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WRIA 8 updates
Recent WRIA 8 tours
In September, WRIA 8 hosted three tours to provide opportunities for Salmon Recovery Council partners to meet in-person and see important areas of the watershed as well as tour and hear about priority salmon habitat projects and recovery actions on the ground.
Tours included the Ballard Locks in partnership with Long Live the Kings, Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in partnership with Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, and Lake Sammamish State Park and lower Issaquah Creek in partnership with Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust. Topics covered on the tours included fish passage at the Locks, predation from invasive predatory fish and marine mammals, elevated temperatures and low dissolved oxygen in the Lake Washington Ship Canal, hatchery operations, education and outreach programs, local government efforts to integrate surface water management and salmon habitat restoration planning, and a site visit to a priority habitat restoration project. The WRIA 8 team looks forward to identifying additional opportunities for partners to get out in the watershed to see salmon recovery in action!
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Salmon have returned to Juanita Creek
Holly Smith, owner, and Executive Chef of Café Juanita in Kirkland, teamed up with the Adopt A Stream Foundation (AASF) and the King Conservation District (KCD) to restore fish habitat at the lower end of Juanita Creek. Through help from KCD’s landowner Incentive Program and the Washington Conservation Commission’s Salmon Recovery Account, AASF created a design that both reduces bank erosion and helps create fish habitat.
Salmon were seen returning in late September, almost immediately after the project had hit completion! View a map of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s database, SalmonScape.
Ceremonial Kokanee Fry Release
On Wednesday, October 12, the Kokanee Work group hosted a Ceremonial Kokanee Fry Release event at Lake Sammamish State Park with over 80 people in attendance. Elected officials, Snoqualmie Tribe members, agency staff and local residents celebrated kokanee recovery work by releasing 150 kokanee fry into Lake Sammamish. These fry are part of over 14,000 fry released into Lake Sammamish using various strategies including stream egg boxes, mid lake releases and extended rearing stream releases of young kokanee to try to bolster the wild population. View the King 5 media coverage, or Read an article about the release in The Seattle Times.
State Salmon Recovery Funding Board awards nearly $76 million in Grants to Recover Salmon with $2.8 million going to King County improvements
The State Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded grants to the following projects recommended by WRIA 8:
- Planning habitat restoration at former Wayne Golf Course (City of Bothell)
- Restoring the Middle Bear Creek Natural Area (King County)
- Restoring floodplain in the Upper Royal Arch Reach of the Cedar River (Seattle Public Utilities)
Congratulations to these partners on these exciting grant awards! Read the full list of Grants awarded.
Salmon SEEson program
Salmon are returning home to spawn in King County’s rivers and streams! The Salmon SEEson program promotes opportunities to see salmon returning to local streams at viewing sites around the county and virtually from home.
Salmon SEEson is sponsored by the WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council as part of its effort to recover salmon in the watershed. Additional sponsors include the Saving Water Partnership, Duwamish Alive Coalition, Green/Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed, Snoqualmie Watershed Forum, and King County.
For more information and fish-viewing opportunities visit the Salmon SEEson website.
King-5 Salmon SEEson interview
King-5 featured a short interview with Jason Mulvihill-Kuntz, WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Manager, and Charlotte Sprang, Cedar River Salmon Journey Naturalist program lead, on the current status of salmon returns and opportunities to view salmon!
Salmon in the news
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wades into Northwest salmon transportation
On October 6, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and members of the Washington state Congressional delegation paid a visit to Carey Creek, a tributary of Issaquah Creek, to announce the opening of the $1 billion fish passage fund, a small piece of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, for grant applications by local governments and tribes. King County has identified 50 high priority projects, including the Carey Creek barrier, which they consider a top competitor for federal funding. This project would open three miles of stream habitat and update an existing culvert that currently contains a 2-foot leap for salmon.
Read the entire article.
Make Salmon Restoration a policy and budget priority
In a recent op-ed in the Seattle Times, State Representative Debrah Lekanoff makes the case for bold action to reverse the decline of salmon populations in Washington state, and to “apply a salmon perspective” to policy and budget decisions.
Read the entire article.
Upcoming Events
Regional Stormwater Technical Workshops – November 1st and 2nd
Following up on our Save The Date notice last month, King County and our regional partners are excited to share the registration link and high-level agenda for the next event in the Regional Stormwater Summit series, Aligning Across Watersheds: Regional Stormwater Technical Workshops. The event will be virtual and occur from 9AM-12PM on November 1 - 2. This interactive event will focus on:
- Co-designing aspirational, regional stormwater management goals
- Identifying barriers to achieving those goals
- Elevating new planning tools
- Identifying partner roles
Register online.
Project and Program Updates
Bear Creek Tretheway Project – Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group
The Bear Creek Tretheway Project, an in-stream floodplain reconnection and habitat restoration project across three private properties and one King County Roads parcel in Redmond encompassing 1000 linear feet of Bear Creek, has been approved for construction funding from the King County Flood Control District. This, along with a grant from WRIA 8 through the King County Cooperative Watershed Management program, fully funds construction of the project which will place 280 pieces of large wood in the stream, develop new low-velocity side channel habitat, restore riparian buffer, and reduce flooding and erosion risks.
Community Action Training School
In October, the Community Action Training School (CATS) toured the sustainability features of the Cascadia College and UW Bothell campuses and the adjacent restored 58-acre North Creek wetland. Sno-King Watershed Council also led hands-on water monitoring on North Creek. CATS participants monitored physical and chemical indicators of watershed health and compared results with state standards for salmon-bearing waters.
CATS participants are busy with their stewardship action projects. We look forward to celebrating this amazing group and their work at CATS graduation, Saturday, November 12. Email for more information and an invitation!
Shore Friendly King County
Shore Friendly King County provided three events for marine shoreline landowners in WRIAs 8 and 9 to learn about nearshore ecology, coastal geology, human impacts to the nearshore environment, shoreline vegetation, and alternatives to bulkheads. In addition to shoreline landowner outreach and education, the Shore Friendly King County program is working with shoreline landowners and technical consultants to explore shoreline armor removal opportunities.
Funding Opportunities
The Department of Transportation announced the National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program. Eligible entities include Tribes, States, and local governments. Total available funding is $196M. The application deadline is Monday, February 6, 2023.
The Puget Sound Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead (HSIL) Request for Proposals for Federal fiscal years 2021-2022 is now available online. This funding opportunity implements the 2022-2026 Action Agenda and Habitat Implementation Strategies for Puget Sound through investing in five priorities to accelerate and enable habitat protection and restoration. The HSIL anticipates awarding up to $9 million for proposals ranging from $200,000 to $800,000 for implementation over 2 to 4 years. Applications are due on December 6, 2022, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
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