Weyerhaeuser published a report in June 2009 in the Journal of American Water Resources Association (Volume 45, Number 3, Pages 793-808) detailing 30 years of turbidity data collected in the upper reaches of the Deschutes (WA) Watershed. To my knowledge, it is the longest water quality study on private forestlands in the Pacific Northwest.
In the mainstem river, the authors reported a consistent decline in winter turbidity levels over the 30 year period of record. They attributed the decline to improvements in road construction and maintenance practices over the years. The improvements were particularly extensive after the record January 1990 flood and the associated culvert failures and massive landslides in the Huckleberry Creek Basin and elsewhere. Trends in spring, summer and fall turbidity levels were not evident.
The documented improvements in turbidity do not seem to directly translate into improved spawning habitat. In 2004, Squaxin repeated a 1992 and 1995 study in the upper watershed of fine sediment in spawning gravel. Levels climbed from 12% to 15% to 17%. Spawning gravel with less than 12% fines is considered in good condition and over 17% is considered harmful to egg incubation and fry emergence.
While turbidity levels may be lower now, enough fine sediment is still moving downstream to increase impairment of salmon reproduction. Even with all the forest road improvements made by Weyerhaeuser, another Squaxin report concluded that as of 2003, 50% of the fine sediment entering the river in the upper watershed was still anthropogenic in nature.
I toured the Deschutes Watershed on June 4th with 17 other members of the Deschutes Advisory Group. The group is charged with implementing measures to address water quality issues identified in the DOE TMDL technical report.
One highlight of the tour was stopping at the mouth of Huckleberry Creek not far downstream from the upper Deschutes falls. Prior to a 1990 rain storm and subsequent landslide on Weyerhaeuser property, about 10% of all returning coho in the Deschutes River system spawned in Huckleberry Creek.
We spoke with Peter Schmid, president of the local homeowners association. He described how sediment (likely still from the 1990 landslide) continues to aggrade the Huckleberry channel. He said the channel is now at least three feet shallower than it used to be. He asserted that was the cause of the ongoing flooding issues the community faces. When asked about salmon, Peter reported that he has seen none in the last couple years–not in Huckleberry Creek and not in front of his house in the mainstem Deschutes River.
At another stop in Pioneer Park, we saw first hand what a river likes to do. A new bend in the stream channel formed during last winter’s storms. It took out a portion of the gravel path leading west from the parking lot near the artesian well. It will be interesting to see how tolerant the City of Tumwater and park users will be to letting a river be a river. On a very hot June 4th, the inner tubers at least seemed to relish the new twist in the stream channel.
On Wednesday June 24th, 2009 the Squaxin Island Tribal Council approved the Annual Chinook/Coho/Chum Commercial Fishing Regulation package.
Changes to the 2009 Annual Fishing Regulations include:
Page 5&6—–’09 Annual Regulations/Chinook Regulations-
Section III.
F. Legal Gear- defined Set Gillnet, Drift Gillnet and Beach Seine.
G. Illegal Gear- defined Purse Seine.
Page 3—–2009/2010 Coho and Chum Regulations
Section V.
12. Beach Seines- requesting fishermen to release all unmarked/ wild coho (with attachment added with maps to help identify Wild vs Hatchery)
Copies of the 2009 Annual Commercial Fishing Regulation package and Emergency Fishing Regulations will be available at the Squaxin Natural Resources office or can be printed off from the Squaxin Island web page at:
If there are any questions or concerns regarding the salmon fisheries please contact Joseph Peters at 360-432-3813 or email at Jcpeters@squaxin.nsn.us.
Tribal biologists are numbering clams with tiny numbered red tags and by simply writing on them. Clam growth is typically measured by randomly surveying clams on a beach, but that technique isn’t very exact.
Squaxin Island Tribe’s shellfish department will begin clam population surveys in Vaughn Bay, Pierce County this week.
The surveys will occur on privately owned tidelands within the bay. This area had previously been closed to commercial shellfish harvest due to water quality problems, but has recently been upgraded to approved status.
Approximately sixty parcels have been identified as possible clam beaches and will be surveyed by the Natural Resources Shellfish department this summer.The goal of the department is to maintain treaty harvest rights in this area and provide harvest opportunities for Squaxin Island tribal members.
During the liveblog of the South Sound Science Symposium, I wrote about solely what was being said on stage. But, there were a dozen or so poster presenters talking about their research as well. Here are a couple of those presenters.
Rana Brown is taking a look at how geoduck aquaculture might be impacting local ecosystems. Here is some audio of Rana talking about here research (you can can download the original file here). Rana is a shellfish technician with the Squaxin Island Tribe.
Here is the description of Rana’s research from the symposium:
Geoduck aquaculture has been a lucrative and controversial business for decades in Washington State. Recently, as more intertidal lands are converted to geoduck farms, concerns have been raised over the effects of these farms on local ecosystems. In 2007 the state legislature passed Bill 2220 which created a program within Sea Grant (University of Washington) to identify research goals and then to conduct research as needed. One area of concern is how these farms, and the way in which they are operated, are affecting biodiversity in Puget Sound. One argument is that these farms are (or eventually become) a monoculture, and that ultimately they are lowering biodiversity in areas in which they are located. This proposed research project will investigate these claims and attempt to determine if geoduck farming operations affect biodiversity of benthic mobile fauna. Two stages of geoduck aquaculture will be tested for differences. One treatment group will be that which has recently been planted and has tubes with blanket netting. The other will be a bed that is in grow-out phase that has no predator protections. Testing these two treatments should allow me to identify if the associated structures and/or geoduck presence are having any impacts on the local community structure. Research locations will be in southern Puget Sound with sampling beginning in May 2009 and ending in October 2009.
