Squaxin Island Tribe's Natural Resources

From Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Website:
Anderson Good Choice to lead WDFW
The treaty tribes of western Washington look forward to continuing to work with Phil Anderson as director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Anderson was named the department’s permanent director Saturday by the nine-member commission….(read more at NWIFC website).

[Read more →]

Check out this news report of the Tribe’s freshwater mussel surveys on Skookum Creek.
 
http://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/stories/NW_082609ENB_divers-freshwater-mussels-JM.11bc2a6de.html?rss

[Read more →]

Two new videos of the tribe’s shellfish growth tracking project are posted here.
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.
You can also hear about the project here.

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

SHELTON (April 1, 2009) – Preliminary data released today by the state Department of Ecology has identified dioxin in sediment throughout Oakland Bay.
Outside of Shelton Harbor, the dioxin is distributed uniformly with an average concentration of 35 parts per trillion (ppt or pg/g). “At first glance, the distribution pattern suggests the dioxin may be a [...]

[Read more →]

On March 17th the Squaxin Island shellfish department began installation of a sub-tidal geoduck “show-plot” near the North end of Hartstene Island
(photo 1). This is useful in sub-tidal geoduck biomass surveys as it allows us to properly calibrate our surveys to local variations and account for temporal variability in show factors. These show plots [...]

[Read more →]

Twice a year PCSGA hosts beach cleanup events at the Arcadia launch.  Every year dumpsters are filled with various types of debris that has washed ashore.  Some of the source of this trash is from aquaculture activities and much of it  is from other sources. 
Squaxin Island employees and tribal members helped clean up the entire [...]

[Read more →]

Extremely cold weather combined with very low tides in November 2008 or the unusually large influxs of sediment from the December 2008 and January 2009 storms seems to be taking a toll on clams in Oakland Bay.  Growers report that there are many more dead clams than usual–maybe twice the ususal number especially in upper Oakland Bay and [...]

[Read more →]

Fecal Bacteria Concentrations (MF/100 ml) at Stream Mouths

The Squaxin Island Tribe released their winter 2008-09 water sampling results to the Oakland Bay Clean Water District Advisory Committee on March 4th.  Five samples were collected at nine stream mouths between October 2008 and February 2009.  Two of the sampling days, 11/12 and 1/7, occurred during major storm events.  [...]

[Read more →]

In the March 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, is a great article featuring Squaxin Geoduck Fishery aboard the Ichiban.  
Geoducks: Happy as Clams by Craig Welch Smithsonian Magazine
 

[Read more →]