Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission NWIFC News Spring 2008 www.nwifc.org INSIDE: ■ River Flow Increased ■ Carcasses Provide Nutrients ■ Elk Benefit from Tribal Management Efforts ■ Searching For Steelhead Families ■ Floods Hurt Chinook Run ■ Windstorm Tests Timber/Fish/Wildlife Being Frank Year-Round Rescue Tug Closer To Reality By Billy Frank Jr. NWIFC Chairman I’m excited that the cargo ships enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca bound for Puget state Legislature recently Sound. earmarked $3.6 million The Gladiator ended its tour of duty March 7, but with the to station a rescue tug new funding, it will be back on station from July 1 through year round at Neah Bay. June 30 this year. I just hope we can continue to dodge the We dodged the oil spill bullet until then. bullet along our coast this We commend the state Legislature for its effort, but it remains winter, but there were a short-term solution to the $10,000-per-day price tag for the more than a few close tug and crew that must be ready to respond around the clock. calls. Permanent, long-term funding support for the rescue tug is Take Dec. 3 for what we need. example: Another near That’s why we’re encouraged by Sen. Maria Cantwell’s efforts grounding of a cargo ship to draw attention to oil spill prevention along the Washington off the Washington coast coast. As Sen. Cantwell points out, in 1990, Congress directed near Neah Bay. the U.S. Coast Guard to place adequate salvage, rescue and Forty-foot seas powered firefighting vessels in strategic locations around the United by 90-mph winds knocked States. So far, that hasn’t happened. out the main steering on the 720-foot Mattson Kauai near the Sen. Cantwell is pushing hard for federal legislation that entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Waves shattered all of would require the oil shipping industry to fund a rescue tug year the windows in the ship’s wheelhouse as the vessel wallowed round in Neah Bay. We wholeheartedly support that effort. offshore. We’ve known for many years that permanently stationing a Thankfully, the ocean rescue tug Gladiator was on station tug year round in Neah Bay is one of the best steps we can and able to escort the Kauai to safety. take to protect the people, fish, wildlife, environment and Close calls like the Kauai don’t make much of a splash in the economies of the Washington coast. We just hope it won’t take news, and they happen more often than you know. In the past much longer for that to become a reality. eight years, the part-time rescue tug at Neah Bay has assisted Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before the law of averages more than 30 ships in distress. Every year, more than 2,000 catches up with us. NWIFC News NWIFC News is published quarterly on behalf of the treaty Indian tribes in western Washington by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Com- mission, 6730 Martin Way E., Olympia, WA 98516. Free subscriptions are available. Articles in NWIFC News may be reprinted. For more information: NWIFC Information Services in Olympia: 360-438-1180; Mount Vernon: 360-424-8226; Kingston: 360-297-6546; or Forks: 360-374-5501. Visit the NWIFC Web site at www.nwifc.org. NWIFC Executive Director: Mike Grayum; Information and Education Services Division Manager: Tony Meyer; Contributing Editor: Steve Robinson; Regional Information Officers: Debbie Ross Preston, Coast; Emmett O’Connell, South Sound; Tiffany Royal, Hood Canal/Strait of Juan de Fuca; Kari Neumeyer, North Sound; Editorial Assistant: Sheila McCloud. NWIFC Member Tribes Nisqually..........................360-456-5221 Skokomish........................360-426-4232 Hoh..............,....................360-374-6582 Nooksack..........................360-592-5176 Squaxin Island..................360-426-9781 Jamestown S’Klallam......360-683-1109 Port Gamble S’Klallam....360-297-2646 Stillaguamish....................360-652-7362 Lower Elwha Klallam......360-452-8471 Puyallup............................253-597-6200 Suquamish........................360-598-3311 Lummi .............................360-384-2210 Quileute ...........................360-374-6163 Swinomish........................360-466-3163 Makah...............................360-645-2205 Quinault ...........................360-276-8211 Tulalip..............................360-651-4000 Muckleshoot.....................253-939-3311 Sauk-Suiattle....................360-436-0132 Upper Skagit.....................360-856-5501 On The Cover: A bull elk pauses while grazing in the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula. Tribes are protecting and enhancing elk populations throughout western Washington. See stories on pages 8-9. Photo: D. Preston Skokomish Mark Return Of North Fork Flow Above: The new flow of 240 cubic feet per second blasts from Cushman Dam No. 2 into the North Fork of the Skokomish River. Photo: T. Royal. Left: Skokomish tribal member Delbert