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Dam removal helps coho salmon
flourish
John
Dodge
The
Olympian
It has been more than
five years since a leaky, obsolete old dam on Goldsborough Creek was
removed, opening up about 25 miles of upstream fish habitat that had
been virtually inaccessible to fish since 1885.
The hope behind the $4.8
million project was that wild adult coho salmon in South Sound would
find the barrier-free spawning and rearing ground in the Goldsborough
Creek watershed, which stretches from
Last year, more than
41,200 of the 42,729 young coho salmon leaving the creek to go to
saltwater came from above the former dam site, according to a report by
the Squaxin Island Tribe, which has been monitoring coho populations in
the stream for several years.
“We’re seeing more
coho smolts leaving the Goldsborough Creek watershed and more adults
spawning above where the dam used to be,” tribal fish biologist Joe
Peters said. “It’s one of the more productive systems in South
Sound.”
That was the goal when
Green Diamond, the Army Corps of Engineers, the tribe and state
Department of Fish and Wildlife teamed up to take out the 32-foot dam,
using a combination of $4.8 million in public and private funds.
Historically, the dam was
used to divert creek water through pipes to company mills on the
Dam demolition and work
to reshape about 1,700 feet of stream bed below and above the dam was
completed in November 2001.
This time of year, the
tribe anchors a fish trap in the stream to catch coho migrating out to
sea after spending their first 18 months in freshwater.
During a check of the
trap Thursday, Peters and tribal habitat biologist Sara Haque counted
about 300 young coho, joined by a few chum salmon, cutthroat trout and
steelhead — all benefactors of the dam removal.
“This is the peak time
for coho out-migration,” Peters said. “We’re seeing 100 to 200
fish per day.”
“That was the
objective,” Green Diamond spokeswoman Patti Case said upon hearing the
number of young coho leaving Goldsborough Creek. “That’s great
news.”
The data collected by
Peters and Haque help evaluate the success of dam removal and provide
fisheries managers with data to determine adult coho survival rates and
shape coho fishing seasons.
Coho numbers can
fluctuate a great deal, depending on ocean survival and
weather-influenced conditions in the stream while the fish are there.
But the percentage of
coho heading to sea from above the dam last year clearly was the highest
to date.
“It’s taken a couple
generations to get back in the swing of things of using the upstream
habitat,” Peters suggested.
No small wonder, as it was off-limits
for nearly 120 years.
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Source: http://www.theolympian.com/127/story/98246.html