and state co-managers have worked to improve elk habitat in the region. Surveys the last few years have shown that the elk population has rebounded to more than 800 animals, allowing for limited hunting opportunities. (more…)

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Upper Skagit tribal youth learn traditional cedar gathering

Students in the Upper Skagit Tribe’s summer youth enrichment program are learning traditional ways to gather and weave cedar.

Recreational youth coordinator Tara Rodriguez, who arranged the trip, said there haven’t been any organized cedar gatherings for tribal youth since she was a child.

In small groups, the 10- and 11-year-old students hiked into an old-growth forest in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near Darrington, accompanied by education specialist Curt Pavia and biologist Doug Couvelier. Selecting a healthy cedar, Couvelier used a small ax to lift up the outer layer of bark before showing the students how to pull long strips from the tree.

After three or four strips were pulled, Couvelier moved students to another tree, ensuring no permanent harm was done to the trees. (more…)

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Upper Skagit Indian Tribe examines steelhead scales

The Upper Skagit Tribe is analyzing scale samples to determine the age of steelhead returning to the Skagit River.

Unlike most species of salmon, steelhead can spawn repeatedly before they die. They mature at 2 or 3 years, and can stay at sea up to three years before returning to fresh water to spawn.

Upper Skagit tribal staff took scale samples from 75 wild steelhead to be examined using equipment at the University of Washington. Analysis of steelhead scales can tell researchers how many years a steelhead has spent in fresh water before out-migrating and how long it spent at sea. The analysis also will show whether the steelhead migrated back out to sea after spawning in fresh water. (more…)

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