Miller and other tribal members offer a song to mark the event. Photo: T. Meyer Utilities, a decision by the federal courts will increase and enhance spawning has required the restoration of flows up habitat for chinook and steelhead and to 240 cubic feet per second (cfs) into increase egg-to-fry survival of salmon More than 80 years ago, President the North Fork. Before the construction when emerging from gravel egg nests in Calvin Coolidge pushed a button that of the dams, the average annual flow was the spring. energized Cushman Dam No. 1 on the 847 cfs. But the 240 cfs is not enough to help North Fork of the Skokomish River. The The flow of the Skokomish River main rebuild the lost habitat, said Marty hydroelectric dam dewatered the North stem, which feeds off the North Fork and Ereth, the tribe’s habitat biologist. A Fork, wiping out salmon runs upon runs through the tribe’s reservation on varied range of flows would best benefit which the Skokomish Tribe has always Hood Canal, has been impacted severely the environment. Good salmon habitat depended. by sediment buildup and flooding. Tribal includes deep pools for resting and Cushman Dam No. 1 was joined a few treaty-reserved rights to fish, hunt and feeding, and logjams for shade, keeping years later by Cushman Dam No. 2, built gather have been affected – traditional water temperatures lower. just downstream. Neither dam allows fishing sites on the river are unusable “It is not all that we hoped for, but this is fish passage. Together, the two dams because of either too much or too little an important step in the right direction,” reduced water flows to a trickle, altering water. The lack of water in the North Fork Strong said. – T. Royal the biology and geology of the river has impacted shellfishing system, and deeply affecting Skokomish beds at the river’s mouth tribal culture and treaty-reserved fishing on Hood Canal. The South rights. On March 7, after decades of Fork has reduced flows, efforts, tribal member Dave Herrera causing excessive gravel pressed a button that restored a small part buildup and dry sections of the North Fork’s historic flow from during salmon spawning Dam No. 2. season. “While we are happy to see part of the The increased flow is river’s flow returned, we will continue expected to widen the North working to restore a more normal Fork and deepen the pools of flow regime to the North Fork,” said water that juvenile salmon Tom Strong, Skokomish deputy tribal and trout rely upon for manager and tribal council secretary. “It rearing. This is especially has been a long battle to get water back important for juvenile to the North Fork.” steelhead and coho, which Skokomish Fish and Wildlife Policy Representative Dave After decades of struggle between the rear in freshwater for up Herrera pushes the button that increases the amount of tribe and the dams’ owner, Tacoma Public to two years. Higher flows water flowing into the North Fork. Photo: T. Royal Tribe Preps for Dam Removal EPA Certifies Tribal Some of the smallest Watershed Plan residents of the Elwha River The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is the estuary are providing tribal first tribal nation in the country to receive researchers with valuable federal approval for its watershed plan. information about the The U.S. Environmental Protection health of the river system, Agency (EPA) Region 10 recently certified which has been degraded the tribe’s watershed-based plan, “Protecting by the presence of two fish- and Restoring the Waters of the Dungeness.” blocking dams for the past Certification was based on compliance with 90 years. federal tribal nonpoint source program Matt Beirne, the Lower guidelines. Elwha Klallam Tribe’s “The tribe has been an active participant environmental coordinator, in efforts to protect and restore local has been collecting baseline watersheds for over 20 years,” said Scott biological data around the Chitwood, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s river’s mouth since 2006. natural resources director. “Achieving EPA This information will help certification for the plan allows the tribe to the tribe prepare for impacts become eligible for badly needed resources to the estuary following the necessary for implementation.” removal of two dams, slated The purpose of the plan is to characterize to begin in 2012. the Dungeness watershed area, highlighting The 108-foot Elwha Dam the causes and sources of nonpoint source and 210-foot Glines Canyon Above: Tribal habitat manager Mike McHenry (left) and pollution. This type of pollution is caused Dam were built to provide hatchery manager Larry Ward pull in a beach seine in by runoff that picks up natural and human- hydroelectric power to Port one of the Elwha River’s estuary ponds. Below: A juve- made pollutants and deposits them in local Angeles. Both dams were nile coho is inspected before being released. waterways. The pollutants can include built without fish ladders, Photos: T.