Squaxin Island Tribe's Natural Resources

In the last talk of the day Linda Hofstad from Thurston County told a story of success in the effort to improve water quality and upgrade shellfish beds in Henderson Inlet.   After 26 years of over 650 acres of shellfish beds degraded in Henderson Inlet the situation is now turning around and shellfish beds are now being upgraded.  She identified some primary keys to their success:

• an organized process that addressed local people’s concerns and developed a plan with priority actions.
• a risk based organized approach to inspection of septic systems – a major target of the effort to address water qualtiy
• incentives and assistance provided to local homeowners with septic systems including rebates, low interest loans, grants and workshops to help landowners address problem septic systems.

The result of this focused cooperative effort has been the upgrading of shellfish beds in Henderson Inlet.

A large scale analysis of landform types and restoration opportunities identified 2 major river deltas (Nisqually and Deschutes) ,  144 coastal inlets, 179 barrier embayments, and 288 beaches in the South Puget Sound.   Paul Cereghino from NOAA explained that these different types of nearshore habitat were then examined looking at both degradation of the habitat and the potential of the habitat.   A cluster analysis was used to group the sites into different restoration opportunities and a color coded map with recommendations was created.  

One of the unique opportunities in the South Sound that Paul identified is that the South Sound has the shortest beaches in Puget Sound.  This provides an interesting opportunity to engage local communities who can focus on their local beach.

Paul Cereghino, NOAA Restoration Center, on “Assessment of human/natural ecosystems for nearshore protection and restoration planning”:

Nearshore systems are physically dynamic.  Critical processes operate at large scales.  The best strategy is based upon the whole situation (social, economic, ecological).

Aims: Plan at the scale of physical systems.  Support quest for USACE Construction General.  Facilitiate regional project comparisons. Identifying high value sites without projects.  Begin integrating protection and restoration.

We want to invest in projects that will deliver in terms of ecosystem benefits/services to Puget Sound.

PSNERP data site is Landform-Based Framework:  river deltas (Nisqually and Deschutes); Coastal Inlets; Barrier Embayments, and beaches (1/3 of all Puget Sound)

As degradation increases, the risk of a threshold change of state, cost, and opportunities for regaining lost services increase as the reliability of restoration decreases.  Degradation differs according to landscapes, and varies in character.

As a site becomes larger, the more complex, quantity, diversity, and/or resilience of ecosystem services increases.

The best strategy might change according to where you fall along the two gradients of potential and degradation.

“Strategy loves opportunity”

South Sound has a shallow mosaic of inlets and embayments, with the shortest beaches in the Puget Sound.  A high percentage of South Sound watershed flows into inlet sites compared to Sound-wide.

Larry Phillips from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife explained how very little work has been done to assess the status of coastal cutthroat in South Puget Sound.   Some work has been done in the past few years to establish potential index areas to monitor spawning cutthroat population numbers and to track cutthroat movements using acoustic tags and receivers.  

Results of this work have identified Skookum Creek as a high density population of cutthroat.  Other potential index areas or important spawning locations include Kennedy Creek, Little Creek, Goldsborough Creek and Mill Creek.   The acoustic tagging results have suggested that the cutthroat seem to be staying in South Puget Sound and not migrating out into other parts of Puget Sound.

An analysis of Chinook survival in Puget Sound and growth patterns in juvenile fish are indicating that the growth period between May to July when the Chinook are primarily feeding offshore is highly correlated with adult survival rates.    Dave Beauchamp from the University of Washington explained that a study looking at feeding rates, food availability, water temperatures and competition found that the adult survival rate was highly correlated with July body weights and there was no correlation with weights in September.  The primary diet items for that critical growth and feeding time were crab larvae and adult and terrestrial insects.

Larry Phillips, Department of Fish and Wildlife, on “Season movements and associated management implications for coastal cutthroat trout in South Puget Sound”:

Presented observational data from multi-year, multi-agency study

Coastal Cutthroat trout is an important sport fish species that historically supported a large harvest fishery, and overharvest resulted in declines (anecdotal).

