2010 Salmon Summit

Lindsay Taylor is the Program Coordinator for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA). She has worked cooperatively to coordinate 5 of the 14 Salmon Summits and believes strongly in educating the community on the issues facing local wild salmon populations and the lands along our lakes, rivers, and streams.

On Nov. 3, 2010, more than 230 individuals representing local nonprofit environmental organizations, agricultural community members, tribal members, private industry, government agencies, environmental consultants, legislators, educators, landowners, students, and concerned citizens gathered to hear presentations and a status report on salmon recovery and watershed restoration in the Nooksack Basin.

The 2010 Salmon Summit conference, held at St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center in Bellingham and hosted by the WRIA 1* Salmon Recovery Board, focused on the progress being made toward implementing the Nooksack Basin component of the Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan, while highlighting local projects working to address the issues facing Whatcom County’s salmon runs.

As presenter Elizabeth Babcock from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explained at the beginning of the day, the listing of Puget Sound spring chinook and bull trout as “threatened” in 1999 under the federal Endangered Species Act became a catalyst for local and tribal governments and other organizations to coordinate efforts to protect and enhance fish species.

In June 2005, the WRIA 1 Salmonid Recovery Plan was released. This plan outlined a local strategy of projects, programs, and timelines to recover salmonid populations, with a particular focus on chinook salmon.

It also included a comprehensive look at the scientific data collected on salmonids and their habitat over the last several decades. Further, the plan explains factors inhibiting salmonid populations and describes strategies and actions needed to recover salmonids to self-sustaining numbers.

Five years have now gone by since the plan was adopted and the presentations at the summit provided information and updates on the key actions taken to provide immediate benefits for spring chinook salmon and/or to lay the essential foundation for long-term habitat recovery.

Several actions have taken place including: restoring fish passage at critical barriers, restoring habitat in the forks and mainstem of the Nooksack River, integrating salmon recovery needs with floodplain management, integrating habitat protections with local land use regulations, establishing new instream flows for WRIA 1, protecting and restoring priority estuarine and nearshore areas, restoring and reconnecting isolated habitats in lowland and independent tributaries, and establishing a South Fork gene bank supplementation program for South Fork spring chinook salmon.

Highlights of this year’s Summit included Dr. David R. Montgomery, an author and professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, as the Keynote Speaker who painted an honest and inspirational picture of “The Thousand Year Run of Salmon” and the environmental changes that continue to challenge the recovery of salmon in developing watersheds.

A panel discussion at the end of the day facilitated by Jim Kramer, former Executive Director of the Shared Strategy for Puget Sound, was also thought-provoking as it provided a platform for policy directors at the state, regional and local levels to weigh in on the various issues currently facing salmon and watersheds in the Nooksack Basin and their vision of the future of salmon recovery efforts in Whatcom County.

The local vision of salmon recovery is to return self-sustaining salmonid runs to harvestable levels through the restoration of healthy rivers, marine shorelines and natural processes; the careful use of hatcheries, and responsible harvest, and the active participation and support of local landowners, businesses, and the larger community. Public involvement is necessary to develop creative solutions that result in actions that benefit both fish and people.

More information, as well as a DVD of the 2010 Salmon Summit, is available by contacting the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) at (360) 715-0283 or info@n-sea.org. §

*WRIA 1 (Water Resource Inventory Area) is the state’s designation for the Nooksack Basin and smaller adjacent watersheds)