VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 2 | FALL 2015 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SKAGIT FISHERIES ENHANCEMENT GROUP Dedicated to Restoring Wild Salmon for Future Generations Back to Basics By SUE MADSEN When the Skagit Fisheries Fakkema to run the excavator, and needed. Because of the dedication of Enhancement Group was formed more remove/recycle the old culvert. The Skagit these volunteers, funding requirements than 20 years ago, salmon restoration was Land Trust hired local contractor D.G. for this project were minimal; however, a somewhat simpler business. As in the Buchanan Inc., to haul away excess fill we greatly appreciate WDFW’s ALEA present, all of our work was done with removed from the crossing. Volunteer Program for covering the costs of the willing landowners interested improving Dick Raisler documented the process excavator, and the Skagit Watershed fish habitat on their properties. However, photographically, while former WDFW Council for supporting SFEG staff. back in those days before grant funding Habitat Biologist (and former SFEG Board Culvert removal and repair projects was readily available most work was Member) Kurt Buchanan worked with are one of the most rewarding ways of done by volunteers who had a desire to Regina Wandler of SLT to take down restoring fish habitat. Taking out this make a difference ….and a strong back! fencing and assist with other tasks as single barrier improves access to almost This summer we got back to those a mile of rearing habitat, including both basics, working with volunteers from the floodplain side channels utilized by Wildcat Steelhead Club and Skagit Land juvenile Chinook, steelhead, coho and Trust to remove a barrier culvert from a other salmonids, as well as almost ½ mile side channel to the Cascade River. This of coho spawning habitat in the tributary. truly was a grass-roots community Such projects also allow us to engage effort. SFEG Board member (and community members with specialized Professional Engineer) Gabe skills. We hope this sets the stage for Ng worked with Aaron Minsk, similar collaborations in the future. a student in the Bellingham Technical College’s engineering program to develop designs LEFT: Removing the old culvert from and help obtain permits. David Cascade River tributary Radosevich of the Wildcat Steelhead Club worked with SFEG staff member Cory IN THIS ISSUE: 2 Wild and Scenic Film Festival 3 Collin McAvinchey Departure 4 Welcome Kelly Sykes 4 How We Spent Our Summer 5 Thank You Interns 6 Species Profile 8 Events Calendar 1 REDD: A female salmon uses her tail to dig a nest in the gravel. After she deposits her eggs the male fertilizes them. The female then covers the fertilized eggs and the resulting nest is called a redd. MISSION Our mission is to educate and engage the community in habitat restoration and watershed stewardship to enhance wild salmonids. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ned Currence, President Sheila Tomas, Vice President Jim Fukuyama, Secretary Robin LaRue, Treasurer Don Butterfield Mary Janda Boshie Morris Bob Mottram Gabe Ng Michael Olis Jon Vanderheyden BOARD MEETINGS The SFEG Board meets the 4th Tuesday of each month. The public is welcome to attend. STAFF Alison Studley, Executive Director Susan Madsen, Restoration Ecologist Debbie Denton, Finance Manager Michelle Murphy, Stewardship Manager Lucy DeGrace, Outreach Coordinator Joe George, Restoration Technician Andrew Beckman, Restoration Technician Kyle Koch, Restoration Technician Bengt Miller, Restoration Technician Kelly Sykes, WA Service Corps Outreach Associate NOW SHOWING Shannon Jones, WA Conservation FALL RUN MONARCHS AND MILKWEED Corps Restoration Assistant FROM THE SPAWNING OCEANS NORTH ~ GROUNDS PROTECTING MANITOBA’S CONTACT US CHUITNA, MORE THAN BELUGA ESTUARIES 360.336.0172 SALMON ON THE LINE THE RIDGE [email protected] P.O. Box 2497 THE CORALAX RIVER OF EDEN Mount Vernon, WA 98273 DELTA DAWN BLUEBIRD MAN Tickets $15, or $25 including SFEG Membership and Klean Kanteen gift. Tickets on sale now at http:/www.tinyurl.com/wild-scenic www.skagitfisheries.org The Wild and Scenic Film Festival is presented with the help of the Samish Tribe, 2 www.skagitfisheries.org Aspect Consulting, the Skagit Watershed Council, and Amorterra. LEFT: Collin and Sarah finally find a fish in Alder Creek! Departure By COLLIN MCAVINCHEY It was a chum salmon, dismantled and generated beneath the gentle ripples The spawner survey season ended decaying, on the west bank of Alder Creek. of Alder Creek. But as the month drew in February, and since then I’ve seen a The fish had probably been lying there a on, not a single fish was seen. Again few more fish. Not many more though, couple of days, moldering gently in the and again, we’d