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Kokanee Project
Lewis Creek Kokanee - Photo by Bill Priest, King
CountyLake
Sammamish Kokanee
After taking a look around at all of our local
waters, we have come to the conclusion that the fish needing the most
help are the Lake Sammamish Kokanee. Their numbers have dropped to
dangerously low levels in the last 2 decades, with the early run
declared officially extirpated in 2001. Spawning in only a handful of
tributaries, thee late run has dropped to less than 5000 fish in a
given year. We have a lot of habitat and monitoring work ahead of us
starting with Lewis Creek. In partnership with Save Lake Sammamish, the
City of Issaquah, King County, and the Washington Dept. of Fish
Wildlife, we will do everything we can to bring our fish back from the
edge of extinction. To make this work we need your help. Whether it be
grant writing, rock rolling, stream monitoring, project management,
media exposure, community outreach or a cash donation a team effort
will be required.
Good
News - USFWS has decided to consider Lake Sammamish Kokanee for
protection under the Endangered Species Act.
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)
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 Taylor, the Kokanee Project chair.
- 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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