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GRAND RIDGE BLOWOUT

Saving Ebright Creek

LAKE SAMMAMISH eARLY-rUN kOKANEE sALMON dECLARED EXTINCT  

Great blue herons in king county

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The mouth of Ebright Creek Spring flowers along Ebright Creek

Saving Ebright Creek Ebright Creek is the last viable Kokanee Salmon stream in the City of Sammamish.  It lies in the Thompson Sub-Basin, at about the middle point of eastern Lake Sammamish.  The upper part of the basin begins at Skyline High School and encompasses the new City of Sammamish Commons property and several wetlands.  Ebright Creek flows over land and finally the edges of the plateau into Lake Sammamish. Saving Ebright Creek began in summer of 1999, when Friends of Pine Lake filed land-use appeals with King County on the developments of The Crossings at Pine Lake and Chestnut Lane. Both developments impact Ebright Creek. When the new City of Sammamish took over, Walter Pereyra and Vic Heller joined with appeals of their own. Appeals generally last a few months. Significant decisions have been made, but one of these appeals, Chestnut Lane, is still ongoing after five years! The Chestnut Lane development of 35 homes, Edgar Martinez’s partnership with William Buchan Homes, Inc., is important because it was a failure by the county, and then the city, to apply the Special District Overlay (SO-190).  The SO-190 protects Lake Sammamish by limiting developments which drain into erosion and landslide hazard zones.  Chestnut Lane would have drained storm water runoff onto a steeply sloping hillside above Ebright Creek.  (The development originally planned a 125’ bridge across the Ebright ravine in the same erosion hazard zone, but those plans were withdrawn.)  The appeal of Chestnut Lane set a precedent in that the city changed its administrative interpretation of how the SO-190 is applied.  It took a Superior Court decision to change the city’s mind, though.  Friends of Pine Lake and Walter (Wally) Pereyra jointly filed an appeal, and Vic Heller separately filed an appeal of Chestnut Lane. Today, the City of Sammamish has interpreted the SO-190 Overlay in a manner which protects our streams and Lake Sammamish by limiting development in that zone to the extent that storm water can be infiltrated on site. That means no detention ponds or outfalls in this zone, as they can erode streams, harming fish and Lake Sammamish.   However, there are many developments built in erosion or landslide hazard zones, approved by King County and the City of Sammamish before the Chestnut Lane decision, which did not impose these SO-190 restrictions.

Spring Sammamish Stewardship Saturday Habitat Restoration When: March 13, 2004: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM Where: Next to the Pickering Barn (directions below) Sammamish Stewardship Saturday, the semi-annual, signature SLS event is coming up on March 13.  Please join Save Lake Sammamish, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust (MTSGT), the City of Issaquah, Earth Corps, and other caring individuals spending a day outdoors getting dirty!  Help improve fish and wildlife habitat along Issaquah Creek. What to Bring: Outdoor wear for rain or sun, thick soled shoes (hiking boots are great!), a mug and a friend. Please R.S.V.P. so we have enough tools and materials for everyone!  Contact Kelly Kirkland (MTSGT) at kelly.kirkland@mtsgreenway.org or 206-812-0122 or sign up online. Directions: From I-90: Take Exit #15 and follow the signs towards Lake Sammamish State Park (north). Follow that road around and turn right on 10th Ave. NW. Drive PAST the big red Pickering  Barn. Turn left at the stop sign (Lake Drive). Turn left into the first parking lot and look for event signs. We will meet in the NE corner of the parking lot, by the big white tent. Team Leaders are also needed for this project. If you have some experience with this type of work and would be willing to take on a leadership role during the project, please contact Chrys Bertolotto, City of Issaquah Resource Conservation Office, at 425-837-3442 or chrysb@ci.issaquah.wa.us Sammamish Stewardship Saturday is a partnership between the City of Issaquah, Save Lake Sammamish, EarthCorps, and the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

Kokanee in Ebright Creek In the summer of 2003, Friends of Pine Lake with  neighbor Dan DeFranco appealed the  Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Determination of Non-Significance, and the clearing and grading permit, for Ebright Creek Park. The pre-hearing conference on the appeal identified code violations by the city. We are still in rather a state of disbelief about the admission by the city that they had failed to apply their own codes to the design for Ebright Creek Park!  Of course, we’d been telling them this all along, and complaining mightily about the abbreviated public process in developing the park from the start. The city withdrew the permit for the park pending a redesign or code changes due to the appeal. Clearly the turning point for the City was the election, in which new council members were chosen by their willingness to listen to the people and cooperate with other governments for trails and ball fields in appropriate places.  Now, citizens will get a chance to participate in a totally new design for Ebright Creek Park. We need to continue to work to see that an environmentally friendly park is created and Ebright Creek is protected. We have to give much credit and our thanks to our attorney, Richard Aramburu, without whose knowledge and experience we would certainly have failed long ago!  But it is Vic Heller and Walter Pereyra, whose sacrifices and dedication have made them true heroes to many people in Sammamish.  And of course, many thanks to the members of Friends of Pine Lake and others for their contributions and dedication to the environment of Sammamish. Ilene Stahl, President Friends of Pine Lake  425-392-0556

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WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

Lake Sammamish Late-Run Kokanee Salmon Still in Danger

The good news is some of the wild, native Lake Sammamish late-run kokanee still survive! Typically, they spawn from late October into January. Until recently, biologists thought the late-run winter kokanee were transplants from Lake Whatcom and/or Baker Lake. However, genetic research has now established that this population is wild, native to our system and unique among kokanee populations in the western U.S. The fact that native Lake Sammamish kokanee have survived, while thousands imported from other lakes have disappeared, bears testimony to unique adaptations made by our subspecies to its habitat.

