1998 and 1999 Volunteer Salmon Watcher Program in the Lake Washington Watershed

In 1996, the Bellevue Stream Team, King County Water and Land Resources Division, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the Snohomish County Surface Water Management Division, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife began a jointly coordinated volunteer salmonid spawning survey program in the Lake Washington Watershed (all waters draining through the Ballard Locks). In 1997, the program evolved into the Salmon Watcher Program and has been conducted annually since. The purpose of the program is to document the distribution of spawning adult salmonids throughout the basin via an active public outreach and education program, and subsequently consolidate all the information into a single resource (this report). These data can be used by policy makers and the public to improve how streams are managed, to protect salmon and trout species, and to enhance their habitat.

For the 1998 program, 81 volunteers and one classroom surveyed 90 sites on 40 streams and 6 Lake Washington beaches throughout the Lake Washington Watershed from early August 1998 to late January 1999. For the 1999 program, 123 volunteers and two classrooms surveyed 121 sites on 47 streams from early August 1999 to late January 2000. Because volunteers collect the data in this program, the agencies are able to obtain information from many more locations than would otherwise be possible. However, data in this report should be used with the following limitations in mind:

1. Spawning fish can be difficult to see and therefore may have passed through reaches undetected;
2. Volunteer expertise in locating and identifying fish species ranged from very high to very low;
3. Volunteers view stream sites for relatively short periods of time during the spawning season;
4. Determination of survey sites was based on volunteer availability and site accessibility (and some survey locations change from year to year, even on the same creek);
5. Coverage of streams was by no means complete; therefore, fish distribution information is not complete; and
6. Volunteer data indicate only where minimum fish distributions extend to, but do not indicate reaches where fish are definitively absent (in other words, the data confirms fish presence, but does not confirm absence).

Volunteers throughout the watershed observed the following species in both years: sockeye, chinook, coho, kokanee, chum, and trout (rainbow or cutthroat). Additionally, steelhead were reported during the 1998 season. The following results were compiled from data obtained within the previously mentioned limitations of these surveys: (1) In 1998, chinook, sockeye, and coho were all observed in generally the same areas, with the exception of sockeye, which were observed farther in the Cedar River system than the other species. Chinook were observed by a volunteer in McAleer Creek in 1998 for the first time on record. (2) In 1999, the observations of chinook, sockeye, and coho were also similar, with the exception of sockeye, which were not seen in the East Lake Washington Basin. (3) Sockeye were seen in the greatest number throughout the region in both 1998 and 1999. (4) Kokanee were observed in North Lake Washington and in Big Bear Creek Basin in both 1998 and 1999.

Figures included in this report have been published on the Internet, and can be found using the hyperlinks on Salmon Maps page

Thanks to the dedicated volunteers for spending many hours in cold and wet weather to collect the information for this report—sometimes for the third and fourth years in a row, and sometimes without ever seeing a fish. Without the volunteers there would be no data, no maps, no report. They help make a positive difference here in the Northwest, not only by reporting fish species (sometimes species that had never before been seen in a particular stream), but they are also the eyes and ears of the streams, reporting blockages and illegal and other suspect activities. A huge Thank You!

Introduction

The Salmon Watcher Program is a volunteer program that originated in 1996 to observe adult fall spawning salmonids in the Lake Washington Watershed. The Salmon Watcher Program recruits and trains volunteers to identify and watch for spawning salmon throughout the Lake Washington Watershed (all waters draining through the Ballard Locks; Figure 1). In 1998, the Bellevue Stream Team (BST), the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Fisheries Department (MITFD), King County Water and Land Resource Division (KCWLRD), and Snohomish County Surface Water Management (SCSWM) participated in the Salmon Watcher Program. The 1999 program included these jurisdictions as well as the cities of Bainbridge, Bothell, Issaquah, Renton, Seattle, and Woodinville.

The Salmon Watcher Program was created to provide information about salmon in addition to data already being collected through other state and local government programs. Prior to the Salmon Watcher Program, salmon spawning observations were being reported to individual agencies and the data were not easily accessible to or pro-actively shared with other agencies and the public. The Salmon Watcher Program became the centralized effort for making the data readily available for a variety of people and entities. Through this program, volunteers annually collect information on the presence of spawning salmonids located during surveys, including chinook, coho, sockeye, and chum salmon, steelhead and resident trout species, and kokanee (resident form of sockeye). The data become more important as salmonids in the region, such as chinook, are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Volunteers in this program survey the basins that make up the Lake Washington Watershed: the Bear Creek, Cedar River, East Lake Washington, West Lake Washington, Issaquah Creek, North Lake Washington, and West Lake Sammamish basins. Some volunteers also survey streams in some Puget Sound drainages, as well as sites in the Snoqualmie River Basin. The volunteer Salmon Watcher Program does not place emphasis on a particular species of salmon, although it does focus on fall spawning species (sockeye, coho, fall chinook, and kokanee) rather than spring spawners (steelhead, spring chinook, and cutthroat trout).

The second purpose of the Salmon Watcher Program (in addition to expanding local agencies’ knowledge of the distribution of spawning salmon in the region) is to actively engage the public in doing something helpful for the streams in their watershed. Because volunteers do this work, the task is accomplished with reduced resources, and the watersheds’ residents can become involved and educated at the same time. Further, interactions with agency personnel foster positive relationships between the public and government agencies.

Figure 1. Lake Washington Watershed basins surveyed for the 1998 and 1999 Salmon Watcher Program (follow link to download pdf file).

This program is conducted in cooperation with the King County Water and Land Resources Division, Bellevue Stream Team, Redmond Stream Team, and the cities of Seattle, Bothell, Kirkland, Renton, Woodinville, and the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, with support from the King Conservation District.