The Watershed Council is partnering with the County Health Department, the City, and Sakai Intermediate School on a 2-year study to investigate causes of high bacteria and low dissolved oxygen in the Murden Cove Watershed, and we could use your help! To learn more about the program and information about how you can volunteer, check out our new Murden Cove Nutrient and Bacteria project description.
Add Comment  The Bainbridge Island Watershed Council completed another great year of monitoring returning adult spawning salmon to four of our streams: Cooper Creek at the head of Eagle Harbor, Manzanita Creek, Springridge Creek that empties into Fletcher Bay, and Murden Cove Creek. Our dozen stalwart volunteers braved some incredibly rainy weather to observe returning chum and coho to all four streams. Of particular importance to the Watershed Council was our observations of several returning adult chum salmon to Cooper Creek, where the Watershed Council worked with the Suquamish Tribe and the City to run a salmon supplementation program for the past four years- we are now seeing our first returns of these fish! With the rains come the salmon! Now is a great time to look for coho and chum salmon returning to our streams to spawn. The Kitsap Sun has put together a map of salmon spawning areas across Kitsap County, including a couple of our Island streams where you can go look for salmon. Happy salmon watching!  The fall rains are bringing back the salmon to Bainbridge Island- including our Cooper Creek Chum! For the past four years the Watershed Council has worked in partnership with the City and the Suquamish Tribe to supplement salmon in Cooper Creek. It looks like our efforts are starting to pay off this year! Several salmon have been spotted moving up into the stream on high tides. The carcass in the lower center of the stream in the picture above is evidence that salmon are moving into the creek to spawn and then die, returning their nutrients to our streams and their foodwebs. The Kitsap Sun recently published an article on this return, read it here. Watershed Council member Dick Engle took some fantastic footage of a male chum salmon moving into Cooper Creek which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDiuiayOLvQ&feature=plcp If you would like to look for returning salmon at Cooper Creek, you can go to the base of the stream at the head of Eagle Harbor. There is a culvert right next to the auto body shop where the fish move under Eagle Harbor drive and up into Cooper Creek. The best time to look for salmon is on an incoming tide. However, please be aware that Eagle Harbor Drive is very busy and narrow, so please use caution in accessing this site. With enormous thanks to our huge crew of volunteers and collaborators, we have completed a four year program to return salmon to Cooper Creek at the head of Eagle Harbor. Read more about the program here. On June 4, over 40 people attended the Watershed Council and Sustainable Bainbridge's Sustainable First Monday PJay Zischke, Marine Fish Program Manager of the Suquamish Fisheries Department, who spoke to us about "Salmon Management in Puget Sound: Potholes along the Salmon Recovery Road" at the Bainbridge Island Art Museum Auditorium. Jay provided a fascinating introduction to the complexities of salmon management, the integration of the “four H’s”- Hatcheries, Harvest, Hydropower, and Habitat- that impact salmon, and challenges facing us locally to maintain healthy salmon stocks. He also described the SuquamishTribes’ salmon enhancement program and how the program integrates with local east Kitsap stocks, and talk about what are our “healthy” local stocks of salmon and how we can manage them sustainably. June Sustainable First Monday, June 4, 7-9pm The Watershed Council and Sustainable Bainbridge are pleased to host: Salmon Management in Puget Sound: Potholes along the Salmon Recovery Road Presented by Jay Zischke - Marine Fish Program Manager, Suquamish Fisheries Department At the Bainbridge Island Art Museum Auditorium, southern building of the kidimu complex at the corner of 305 and Winslow Way Jay will provide an introduction to the complexities of salmon management, the integration of the “four H’s”- Hatcheries, Harvest, Hydropower, and Habitat- that impact salmon, and challenges facing us locally to maintain healthy salmon stocks. He will also provide an overview of the Suquamish Tribes’ salmon enhancement program and how the program integrates with local east Kitsap stocks, and talk about what are our “healthy” local stocks of salmon and how we can manage them sustainably. Jay Zischke - Marine Fish Program Manager, Suquamish Fisheries Department Jay has worked as a Fisheries Biologist for over 30 years – including 10 years in Alaska and 20 years in Puget Sound. He presently works for the Suquamish Indian Tribe directing salmon supplementation facilities and developing harvest management plans. He lives locally on the Kitsap Peninsula. Please join us for a fun and educational 12-mile bike ride on May 12 to learn more about Bainbridge Island Watersheds! Visit our Project Page for Bike your Watershed to learn more. We are starting the 4th and final year of the Cooper Creek Salmon Supplementation Program, and we need your help! The Cooper Creek program is a partnership between the Watershed Council, the City of Bainbridge Island, and the Suquamish Tribe to restore salmon to Cooper Creek at the head of Eagle Harbor. You can read more about the program on our Project Page. If you are interested in helping out, we need volunteeers to help with the daily care and feeding of our young salmon, as well as with initial installation of the raceway. You need to be at least 14 years of age (under 18 need an adult's permission) and physically capable of walking about a mile over uneven terrain to participate. FEED AND CARING RUNS MARCH 11- LATE APRIL/EARLY MAY Because we have already started the feeding and conducted a training session, if you are interested in signing up for shifts- yes, we still have room!- you must email us at info@biwatershedcouncil.org to arrange for a time to get trained. Once you are trained, you can sign up for shifts per the instructions below. The majority of the help we need comes in the form of 3 visits per day, 7 days a week, to care for our young salmon by feeding and cleaning their tank. You can sign up for as many shifts as you are willing and able to do: only 1 person can sign up per shift. If you would like to sign up to help care for our baby salmon, please go to the following link: http://www.doodle.com/37gu929vzkx33yfr We have shifts through mid-April and will likely extend this through late april/early may once we know more about fish timing later in the spring. A shift takes about 45 mins to walk up to and back from the site, feed the fish, and clean the tanks and screens (mid-day shifts do an extra vacuuming step). Thanks for helping us make this program a success! We had an excellent year for salmon, with multiple adult coho returning to at least three of our monitored streams. Read more about our salmon monitoring program here. | Rose DefaweChair, BIWC ArchivesMarch 2013 Categories |
RSS Feed