Yet, this subspecies of late-run kokanee is in grave danger! Surveys during the last decade have found them spawning in only five Lake Sammamish tributary streams – Ebright, Laughing Jacobs, Lewis, Tibbetts and Vasa. Sufficient numbers of kokanee have been counted in the first three creeks to be dignified as “runs.” Just a few fish have been sighted in Tibbetts and Vasa. Without immediate action to protect these fish and their spawning habitat, late-run kokanee surely will follow the early-run into oblivion.

Kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka ) are landlocked freshwater salmon that live in lakes and their tributaries. During the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 years ago, kokanee salmon were cut off from migration into salt water, so they adapted to a freshwater lifecycle. (In contrast to their close relatives, the sockeye salmon, who are born, spawn and die in fresh water, but migrate to salt water as young fish to grow and mature.) Bright red bodies, green heads, 10 to 20 inches in length, Lake Sammamish kokanee are smaller than other salmonids. Sometimes known as “redfish” in their spawning stage, they are also called “silvers” and were very popular sport fish as late as the 1970’s. For eons, these small but tough salmon adapted to the unique ecosystem of Lakes Washington and Sammamish developing a niche in which they could thrive, despite competition from larger sea-running salmonids. They were abundant and their firm red flesh constituted a major part of the Snoqualmie Indians’diet.

1880 brought European pioneers to the watershed. Logging, mining and farming activities changed the land and choked the creeks with silt. Somehow, these plucky little fish survived. But they were not so lucky in the 1900’s. The construction of the Ballard Locks and the rest of the Lake Washington Ship Canal System linking Puget Sound and Lake Washington, which opened in 1916, completely changed the hydrology of the entire Greater Lake Washington Watershed. The Cedar River was diverted from its confluence with the Duwamish and directed into Lake Washington. The Black River essentially disappeared. Lakes Washington and Sammamish were lowered by approximately 13 feet from their natural levels. Sammamish River became a shadow of its former self. Insult was added to injury when the Army Corps of Engineers straightened and dredged the River, transforming it into a sterile ditch. With these radical alterations, anadromous (seagoing) salmonids, had to change also and some species disappeared from their natal waters, while others found new spawning grounds, introducing new areas of competition.

The 1937 construction of the Issaquah Fish Hatchery included a weir across Issaquah Creek to force fish into holding ponds. This barrier closed approximately 32 miles of stream habitat to kokanee and other wild fish. When fish hatcheries in the 1940s were producing larger, more desirable salmon species, kokanee were deemed “undesirable,” rounded up in hatchery ponds, then the plug was pulled. Fish were left to die by the thousands. Pollution seeping from the Cedar Hills landfill, warmer water and loss of lake shoreline habitat have also contributed to the kokanee’s demise.

Rapid and vast development underway in the Lake Sammamish watershed fills wetlands, blocks feeder streams, increases silt levels in creeks, and buries spawning grounds, smothering eggs and newly-hatched salmon (please see Grand Ridge story on Page 1).  Prime kokanee spawning and rearing creeks were destroyed by the construction of I-90. Increased runoff from cleared and paved land washes young salmon from streambeds and delivers pollutants into waterways. Development has initiated a boom/bust cycle of flooding in winter and low stream flows in summer, which is devastating. Less winter groundwater recharge throughout the watershed, means less cold, clean water available to replenish streams and upwellings in the Lake in summer. Cold, clean well-oxygenated water is essential to salmonids. Warm water contains less oxygen and encourages algal growth.

For the late-run kokanee to survive, habitat in the five streams where they spawn must be preserved and improved. A habitat management plan needs to be developed for each creek. Such plans will have to deal with water quality, flow, erosion, bank armoring, temperature, adjacent land use and riparian vegetation. Each creek has its own characteristics and problems, but some fundamentals apply to all: protect headwaters (see Ebright Creek story on Page 1); allow meandering in the floodplain; grow trees to cool water and stabilize banks; keep pollution out of water; remove barriers to fish passage; and reintroduce complexity to the stream system.

King County Executive Ron Sims has been a staunch ally in the effort to protect these fish that are a unique part of our heritage. He recognizes the plight of our remaining kokanee and has called on the USFWS to respond to our 2000 petition to protect the kokanee under ESA. To his credit, Executive Sims has prioritized King County capital projects that will benefit the last of the Lake Sammamish kokanee. He has also requested the state Department of Transportation to provide for fish-passage under I-90.

