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First Week with SFEG by Taylor Schmuki

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Kyle Koch (left) and Taylor Schmuki using dip nets to remove juvenile salmon from the dredge zone.

“Start being comfortable with being uncomfortable” perfectly describes my first week with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group (SFEG).  The week started out with me stumbling through an explanation of why a desert rat wanted to work with fish and ended with a stroll down a river spotting salmon.  It definitely has been a few hectic days with early mornings, hard work, lots to learn, and a smile that can’t seem to leave my face.

I became very aware of my shortcomings with my tour around the SFEG nursery.  My background in plant identification is based in the salt flats and sagebrush steppe—quite different from Skagit’s riparian-wetlands and subalpine habitat.  So as Rachael and I wandered around the plants, I was able to confidently identify Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchnesis) and Washington’s state tree (Western Hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla). Our nursery has at least ten times that number of species.  In other words, I don’t just have fish species to catch up on.

That brings me to my second training of the week: spawner surveys!  The whole day was spent learning about our five species of Pacific salmon which also happen to live within the Skagit Watershed.  The other volunteers and I learned how in the past twenty-five years SFEG has worked on hundreds of miles of habitat, engaged at least 11,000 students in education, and had over 145,000 donated hours of work.  Even though there has been a decline in salmon populations, SFEG and those associated with them are truly making a difference.  Within my first week, I even helped make a difference for a small community called Concrete.

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juvenile salmon relocated from the dredge zone.

This town of seven hundred citizens may just have as many salmon as it does people.  Yet, every year Concrete suffers a severe salmon spread as they flood into streets and peoples’ backyards from a stream that most mistake for a ditch.  As a temporary fix, Concrete received approval to dredge this stream until a more permanent solution could be achieved.  SFEG assisted by relocating the fish upstream so they would not be squashed by the excavator.  I tagged along and stood in waist-deep water, waving a net back and forth, catching juvenile fish.  In that moment, I could not imagine any other place I’d rather be. My whole life I wanted to save and protect animals and here I was doing it! One fish at a time.

My first week was busy, crazy, difficult, and quite uncomfortable at some points.  It was also enlightening, fun, interesting, and everything I could hope for.  Just proving the point that even though “it may get tough [being uncomfortable]… it’s a small price to pay for living a dream.”

Lorenzan Creek Fish Rescue

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juvenile coho salmon moved from the dredging area.

Kyle, Sue and SFEG’s brand new WCC member Taylor have been having a grand time recently helping the Town of Concrete safely remove fish from Lorenzan Creek to accomplish some long-deferred maintenance.  Dredging is never a good solution, and we are very pleased that Mayor Jason Miller is strongly supporting a long-term solution that would daylight the creek and hopefully result in some substantial improvements to habitat.  In the meantime, since flooding not only affects local residents, but also frequently results in both juvenile and adult salmon being stranded in yards, roads and ditches, SFEG is working with the town to ensure fish that currently reside in the creek are relocated to undisturbed habitat.  We have enjoyed working with Rich, Tom and Dale from the Concrete Public Works Department, plus a cadre of staunch volunteers both from the Town and SFEG’s hardcore “regulars”.  A big shout out to Ray H., who took three days’ vacation to help, since he sees first-hand the problem flooding causes in his own backyard.  We’ve rescued dozens of juvenile coho salmon and resident cutthroat trout from the work area over the past few days.

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“The crew” Thanks everyone!

Upper Day Slough Bridge Complete!

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Check out SFEG’s latest fish passage improvement project!  The poorly maintained culverts on Upper Day Slough have long been an impediment to chum, Chinook and other fish moving through this Skagit River side channel, and SFEG has wanted to fix them for more than a decade.

Blue circles represent the former culvert on the new bridge.

Blue circles represent the former culvert on the new bridge.

 

 

On September 22, Moceri Inc from Bellingham started work to replace the old culverts with a shiny new bridge.  The bridge was in place by Friday 9/23 and as of today work on the project is wrapping up.  These projects benefit both fish and landowners, and are an incredibly cost-effective way of restoring habitat.

Laying the gravel on the road

This is the 5th such bridge SFEG has worked on with engineer Paul Tappel of Fisheries Engineers Inc.  Design for this project was paid for by the State Salmon Recovery Board, and construction costs were funded by Puget Sound Energy as part of their Baker River relicense Aquatic and Riparian Habitat Improvement program.  Special thanks to landowners Tony and Hilda Becerra, and all of the Day Creek meadows folks for putting up with the inconvenience while we work.   Now we can sit back and wait for the fish to show up.