2001 Volunteer Salmon Watcher Program Report

Methods

Volunteers are recruited annually to observe fish in streams throughout the Lake Washington Watershed and, beginning in 2001, some streams that drain into Puget Sound, including streams on Vashon Island. Volunteers observe the stream sites from stationary locations at banks, bridges, and decks. The 219 volunteers (219 individuals, pairs, or groups, totaling 258 people plus 1 classroom) who surveyed in the Lake Washington Watershed and Central Puget Sound, plus 2 people observing outside the project area, are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Volunteer observers for the 2001 Salmon Watcher Program.

Survey locations were prioritized by staff from each cooperating jurisdiction based on the need for information, and sites were surveyed based on volunteer availability. Volunteers were assigned to stream locations near their homes or customary walking places whenever possible. Not all sites watched were prioritized by agency staff; some sites were watched because of the close proximity to a volunteer’s home. Volunteers were instructed to stay on public property (bridges, parks, etc.) unless they gained permission from the landowners to enter private property or the survey location was on their own property.

Volunteer Training

Agency staff held a total of nine classroom training sessions in 2001. Two field training sessions at Cottage Lake Creek and Issaquah Creek were also conducted for trained volunteers at stream sites with a variety of spawning fish species. A field training session was also held on Vashon Island at Shinglemill Creek. Additionally, Snohomish County and Friends of the Hylebos Wetlands held separate training sessions for their respective Salmon Watcher programs, which are off-shoots of the Lake Washington Watershed program reported herein. Snohomish County began county-wide volunteer salmon surveys in 1999 and held training sessions accordingly; they trade data with King County that were collected for the streams draining into the Lake Washington Watershed (North, Swamp, and Little Bear creeks systems; see Sammamish River Tributaries below). Friends of the Hylebos Wetlands, based out of Federal Way, Washington, focuses on Hylebos Creek. (Please see Appendix C for Snohomish County’s annual report and Appendix D for Hylebos Creek’s annual report.)

All volunteers were shown a slide presentation and taught to identify adult spawning salmon species. The slide show was also placed on King County’s web site so volunteers could review it at their convenience. During the training sessions, volunteers were asked to sign up for one or more sites to survey easily accessible from their home or work location. They were given salmon identification materials, including color adult species identification cards and spawner timing charts. Volunteers were taught how to fill out and return data forms. Volunteers were also given a laminated card with contact information for an environmental hotline as well as numbers to call for various situations that might arise in the field, including drainage issues, fish kills, and suspicion of toxic pollutants.

Data Collection and Analysis

Surveys were conducted between August 30, 2001, and January 30, 2002, though most surveys began in September and were concluded in December 2001. Volunteers were asked to watch at their survey sites for at least 15 minutes, twice per week. Prior to 2000, volunteers were asked to survey for at least 10 minutes, and prior to 1998 volunteers were asked to survey only once per week. Actual survey frequency and duration varied greatly among volunteers: the average survey frequency was biweekly but ranged from daily to monthly.

If a volunteer surveyed the same site more than one time on the same day, the highest count was used; however, often more than one volunteer surveyed the same site on a single day and both counts were used. Unidentified fish were counted and described when possible. Volunteers counted all live and dead fish they observed. Prior to 2001, all observed carcasses were included in the total count, even if the same fish had been counted on a previous visit. Beginning in 2001, dead fish observed on more than one day were noted but only included once in the total count.

For the 2001 spawning season, two new columns of data were added to the data collection sheet: volunteers were asked if they could tell whether the fish they saw had an adipose fin, and volunteers were asked if they noticed anything at their site that needed to be reported and whether they reported it. For the second year, volunteers were asked to note how many citizens they came into contact with during their streamside duties. All data were recorded onto field data forms (Appendix B), which observers mailed to Salmon Watcher staff on a monthly basis.

Survey data are organized by basin and presented in the Results section. Data include stream name and state stream numbers, as assigned by Williams et al. (1975), corresponding stream sites (with Site ID and river mile), dates of surveys, number of surveys, number of surveyors, and number of each species observed.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Several means were used to assure that the data collected from volunteers were as accurate and consistent as possible during all phases of the program. As one precautionary measure, volunteers were provided with training by fish experts: data included in this report were collected either by returning volunteers or new volunteers who attended one of the training sessions for the 2001 season (most but not all returning volunteers also attended a training session in 2001 as a refresher). Volunteers were provided laminated fish identification cards and a packet of training materials with fish identification information in it. Duplicate as well as additional fish identification materials were placed on the Internet. Contact persons (fish experts) were made available to volunteers to answer questions and verify species identification when necessary; volunteers were encouraged to call upon these experts if they were unsure of species identification.

Staff of the cooperating jurisdictions processed the data sheets and screened them for anything requiring immediate attention, such as an unusual fish sighting or potential water quality problems. If an unusual fish sighting was noticed on a data form, agency staff contacted the volunteer to further inquire about what characteristics they used to identify fish in an effort to ensure as much accuracy as possible. Local jurisdiction staff would also follow up on any other reported unusual circumstances as they judged appropriate.

Following data entry, the figures were verified at least once, but typically twice, by different agency staff to ensure accuracy, as well as catch anything that might need addressing. At least one of the data reviewers was familiar with the basins and the typical fish runs for the basins. If unusual fish sightings were noticed during this phase of data checking that were not previously caught, agency staff would contact the volunteer and attempt to determine the confidence level of the identification. If an unusual sighting seemed to clearly be a misidentification, changes are noted on the data sheets. If, however, a determination of the species of the fish could not be made confidently based upon the notes and memories of the observer, the data is reported herein along with a description of the unusual circumstances.

Because of the limitations of data usage from a volunteer program such as this (Limitations of Volunteer Data in the Discussion below) and despite quality control measures, the data are intended to be used only to make preliminary evaluations of the distribution of spawning salmonids in the Lake Washington Watershed and some Central Puget Sound drainages. These data cannot be used to infer population structure or size.

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.