Salmon in the Classroom reaches crossroads
March 29, 2011
Clark Elementary School students (from left) Callie Mejia, 10, Hannah Halstead, 10, Jackson Rubin, 10, and Caelan Varner, 11, take turns feeding the coho salmon fry growing in the science room aquarium. By Greg Farrar
Questions remain about start-up costs, permits
For a Clark Elementary School class, raising coho salmon from eggs no larger than a BB pellet to miniscule fish is part lesson, part ritual.
Students traipse down the hallway from class to the aquarium in a science room in the morning, again at lunchtime and before the last bell rings in the afternoon. Using a small spatula, students scoop salmon food — a coarse substance similar to dirt in color and texture — into the aquarium.
Effort to preserve dwindling species is a team effort
January 18, 2011
Darin Combs, Issaquah Salmon Hatchery manager, lifts a screen to reveal a tray of 3,100 fertilized Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon eggs. By Greg Farrar
Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon used to turn the creeks branching from the lake to the color of rust as thousands of fish headed upstream to spawn.
The once-plentiful fish has declined in recent decades, perhaps due to construction near the tributary creeks, increased predators, disease or changes in water quality.
But the imperiled fish has received a boost from local, state and federal officials in recent seasons.
Scientists started to comb the tributary creeks for spawning salmon late last year and, during the ongoing spawning season, King County and local, state and federal agencies coordinated efforts to restore the species. Read more
Issaquah schools face end of Salmon in the Classroom
January 4, 2011
State program is a casualty of deep budget cuts
The salmon — or, more specifically, delicate salmon eggs no larger than a pencil eraser — return to a Clark Elementary School classroom each year.
But fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Liza Rickey could face a change in the curriculum soon as the state Salmon in the Classroom program ends.
In the program, students raise salmon, learn about water quality and salmon habitat, and discover the relationship between Issaquah Creek and Puget Sound.
State legislators eliminated dollars for the program in a round of budget cuts during a Dec. 11 special session. The program is a casualty of cuts as state leaders face a $4 billion budget hole. Read more
Issaquah schools face end of Salmon in the Classroom program
December 25, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Dec. 25, 2010
The salmon — or, more specifically, salmon eggs — return to a Clark Elementary School classroom each year.
But fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Liza Rickey could face a change in the curriculum next month: the end of the Salmon in the Classroom program.
In the program, students raise salmon, learn about water quality and salmon habitat, and discover the relationship between Issaquah Creek and Puget Sound.
State legislators eliminated dollars for the program in a round of budget cuts during the Dec. 11 special session. The program is a casualty of cuts as state leaders face a gaping budget hole.
“It’s such a worthy project for the kids to see,” Rickey said. “It’s hands on, it’s real world. It’s a very important resource in our area, and now it’s not even available for them to experience in that way.”
Concerns about coho salmon persist as hatchery spawns other species
November 30, 2010
Jed Varney (left) and John Kugen spawn a Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon last month at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. Contributed
Lake Sammamish kokanee conservation program continues
The small coho salmon run has left the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery about 750,000 eggs short.
The inexplicable shortfall means the hatchery must truck in coho eggs from the Wallace Creek Hatchery in Sultan in order to meet the 1.2 million-egg goal for the year.
Biologists remain puzzled about the decline in coho, but poor ocean conditions could be a factor in the drop-off.
Teams at the Issaquah hatchery had trapped 475 coho — and did not allow any fish to pass upstream to spawn — by late November. The number represents a fraction of the fish the hatchery spawns during a normal coho run. Read more
Spot spawning salmon along Lake Sammamish tributaries
October 21, 2010
NEW — 2 p.m. Oct. 21, 2010
The streams branching from Lake Sammamish offer Issaquah residents a chance to see salmon battling the current in order to spawn upstream.
The freshwater kokanee salmon should start emerging from the lake and into tributary creeks to spawn later in the fall.
Starting early next month, look for kokanee from the East Lake Sammamish Trail crossing of Ebright Creek in Sammamish, across from 148 E. Lake Sammamish Parkway S.E.
Or spot kokanee from the 185th Place Southeast crossing of Lewis Creek in Issaquah.
Dozens of chinook reach Issaquah Salmon Hatchery
September 4, 2010
NEW — 10 a.m. Sept. 4, 2010
Rains and cooler temperatures prompted dozens of mighty chinook salmon to return to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery to spawn.
Hatchery workers opened the fish ladder Sept. 3 to start collecting salmon for the spawning season.
Muckleshoot Tribe officials counted more than 8,000 chinook at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard. The tribe — the official keeper of salmon counts — estimates the return to be below average this year.
Residents will help city restore Lewis Creek
June 8, 2010
The city and landowners plan a joint effort to remove sediment and create salmon habitat in ecologically sensitive Lewis Creek near Lake Sammamish.
The plan aims to restore habitat for the Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon — a dwindling freshwater salmon species. The city will guide landowners through the project, and the landowners nearest to the impacted stretch of creek will pay the $40,000 to $50,000 tab. City Surface Water Engineer Kerry Ritland expects work to last about two weeks.
Starting in July or August, crews will clear the channel at the mouth of the creek, in the Meadowbrook Pointe neighborhood along the southwestern shore of Lake Sammamish. Sediments built up and created a drop from the creek to the lake — another hurdle salmon must overcome in order to spawn upstream.
Kokanee fry released into Ebright Creek
May 4, 2010
When Wally Pereyra was a fisheries biologist, his first project was rehabbing trout in a stream in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
By the time he moved to his current farmland on the Sammamish Plateau in 1973, he was “imprinted with stream ecology,” he said.
“The stream is a major part of the farm that I moved into,” he said. “The kokanee were a part of the landscape in the fall.”
A hodgepodge of elected officials, government scientists, school children and citizen volunteers met April 21 on Pereyra’s property to release some 200 Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon fry into Ebright Creek.
Ray Mullen, of the Snoqualmie Tribe, banged a ceremonial drum while the fry were dumped from three coolers into the creek on an overcast spring day. Most people in attendance wore boots to trudge through the spongy terrain around the creek.
“I feel like we’re taking a step toward recovery today, instead of steps toward extinction,” said David St. John, chairman of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group.
The fry released April 21 were part of a larger group of 37,000 fry released into Ebright, Laughing Jacobs and Lewis creeks in April.
Bar codes help kokanee salmon in their survival
April 20, 2010
Fish Journal
Under the direction of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the efforts of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group to increase dwindling kokanee salmon numbers in Lake Sammamish are now underway.
Kokanee salmon have been entwined within the history and culture of native and immigrant residents of Lake Sammamish since the Ice Ages. See a previous Fish Journal piece, “Tribal Tales of the Kokanee Trout Clan,” published in The Issaquah Press and on the Web here.
The Kokanee Work Group is comprised of state, county and city municipal officials, conservation organizations, and individuals from King County and surrounding communities. All are highly motivated to save the late run species of native kokanee from an extinction experience similar to that of the early run kokanee in Issaquah Creek.
This winter, fish biologists captured male and female Lake Sammamish kokanee returning to several tributary creeks. More than 34,000 eggs were harvested, fertilized with milt from males and placed in incubation trays at the Cedar River and Chambers Creek state fish hatcheries. Read more