Salmon-recovery scientists and others have long debated the relative importance of the “Four H’s” – habitat, harvest, hatcheries and hydro (dams). Extinction of a freshwater fish that cannot legally be caught demonstrates the importance of freshwater habitat loss and degradation. Habitat is the only “H” variable influencing our kokanee. Wild, native kokanee are the bellwether for how we will treat all salmon in the region. As a society we have to decide whether to leave a salmon legacy to future generations in the heart of fast-growing suburbs, shopping centers and high tech office parks. Clearly this region has brains and wealth. Does it possess wisdom and will? These small, elegant salmon spend their entire lifetime in some of our best neighborhoods. If the late-run becomes extinct also, the blame will lie squarely with us, not ocean conditions, overharvest or dams.

Extinction happens!

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Great Blue Herons in King County

Great blue herons are a uniquely recognizable bird that is commonly observed along our shorelines and in larger wetlands. Since they are large and readily identified, the common perception is that their population is healthy. But is this a valid perception? In 1999, roughly 40% of the heron colonies in the Puget Sound region abandoned their nests in mid-season, leaving eggs and young in the nest for reasons that are yet to be determined. Several years ago, the Canadian Wildlife Service listed the coastal great blue heron as "vulnerable" under their endangered species act. In 2000, the King County Wildlife Program started a program to evaluate the status of great blue heron colonies throughout the county to determine how the heron is faring within the region. Unfortunately the funding for that program was cut in 2002 and the monitoring efforts have been more sporadic since then.

As urban growth and development continue to spread throughout the Puget Sound, many species in our region are being forced to survive in dwindling habitats. Great blue herons need mature stands of relatively undisturbed native trees often in wetlands and along shorelines to successfully build colonies and breed. Once a colony is established, herons are particularly vulnerable to a range of disturbances that can result in reduced productivity and nest abandonment. Human activities and habitat loss probably represent the greatest threat to herons. Examples of human disturbance range from people walking under nest trees in established colonies to loud and sudden noises from things such as heavy construction equipment and firearms.

In an effort to determine the status of the coastal great blue heron in our region and to better understand potential factors of decline, volunteers began monitoring heron colonies in 2000. Seventeen colonies were known to exist in King County. In 2001, herons did not return to three colonies and two other colonies did not have committed observers. Regular observations were made at the remaining 12 colonies. No new colonies were reported in 2001. Colonies ranged in size from just a few nests to nearly 100.

Trained volunteers make regular observations of their colony (usually once a week), counting nests, chicks and fledglings and noting any human, eagle or crow disturbances that may be responsible for declining heron numbers in the colony. While the monitoring program has become more sporadic, compiled data from some of the colonies to date offers a general evaluation of the status our heron colonies in the county. Overall, the 2001 season was a fairly good one. Most of the observed colonies reported a healthy breeding season with incidences of eagle and crow incursions down from previous years.

The Lake Sammamish colony, largest in King County and in the top ten for the greater Puget Sound basin, is showing signs that human activity in and around the colony may be affecting nesting activities. The colony seems to be moving their nests further away from the lake edge perhaps due to increases in boat traffic. This nest migration towards the open meadow area may make the nests more vulnerable to off-trail dog walkers, joggers and hikers. The Sammamish colony was first established in 1984 and has maintained a fairly stable and active population since then. The colony may be increasing in size with nearly 100 active nests reported in 2000. However, the nests are difficult to see and count accurately, so data from previous years that was not collected in a consistent manner may be incorrect.

Over the years, there have been reports on individual colonies, but there has been no systematic effort to record the number of nests at all the existing colonies. Documents that purport to record the number of colonies or nests frequently omit known colonies or incorrectly count nests. In addition, there has been no consistent documentation of predation, human disturbance, or nesting success at colonies until very recently. The herons themselves complicate the picture by occasionally moving or establishing new colonies, perhaps as a normal part of their natural population fluctuations. Colonies in Puget Sound range from 3 nests to over 400. In King County, most colonies are small, ranging from about 15 to around 40 nests. The colony at Lake Sammamish has been the largest at almost 100 nests (the Black River colony in Renton now surpasses this number), but that may still be very small compared to historical colony sizes.

Keeping potential problems with the accuracy of the data in mind, it is still interesting to note that over the last 20 years there have been 31 colonies reported in King County. The total number of colonies seems to fluctuate over time. In 1991, there were about 13 active colonies. With careful searching, we found 14 active colonies in 2001. The largest colony, the Vashon-Maury Island colony with 103 nests, disappeared sometime around 1995. In 2001, it appears that two colonies had slight increases in numbers, four stayed about the same, and three colonies did not attempt renesting at all. Five colonies are not included in this data for 2001.

It is unclear whether or not small colonies are more susceptible to eagle and crow incursions or more sensitive to human disturbance. Current evidence is inconclusive. Small colonies may be more susceptible but avoid detection and hence are more successful. Larger colonies may be detected by predators more readily, but are better able to fend off attacks. A larger number of smaller colonies may suggest that larger areas of habitat able to support large colonies and larger populations may be becoming harder to come by throughout the county.

You can help by avoiding disturbing active colony sites and educating your friends and neighbors.