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Kokanee
Project
Lewis Creek Kokanee - Photo by Bill Priest, King
CountyLake
Sammamish Kokanee
After carefully studying the needs of our area (the
Lake Washington/Sammamish Basin and the Snoqualmie River Basin) our
chapter decided to help the Lake
Sammamish kokanee, the fish closest to the brink. A
clear victim of
habitat degradation, this poor step sister
of the mighty Chinook and the revered Steelhead, receives little or no
attention in the
public’s eye. We, the Bellevue/Issaquah Chapter of Trout
Unlimited, are committed to the
restoration of these important and unique fish right here in our back
yard. We began by
partnering with Save Lake Sammamish(SLS), the Boy Scouts, and the
Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to conduct a basic fry out migration
monitoring of Lewis Creek. From March 3rd, 2007 well into May
volunteers watched
out for these minute fish. This effort logged over 500
volunteer hours with almost 1000 fry counted, and showed our commitment
to do what we can for the fish and the watershed.
We have since expanded our efforts. Partnering with
King County, WDFW, the Snoqualmie Tribe, USFWS, the Cities of Bellevue,
Issaquah, Redmond, and Sammamish,
Save Lake Sammamish, Friends of Pine Lake Creek and other concerned
citizens to
form the Kokanee Work Group (KWG), we have continued fry trapping on
Lewis Creek, now
expanded to Ebright Creek, helped tag fish with sonar tags to track
movement and habits in
the lake, worked on habitat restoration including culvert replacement,
in stream repair,
and invasive plant removal and replacement, started a supplementation
program and
will be starting stream and spawner surveys this
fall.
With good scientific data, cultivating a spirit of
cooperation and partnership with other stakeholders, and getting the
community to take ownership of
their resources it is, we believe, not only possible, but necessary to
protect and restore
our cherished fisheries. The alternative is not acceptable to
the people of
Washington. We invite you all to participate in our efforts,
whether it be by volunteering or
by making a cash donation, and join us in what author David James
Duncan referred to as
“the century of restoration”.
The
USFWS has decided against listing the late run Lake Sammamish kokanee
as an endangered species. Read
here ...
More detail about the reasoning behind the decision not to provide an
Endangered Species Listing for the Lake Sammamish kokanee can be found
at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service web site. .
Read
here ...
One of the first steps in getting this project
started was to install the fish trap to catch the outmigrating
fry. Here's a video of the trap being
installed in Lewis Creek -
Installing
Kokanee fry trap
in Lewis Creek (5.4Mb)
The following web pages contain a wealth of
information about
Lake Sammamish and the Kokanee salmon.
-
King
County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP) has been
involved
with Kokanee in Lake Sammamish for many years. A set of
reports, studies and technical documents can be found
here
- Several
King County DNRP presentations about Kokanee can be found here
Project
Update - 2012
In 2012, our chapter has continued to work with various governmental
agencies to restore and enhance the Kokanee salmon population in Lake
Sammamish and its watershed. To date, our work has included:
- Fry Trapping - During March and April, we spent
over 140 hours
operating fry traps on Lewis and Ebright Creeks. During that
time we counted 3,368 fry on Ebright Creek and 1,107 fry on Lewis
Creek. In November and December, the in-stream counts of
spawning
kokanee were good, so we expected that, so long as there were no major
winter storms, the fry counts would be much better than in 2011, which
were very bad. Fortunately, this turned out to be
true.
Counting was done only three days a week on each creek, so
that
the actual number of fry in each creek were much greater than
our counts., which served as an indicator of the total run
sizes.
- Ebright
Creek culvert removal - We are working with Wally Pereyra, who owns
property on Ebright Creek, to remove a culvert on his property that has
been causing flooding problems during high water events and is
preventing migrating kokanee and other salmonids from reaching spawing
grounds further upstream. The new culvert will help to
increase
the number of kokanee successfully spawing in Ebright Creek.
Photos of this important project can be found here.
- Kokanee
information signage on Lake Sammamish - Currently, kokanee cannot be
retained by fishermen on Lake Sammamish. We are working with
the
Boy Scouts to put information signs at boat launching sites on Lake
Sammamish. These signs point out the differences between
Kokanee
and Cutthroat trout, which should aid fishermen in identifying these
two species that are found in the lake.
