Commentary: One-day conference demonstrates creative strategies to recover salmon
Ed.: The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Ichthyologists, fish passage analysts, public works engineers, mappers, environmentalists, aspiring professionals, and just plain folk interested in the latest in salmon recovery filled the ballroom of Bellingham’s Four Points Hotel last Thursday.
The 2025 Salmon Summit: Reconnecting Habitat, Restoring Rivers and Recovering Salmon was an impressive, one-day demonstration of the skills and dedication of Whatcom County’s environmental professionals directed toward recovery of our important fishery resource.
After a warm welcome by Whatcom Land Trust’s executive director, Rachel Vasak, participants spent six hours engaged in lectures, questions and answers about the status of salmon recovery in the Nooksack River and Squalicum, Whatcom, Padden and Chuckanut creeks.
Devin Flawd and Tom Chance of Lummi National Natural Resources reported on natural salmon population status and Nooksack Basin Hatchery management. They described how clipping the dorsal fin of hatchery-raised salmon permits returning adult salmon to be identified for counting.
Geneticist Adrian Spidle of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) reported on the genetic diversity of the offspring of prior generations of natural and hatchery-raised salmon in the South Fork Nooksack River.
Beginning with approximately 20,000 juvenile chinook salmon collected from 2007–2012 in the South Fork (the “genetic baseline”), the NWIFC compared their genetic relationship (“temporal variance in allele frequencies”) with their likely returning descendants collected from 2014–2018.
They found that approximately 10% of chinook salmon in the Nooksack’s South Fork matched the genetic baseline of that stream when the program began. Over 95% of chinook salmon in the South Fork match the genetic baseline now. Comparing the matches of naturally born salmon and the matches of hatchery-born salmon allows comparison of the success of species recovery in the respective groups. It also avoids the possible mistake that hatchery-born salmon recovery might mask the actual success or failure of natural-born salmon in the Nooksack tributaries.
James Helfield, professor of terrestrial and aquatic ecology at Western Washington University, described hyporheic flow — how water moves back and forth between a stream and the groundwater below. That flow, up or down, is influenced by water temperature. The placement of engineered log jams within the river’s main flow can influence hyporheic flow by forming deep scour pools behind them. These pools promote upwelling of cooler subsurface flow, cooling the water where salmon might linger during their various life cycles.
Understanding hyporheic flow may be valuable in determining the relationship between surface and groundwater rights at gaining or losing segments of streams in the pending water rights adjudication. Streams “gain” volume when groundwater wells up into them. Conversely, they “lose” volume when surface water “leaks” into the ground below the stream.
The Nooksack Tribe’s Treva Coe described the tribe’s program for restoring the Nooksack River. Their program includes 23 instream restoration projects restoring almost 9.4 miles of river through construction of 377 engineered log jams and other log structures, creating stable floodplain areas for forest development and enhanced temperature refuges. The projects include construction of independent and channel-crossing engineered log jams, rand connecting restored floodplains. The tribe’s program also studies hyporheic flow to determine how they enhance cool water refuges for chinook.
Maggie Taylor, water resource manager of the Nooksack’s Natural Resources Department, reported on the problem of restoring the natural hydrology of the South Fork of the Nooksack. To restore natural meander to the river, engineered structures (dykes and elevated railroad rights of way) would need to be removed.
Morgan Ruff, City of Bellingham’s natural resources special projects manager, reported on remediation of culverts in Bellingham. Environmental coordinator Mateo Scoggins reported on re-routing of Squalicum Creek. Whatcom County’s salmon recovery planner John Thompson reported on the county’s fish passage program, including construction of Kenney Creek bridge on Fork Road scheduled to be celebrated on Nov. 17.
The one-day conference demonstrated that there are a significant number of well-trained natural resource professionals in Whatcom County. They are engaged in creative strategies to recover salmon. There is intergovernmental cooperation and integration of local and tribal resources in solving the problem.
The event was sponsored by Whatcom County’s governmental, engineering and environmental establishment: Whatcom PUD, Herrera Science Planning and Design, Wilson Engineering, Drayton Archaeology, ESA, Natural Systems Design, Indicator Engineering PLLC, Freeland Associates, SSA Environmental, Whatcom Conservation District, Associated Earth Sciences, Anchor QEA, Coffman Engineers, Highline Construction, Working Waterfront Coalition, Syndel, Skillings, WECU Sierra Pacific Foundation, Triangle, Lineage and Whatcom Working Water Foundation.
— By James Davenport
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Spring chinook run continues to grow,” May 14, 2025
• “Tacoutche Tesse, the Northwest’s great ghost river — Part 1: Not the Columbia,” Nov. 4, 2022
• “Nooksack Tribe and partners face up to climate change challenge on South Fork Nooksack River,” Oct. 29, 2021
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