Skagit Fisheries Spawner Survey Program

*CLICK HERE FOR OUR 2023-2024 SPAWNER SURVEY REPORT*

Check out the Zoom recording of the classroom portion of our 2024 Spawner Survey Volunteer Workshop HERE and a PDF copy of our slideshow from the workshop HERE.

Forms you will need:

Data Sheet (Google Sheet Version)
Data Sheet (Fillable PDF Version)
Volunteer Time Sheet (Word Doc Version, enter info for whole month)
Volunteer Time Sheet (Web Form, enter individual days)
Spawner Survey Substitute Volunteer Calendar (please do not edit – email Devon for edits/questions)

We plant trees, remove culverts, and create infrastructure to help restore and maintain the habitat our valley provides. Our goal is to increase the Skagit watershed’s capacity for sheltering salmon during their freshwater life phases.

But how do we know if our work is working? We count salmon!

Every year, we recruit a team of volunteer community scientists to walk local streams and conduct Spawner Surveys! Volunteers are trained and assigned to streams in early October and commit to walking their stream and collecting data until the salmon run has ended.

Their tasks include:

counting salmon (dead and alive!)
identifying the species of salmon seen
marking redd (salmon nest) locations
determining spawning status of dead salmon

Our Spawner Surveyors monitor past, present, and potential project sites–places where SFEG has done or wants to do habitat restoration of some kind—and have done so for years. We have an excellent database of fish numbers in specific streams and we can compare how many fish are able to make it back to their streams after our restoration projects compared to years past!

Interested in volunteering or learning more? Contact us!

Along with our dedicated volunteers, this work could not be completed without the generous support and donation from these sponsors! Thank you:

King Salmon Supporters
donating $750 or more to support our annual training workshop and volunteer mentoring