- Fun
Run - On October 20, we are presenting a 5 and 10K fun run at Lake
Sammamish State Park as a means of raising funds needed to support our
Kokanee-related work. More information on the fun run can be
found on our home page.
Project
Update - 2010
In
2010, our chapter will continue to work in partnership with King
County, the City of Issaquah, the City of Sammamish, Save Lake
Sammamish and the Washington Dept of Fish & Wildlife to restore
Kokanee in Lake Sammamish. Our involvement will include:
- Fry
Trapping -
We will continue to trap out-migrating fry on Lewis Creek and will
establish a new trap on Ebright Creek. The in-stream counts
of
spawing kokanee on both of these streams have been significant this
winter. So far, mother nature has been cooperative with no
large
rain events, which could cause scouring on these creeks, so we expect
that the counts should be higher than normal this year. We
will
begin to operate the fry traps in March and will continue until May.
Trapping will occur three nights per week. We need
lots of
help to man these traps during this time period and more volunteers are
needed. Please contact our president, Mark Getzendaner at
getzendaner@msn.com if you would like to help.
- Participate
in the Kokanee Working Group (KWG) - We are continuing to
support projects that are being undertaken by the KWG. Link
- http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/salmon-and-trout/kokanee/documents.aspx
- Issaquah
Salmon Days
- We will have a booth during this heavily-attended event.
Our
focus will be on educating the public about the Kokanee Salmon in Lake
Sammamish.
During
2009, we are
continuing with our efforts to
enhance the Kokanee population in Lake Sammamish. We have
on-going involvement in the following areas:
- Participate
in the Kokanee Working Group. This group, which
was formed in 2007, is a multi-stakeholder group with representatives
from the City of Issaquah, state of Washington agencies, private
entities and concerned groups such as Trout Unlimited. The
Kokanee Work Group's goal is to find ways to conserve and enhance the
population of Kokanee Salmon in Lake Sammamish.
- Fry
trapping. We started fry trapping in Lewis Creek
in 2007 (see the above video) and have continued since. With
assistance from the Lake Washington School district vocational arts
program, we now have two fry traps, with the goal being to trap
outmigrating Kokanee fry in Lewis Creek and one other creek in the Lake
Sammamish basin. Beginning in late March of this
year and continuing through mid-May, we have been trapping fry in Lewis
Creek on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings. To view an
up-to-date count of fry, click
here. We always need volunteers, so if you are
interested in participating
in this activity, please contact Mark Getzendaner,
chapter president.
- Fish
tagging in Lake Sammamish. In April and May, we
are working with Hans Berge, an ecologist with the King County
Watershed and Ecological Assessment Team, to gather data on the travels
of fish (Kokanee, Cutthroat, Bass and others) within Lake Sammamish.
Our participation involves catching fish and delivering them
to Hans, who inserts a tracking tag into each fish. After the
fish recovers, it is released into the lake and then its travels will
be recorded on by a series of hydrophones which have been placed in the
lake. To view a low-quality video of the fish tagging
operation, click
here. To view a medium-quality video of the fish
tagging operation, click
here.
Project
Update
- 2007
The
Lake Sammamish kokanee
are one of the last
truly native salmonids left in the Lake Washington/Sammamish basin.
These kokanee are unique to Lake Sammamish and are currently at great
risk due to habitat loss and worsening environmental conditions. They
currently spawn in just a handful of streams in central/south Lake
Sammamish including Lewis, Laughing Jacob, Ebright, and Pine Lake
Creeks. The early run of these fish ran up Issaquah Creek, but was
officially declared extinct in 2003. These are among the latest running
of salmons, appearing in late November and running well into January.
The
Bellevue/Issaquah Chapter
of Trout Unlimited,
in partnership with Boy Scout Eagle Scout candidate Colin Wick, Troop
677, Save Lake Sammamish, the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the City of Issaquah have just completed the first ever
survey of out migrating Lake Sammamish late run kokanee on Lewis Creek,
a tributary of Lake Sammamish. This project spanned over 2 months and
took up well over 500 hours of volunteer time. The baseline data
collected will be used to assess the number of fry in the system, the
timing of their run, and 4 years from now, percent that survived to
return to spawn. It is critical information if we are to save this
special fish.We plan on expanding this program to other spawning
streams in the basin.
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