In 1997 the Natural Marine Fisheries service petitioned to list cutthroat trout under Endangered Species Act.  Determined it wasn’t in danger, but this was based on little data.

Stock Status challenges: “Coastal cutthroat trout don’t follow the rules,” and a general lack of data

In 2006 WDFW began surveying South Puget Sound streams to create methods to detect changes in relative abundance.

Fish were tagged with acoustic tags.  There was low post-tagging mortality, and high post-spawning mortality.  None of the tagged fish went outside study area.   

Conclusions include: “Index surveys may be useful at detecting changes in relative abundance over time.”  “Goldsborough and Mill Creek could be important spawning locations in South Puget Sound.”

And then a couple questions for David Beauchamp, regarding stratification of the coastal ocean and the effects of copper.  Recent research has shown that copper hampers coho salmon’s ability to detect predators.

The invasive New Zealand mud snail was discovered by a birdwatcher/shell enthusiast  in Capitol Lake in October of 2009.  There has been an intensive effort to control the mudsnail since it’s discovery.   Mudsnails outcompete native gastropods by outfeeding them and they don’t serve as an alternative food source for fish.  They have been spreading west from the Great Lakes where it is believed they were introduced through the release of European ship’s ballast water.

Wendy Brown from the Invasive Species Council warned the audience that these mudsnails have also been spread by unsuspected restoration biologists by moving them from one stream restoration site to another.  She also told the story of one biologist who found over 120 mudsnails hidden in the mud on his boots. 

Two primary methods have been attempted in Capitol Lake to try to control the invasion – freezing and increased salinity levels.   The freezing was found to be very effective – killing 98 percent of the snails.  The saltwater flush from opening the tidegate in the lake caused increased salinities above 20 for 7 to 8 hours.  This was much less effective than the freezing – only 12 percent mortality.  

Next steps will be to continue to experiment with freezing conditions this winter, weather permitting, and to do some follow up small scale trials of salt concentrations.

Shellfish growers in Oregon and Washington are finding that their shellfish production is being negatively impacted by increasing ocean acidity caused by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.  Betsy Peabody explained how the shellfish are not able to grow their shells when the ocean water acid levels are too high.  

There is a study of natural shellfish populations in Puget Sound to see if there is a similar impact on their populations as what is being experienced in the hatcheries.  At Big Cove in Totten Inlet and Dabob Bay in Hood Canal it was found that high periods of spatfall coincided with low CO2 conditions in the water in both 2009 and 2010.   There is not enough evidence yet to demonstrate a definite effect from acidification on natural shellfish populations, but it is recommended that monitoring continue to look for an impact.

David Beauchamp, University of Washington, on “Pelagic Food Web Ecology in Puget Sound: Implications for Marine Growth & Survival of Chinook Salmon”:

We need to consider the next life stage for chinook and the processes involved.

Smolt to adult survival is highly correlated with body weight in July, suggesting this weight represents ‘critical size’.  Offshore growth in May to July is a ‘critical period’ for determining survival.

Possible factors affecting growth and survival: feeding rate; food availability (data limitations); temperature; competition (within species, among salmon, forage fish); predation

Total ocean survival is tightly linked to early offshore marine growth.  Offshore feeding was significantly higher during years of high survival. 

Chinook must feed at a high rate (>60% max) to grow and minimize size-selective mortality.

Conclusions:  Feeding rate is more important than temperature.  Temperature effects are minimal, but non-linear.  Variable feeding rate suggests food limitation, data on needed on their prey.  Competition by herring more important than competition between hatchery and wild chinook and other salmon.

A climate change analysis conducted by the University of Washington that used the results of 20 different climate models projected that by 2080 there would be a 75 percent loss of snowpack in the upper Nisqually watershed.   Alan Hamlet from the University of Washington explained that by the 2040′s the models also predicted a 20 percent higher chance of a 100 year flood event than historical conditions. 

The hydrologic patterns in the watershed due to climate change are  predicted to be a shift towards more runoff in the winter and the loss of flow in the summer months due to reduced summer precipitation and the loss of the snowpack.