march with hopes held considering I’ve spent at least three days humid November air, before its torn and high from the mouth of the creek up a week for the last year within a stone’s mottled flesh caught my probing gaze. I through the adjacent restoration site, throw of salmon-bearing streams. inhaled sharply with excitement and threw under the dank and dripping bridges I know it’s not peer-reviewable- myself into the mud beside the fragrant through the stand of alder trees the scientific to say that my experiences with cadaver. It was literally breathtaking. creek was named for, and finally to the only one watershed during only one year My unseemly rejoicing stemmed beaver dam at the end of the reach. was typical. It’s not hard science, but from the previous six weeks’ complete Towards the end of October, I believe it’s a powerful anecdote. My and utter lack of visible piscine activity. Restoration Ecologist Sue Madsen took pity experience highlights the importance October 4th, 2014 dawned cool and on me. We visited a culvert replacement and urgency of the work done by Skagit bright; my first day on the job as the Skagit site on Silver Creek near Alger after work Fisheries and related restoration groups. Fisheries Enhancement Group Washington one day, where Sue assured me we’d be able If we don’t continue to donate time Conservation Corps Individual Placement to see some salmon up close and personal. and funds to our precariously-funded (SFEGWCCIP for short, incidentally both Sure enough, there beneath the recently- non-profit environmental groups, the longest title and longest acronym installed culvert-replacing bridge were SFEGWCCIPs in fifty or one hundred years yet devised by mankind). The morning about a dozen bright coho splashing in the might not have a single fish left to blow saw me arriving hapless at the Job Corps shallow water. I’d seen hatchery chum in their minds as they trudge up a stream campus to attend volunteer spawner survey Whatcom Creek before, but these flashing somewhere way out in the country. training. Joe George described colorfully coho gems were the first wild salmon It’s up to us, right now, before we lose the life history of Washington’s salmon I’d ever laid eyes on. I was transfixed. the rest of what few salmon remain to us, and gave an animated reenactment Eventually, fish began appearing to get out there and plant some native of fish digging redds in Hansen in Alder Creek as well. The first several trees and teach our children about salmon Creek. I emerged from the training Oncorhynchus to return to Alder in the hopes of bringing back some of expecting to see hundreds of colorful Creek that year were met with excited those epic salmon runs of days past. If fish streaming through the creeks exclamations and frenzied sawing motions we don’t, my story of spotting a couple and rivers of the Skagit watershed. as we hurried to take measurements, dozen chum will seem as much a fantasy The next week I, along with volunteer photos, and the ends of the dead fish’s as those fishermen’s tales of salmon runs Sarah Wheatley, enthusiastically tails. Over the course of the season, thick enough to walk upon. Let’s change gallivanted the 3.2 mile round trip from we spotted 42 fish. Those 42 rotting, that story and make today’s imperiled the mouth of Alder Creek at the Skagit stinky, spawned out fish were some of salmon returns really nothing more than a River. Armed with Joe’s sage training, the most spectacular creatures I’ve had temporary dip in a general upward trend. we anticipated fat chum, brilliant coho, the pleasure of smelling in my 23 years. Thanks to everyone at Skagit and monstrous chinook to be roiling I’ve heard those oldtime stories Fisheries for teaching me how to see out of every trout hole and root cavity of of salmon runs so thick that one the natural world around me that I’d the entire reach. Contrary to my naïve could walk right across the river on never properly looked at before. Thanks expectations, there wasn’t a fish to be seen. their backs. There’s a photo of an also to all the community members My optimism waxed over the Elwha woman holding up a chinook who’ve humbled me with their tireless following three weeks as my eyes grew as large as she that I’ve thought of devotion to salmon restoration, and accustomed to the fleeting flashes of color often during my year with SFEG. an extra special thanks for those tasty, that my mind, if not the fish themselves, colorful, and sometimes stinky fish. 3 Welcome Kelly Sykes, new Washington Service Corps Member! Hello! My name is Kelly and I am the new Washington Service Corps IP for this upcoming year. Ironically I was born in Bellingham, WA but I spent most How We Spent Our Summer of my childhood days in a small rural town just north of Spokane.