Squaxin Island Tribe's Natural Resources

The Supreme Court upheld an important Thurston Superior Court decision yesterday.  The court majority decided that new subdivisions must secure water supplies during the planning stages–that step to determine water adequacy cannot wait until houses are actually built. This ruling makes logical sense.  It eliminates the possibility that developers might make significant upfront investments and [...]

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Here is a video featuring the speakers at the Budd/Deschutes Environmental Stewardship Coalition signing ceremony earlier this week.

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UPDATE:  Lacey City Council unanimously passed a resolution to sign the MOU last night.  That means all have agreed and the signing ceremony on Nov. 29th is on. The Olympia City Council voted unanimously to approve signing the MOU forming the Budd/Deschutes Environmental Stewardship Coalition tonight.  The City of Yelm and the Squaxin Island Tribal [...]

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A couple of people have inquired about how the new coalition between the cities and tribe will address Capitol Lake issues. Well, the short answer is it won’t — at least not in the near future. The fate of Capital Lake is an issue much larger than the coalition. The coalition has been set up [...]

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King 5: Farm deal clears Olympia water jam

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  On-the-ground habitat restoration projects will be the focus of a new coalition to jumpstart salmon productivity in the Deschutes River watershed.  The Squaxin Island Tribe and the cities of Olympia, Lacey and Yelm are establishing the Deschutes Watershed Environmental Stewardship Coalition. “The Deschutes coalition will be an ongoing alliance to fund and conduct on-the-ground [...]

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The Squaxin Island Tribes salmon fisheries started off slow but appear to be at or above recent year averages, with exception of coho. Our harvest of Chinook was above average at 7, 839.  Approximately 4,968 Chinook made it past our fishing efforts to Tumwater Falls Hatchery.  Tumwater Falls reached the needed egg take goal to [...]

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Ancient clam gardens and deepwater sand lance habitats are just two of the many varied topics that were interesting at the biennial Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference held in Vancouver British Columbia this October.   Researchers fromSimonFraserUniversitylooked at the effectiveness of ancient shellfish gardens created onQuadraIslandinBritish Columbia.  In these gardens, first nations’ peoples cleared rocks and small [...]

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One of the talks at the recent Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference showed how common household pesticides that are considered safe individually are lethal to juvenile coho when they are combined. The author found that the mixing of chemicals was either additive or synergistic meaning that the pesticides reacted with each other to become far more [...]

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