Issaquah unveils salmon-centric city logo
August 21, 2012
The triangle is out. The salmon is in.
Issaquah leaders plan to phase out the longtime city logo — a triangle and stylized As meant to evoke the Issaquah Alps — and use a salmon-centric emblem instead.
Issaquah’s updated city logo (above) replaces 11 former logos used to represent the city, and municipal departments and boards.
The shift comes as the city and a contractor complete a monthslong effort to overhaul the dated municipal website and forge a more modern image for city government.
FISH hosts hatchery anniversary photo contest
August 21, 2012
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery is hosting a photo contest to celebrate the hatchery’s 75th anniversary.
Organizers encourage amateur and professional photographers to document the hatchery, salmon in the stream, and the flora and fauna that inhabit the grounds.
Photos must be taken on hatchery property in places open to the public, between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31. Winners will be announced Nov. 10 at the hatchery.
Learn more about the contest and submit entries at www.issaquahfish.org. Click on the “FISH Celebrates 75th Anniversary” link at the top of the home page.
The hatchery, a Works Progress Administration project, opened in 1937. The property is owned by the city and operated by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
State creates salmon recovery scorecard
July 24, 2012
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has made finding up-to-date information about salmon runs and salmon recovery efforts easier, by unveiling a salmon scorecard.
The online tool —Salmon Conservation Reporting Engine, or SCoRE — consolidates information about Washington salmon populations, hatchery production, conservation guidelines and other aspects of salmon management into a single website, http://wdfw.wa.gov/score.
SCoRE outlines major recovery initiatives under way around the state to restore salmon habitat, restructure hatchery operations and redesign fisheries to conserve wild salmon runs.
“Our goal was to make this information as easy to access as possible,” Sara LaBorde, a special assistant to the agency director, said in a statement. “With SCoRE, people can switch from an overview of statewide habitat-restoration efforts to spawning data for a specific salmon run with a few mouse clicks.”
The website breaks down increases and decreases in salmon and steelhead populations, activities at specific hatcheries, information about wild salmon and steelhead runs, and opportunities for the public to participate in salmon recovery efforts.
“Our state made a major commitment to salmon recovery, and people have a right to know how that’s going,” LaBorde said.
Giving back to Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, a community ‘treasure’
July 17, 2012
When Kelly Richardson was a child, her grandmother used to take her and her sister for picnics along Tibbetts Creek.
“We saw fish spawn, tree frogs lay their eggs, and watched eagles and blue herons fly,” she said.
These days, the Issaquah resident volunteers with the city’s historic staple attraction — the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. Richardson calls it an “Issaquah treasure.” She works for a program called FISH, or Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, which gives tours to thousands of visitors a year.
Issaquah Salmon Hatchery history is focus of 75th anniversary program
July 17, 2012
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery
The historic Issaquah Salmon Hatchery started raising salmon along Issaquah Creek in 1937.
The iconic Issaquah Salmon Hatchery is celebrating 75 years, and to mark the occasion, the Issaquah History Museums is educating residents about the downtown facility — a lifesaver for countless salmon since the 1930s.
Conservationists and longtime Issaquah residents credit the hatchery for restoring the historic Issaquah Creek salmon runs after decades of logging and mining damaged the creek and surrounding watershed.
The program is among a series of events to commemorate the 1937 hatchery opening.
Jane Kuechle, Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery executive director, plans to offer attendees a glimpse at the hatchery from throughout the decades.
“It’ll be a past, present, future kind of presentation,” said Laile Di Silvestro, Issaquah History Museums program coordinator.
In 1936, Works Progress Administration crews started to build the hatchery complex on a former city park and bandstand.
Where have all the kokanee salmon gone?
July 17, 2012
Dallas Cross
For 5 million years, an ancient class of salmon has been swimming in lakes and streams once connected to the Pacific Ocean. They are kokanee, a small species of freshwater salmon.
Kokanee live in Lake Sammamish and spawn in its creeks. Their scientific name is Oncorhynchus nerka. It is a combination of hooked-nose in Latin together with a complex, Latin-Polish name for red salmon. They share the nerka name with their ancestral, but genetically distinct, sockeye salmon. The name, kokanee, comes from the Okanagan-Salish language and means red fish.
Lake Sammamish kokanee embrace their red fish name when they return in November through January to their birth creeks to spawn. In the lake, they are mostly silver with small scales, not spotted like trout, and have a distinctively forked tail. At spawning time, the bodies of males turn a bright red with green heads and a hooked nose. The females’ bodies turn red with a faint green stripe.
Spawning pairs seek gravel beds in the same streams where they were hatched. In these streams, they move gravel around making redds in which the female lays eggs to be fertilized by the ever-attendant male. The eggs incubate in the gravel redds for three to four months during which an alevin with an egg sac forms. Alevin then absorb the sac and mature into kokanee fry. The fry wait for a stream temperature of about 52 degrees and a dark night to leave their gravel beds and make a run downstream to the lake.
City Council decision advances dam project
July 10, 2012
Plans to replace a problem-plagued dam upstream from the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery surged ahead July 2, as City Council members steered dollars to complete designs for a proposed replacement.
Crews intend to add boulder weirs to Issaquah Creek and demolish the dam, perhaps as early as next spring.
The legislation approved by the council increased city dollars for the project by $268,700 from the $155,000 municipal leaders initially set aside in the 2012 municipal budget for the replacement. Now, after the council decision, the total amount in the budget is $423,700.
What’s your Issaquah IQ?
June 28, 2012
So, you think you know Issaquah? Is the city just another buttoned-up suburb? Nope. Issaquah is home to more than 30,000 people — and more than a century of secrets. Issaquah anecdotes stretch deep into the past and continue into the 21st century. Look beyond the basics to discover tidbits and trivia.
Test your Issaquah IQ. (Scroll to the bottom to check the answers, but please, no cheating!)
Eastside Fire & Rescue firefighters brighten boy’s day with new bike
June 19, 2012
Eastside Fire & Rescue firefighters
(left to right) Jason Stotler, Mark Harper and Lt. Russ Tanner replaced Tudor Magda’s bicycle after he was hit by a car. Contributed by EFR
When Tudor Magda woke up May 14, there was no way he could envision what the day’s events would entail. It would be a mixture of good and bad, but ultimately, it would be a day to remember.
It was a sunny, nearly cloudless sky. The area was graced with one of the warmest days of the year. For the Issaquah Valley Elementary School fourth-grader, it was the ideal day to ride his bike to school.
Tudor was careful. He made sure to look both ways before traveling across streets and obeyed pedestrian crossing signs.
As he approached the crosswalk across from the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, the one connecting the library parking structure to the apartment complex, he gradually slowed his bike. Simultaneously, a car neared, preparing to turn toward the crosswalk. As the car slowed, Tudor took it as a sign that the driver allowed him to cross. So, he proceeded.
But the driver failed to see him. Tudor and his bike were struck.
Tudor sustained a few scrapes and bruises, but the bike took the brunt of the damage. Read more
Issaquah Salmon Hatchery hosts Fulbright scholars
June 5, 2012
For Issaquah School District students, learning about the lifecycle of a salmon is just a part of the regular curriculum.
But for nearly 20 Fulbright scholars from all around the world, their May 30 visit to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery represented a true introduction to the fish at the heart of Pacific Northwest culture.
The scholars were in town as part of the “From Lab to Market” seminars, held in Seattle this year. The visit, designed for Fulbright scholars studying in the science and technology fields, encourages students to explore how to apply their studies to benefit global communities. The trip includes introductions to scientific innovators and experts, as well as exposure to the culture of the host city.