Sarah Haque tracked cutthroat trout throughout South Sound, finding some interesting results. You can download her description here. Sarah is a habitat biologist with the Squaxin Island Tribe.
Here is the rundown on her research from the symposium:
Few studies have focused on the anadromous life-history form of coastal cutthroat. Migratory pathways of coastal cutthroat, especially short-distance estuarine migrations, are even less understood. Previous studies on coastal cutthroat trout primarily focused on freshwater systems and described spawning and rearing characteristics, population structures, and genetics of the freshwater life-history forms. This study collected baseline data on movements and nearshore habitat use of two sample populations (Totten-Little Skookum Inlets and Squaxin/Hope Island) of anadromous coastal cutthroat trout in South Puget Sound using acoustic tracking technology. A total of forty cutthroat were captured in their marine environment, surgically implanted with acoustic transmitters and tracked for eight months via a network of multi-channel acoustic receivers placed throughout the deep South Sound area of South Puget Sound. Analysis suggested a difference in movement patterns and distances traveled between sample populations; however, the overall trend for both sample groups was a movement towards the extreme terminal areas of the study area. A significant difference (P<0.05) in movements in relation to sizeclass was found in both populations. Analysis of associations between movements of coastal cutthroat trout and chum salmon migrations suggested the Totten-Little Skookum Inlets group displayed movement patterns that closely followed both adult and juvenile chum salmon migrations. However, movement patterns displayed from the Squaxin/Hope Island group did not reveal this same behavior, indicating a lack of large-scale movements from broader and deeper-water areas into more defined inlets in response to temporally discrete chum salmon migrations. Data also suggested that anadromous coastal cutthroat in South Puget Sound may have a home range distinct from Central and North Puget Sound and may heavily utilize specific habitats, such as Skookum Inlet, during the fall and winter months.
This week’s heavy rain that began falling Monday May 4th through today (Thursday May 7th) made for some high flowing South Puget Sound creeks. After Monday night, 3 of the 4 weir smolt traps that Squaxin operates have blown out.
Luckily the traps are designed to blow out in high flow events. Each trap has “blow out panels”, a section of the panel is held together by zip ties that eventually “pops” under enough pressure. At least that’s what we hope happens. Sometimes the force of the creek will bend the T-post or snap the panels all together or even scour the creek bed under the panels. We are lucky with this rain event; we didn’t have a whole lot of logs or debris washing out the entire trap.
Even the screw trap on Goldsborough Creek is not functioning properly. We are getting logs jammed in the trap and the diversion panels have been washed out.
Shelton accumulative rainfall since Monday is 3.62″, that’s a lot of water raging down our little creeks.
Below it a snap shot of how much discharge Goldsborough Creek has had in the past couple of days.
Goldsbrough Creek Discharge
The rainy weather seems to be tapering off, so we hope to have the traps back fishing in a couple of days.
Friday May 8th-
As of Friday May 8th all of our traps are back to fishing for coho smolts, with the exception of Mill Creek. Water flow at Mill still is high and appears to be a couple days until it is back to fishing.
Mindy Roberts at the state Department of Ecology, presents on:
Human Influences on the Deschutes River, Capitol Lake & Budd Inlet. Human activities have unintentionally unraveled a variety of ecological processes manifested in high water temperatures, bacteria concentrations, and fine sediment levels, as well as low dissolved oxygen concentrations.
Notes from her talk:
Budd Inlet, Capitol Lake, and Deschutes River are microcosms of the problems of Puget Sound.
Why impound the Deschutes estuary? There is a tendency to romanticize the past. Not only was there industrial waste, there was a lot of human waste
When the tide went out on Little Hollywood (a poor community on the tideflats), the tide literally stank. Capitol Lake was created a more beautiful place.
They did this without knowing the water quality problems it would create.
Also, filling in tidelands was common, nearly destroying the tidal prism. The water has nowhere to go. This probably impacted the circulation in southern Puget Sound.
Circulation stagnates in Budd Inlet and Capitol lake because of damming and fill, making the area more sensitive to inputs. So, if any pollution comes down, it will stay there for awhile.
With a push of the button, they took out the Lake, and saw what happened. Fewer portions would reflect the impact of nutrients, simply because circulation came back.
In the freshwater Deschutes system, it gets cooler as you move down the watershed because of freshwater inputs. If you model a mature forest, the temperature pattern stays the same, but with a overall drop in temperature, making the entire watershed good for fish.
Adding trees also improves dissolved oxygen situation on the river.
Questions and Answers
Effects of die-off of freshwater biota in the saltwater?
They did.
Does only considering only point sources change the restoration strategy?
They’re still working on the project, so will include non-point sources. They’re considering the impacts of everything.
Did you include a sediment transportation study associated with Capitol Lake?
They did include the information from that study, did use their output when putting together the model.
