4.1  Life Cycle

Many species of salmon are universal—they spawn, or lay their eggs, in fresh water; the young migrate to salt water and grow up there; and the fish return to fresh water to breed after they reach maturity. The migratory instinct of members of the salmon family is remarkable. Salmon often migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles to reach the exact breeding grounds of the generation before.

Although usually dark in color before the breeding season, members of the salmon family develop bright hues at spawning time. Salmon typically spawn in rapidly flowing, clear streams with gravel and rocks in the bottom. The female deposits eggs in the nest and the male releases sperm over the eggs to fertilize them. The female then stirs up the stream bottom so that earth and stones cover the eggs and protect them.

The eggs hatch in two weeks to six months, depending on the species and the water temperature. The newly hatched young remain buried in the nest, living on nutrients absorbed from a yolk sac attached to the abdomen. When all the yolk has been absorbed, the young salmon emerge from the gravel to seek food.

As the young salmon feed and grow, dark vertical bars appear along their sides. The amount of time the young salmon spend in fresh water. Eventually the young salmon turn bright silver and descend to the sea. When they are fully grown and reach sexual maturity, the salmon begin the migration back to fresh water to reproduce. Different species of salmon spend different amounts of time in salt water before migrating back to their birth stream to spawn. 

 Pacific Northwest Salmon

Salmon found in the North Pacific Ocean spawn only once, dying after depositing and fertilizing their eggs. Six species of salmon live in the Pacific Ocean: chinook, sockeye, coho, pink, chum, and masu.
 

Chinook, also known as king salmon, the largest of the five Pacific salmon species, recognized for its commercial as well as its sportfishing value. Like most members of the salmon family, Chinook salmon —hatch in rivers, migrate to the sea, and then return to their native streams to lay their eggs, or spawn, and die.

Chinook are usually about 35 inches in length but can obtain lengths of up to 5 ft. Adult Chinook typically weigh 15 to 25 lb, but fish as big as 30 lb have been recorded.

 Between May and January, Chinook salmon return to the streams where they were born, spawn once, and then die. Because of their large size, chinook spawns in large rivers and tend to stay within the main channel where the water flow is higher. Females dig nests, by turning over on their sides and turning up the gravel streambed with their tails. Males fight for the opportunity to pair off with females. The female deposits eggs into the nest while the male sprays milt (sperm) over them.

 Juvenile chinook feed on insects and insect larvae in rivers. As the fish migrate to sea they switch to a diet of progressively larger fish. When they return to freshwater as adults they stop feeding, surviving on fat and protein reserves until they die.

 Chinook populations are declining because of over fishing and habitat destruction. When forests are cut down or land is developed, the resulting eroded soil clogs the gravel streambeds needed for spawning. Dams and other obstructions may block the passage of migrating chinook to their spawning grounds. 

Sockeye, also known as red salmon, one of the most abundant and commercially valuable of the five Pacific salmon species. Sockeye are unique among the Pacific salmon in their need for a rearing lake. Juvenile sockeye migrate from spawning streams directly into these lakes, where they remain for one to four years before migrating to sea.

 Sockeye range along western North America from southern California to northern Alaska and west across the Pacific to Japan.

Adult fish usually weigh 5 to 8 lb and average 24 inches in length.

Sockeye feed of plankton from the water as it passes through their gills. When they return to freshwater to spawn they stop eating, surviving instead on reserves of fat and protein until they die.

 After spending one to three years at sea, adult sockeye return to the river, stream, or lakeshore gravel beds where they hatched. Females dig nests and lay her eggs in the nest while the male deposits milt (sperm) over the eggs to fertilize them. The female then covers the eggs with additional gravel. A female may remain close to the nest, defending her eggs, until she dies. 

Coho, also known as silver salmon, popular game fish and one of five species of Pacific salmon. After roughly fifteen months at sea, coho travel several hundred miles back to their native streams, where they lay their eggs, or spawn, then die.

Mature coho average 24 inches in length and weigh from 7 to 11 lb. Coho weighing as much as 31 lb and measuring as long as 39 in have been recorded.

While in streams and rivers, juvenile coho feed on insects, insect larvae, and small fish. In the ocean, adult coho feed almost exclusively on small saltwater fish. When they begin the long journey home to spawn, coho stop feeding entirely.

 Coho arrive in their native streams to spawn in the autumn. Once on the spawning ground, males and females form pairs and the female uses her powerful tail to dig a nest, in the gravel streambed.

Pink Salmon, also known as humpback salmon, one of five species of Pacific salmon.

    Adult fish average 20 inches in length and usually weigh 3 to   5 lb, but pink salmon as large as 10 lb and as long as 30 inches have been recorded.

 Pink salmon feed using a special organ, called a gill raker, to sift plankton from the water as it passes through their gills. When pink salmon return to freshwater as adults they stop feeding, surviving on reserve stores of fat and protein. They die a few days after spawning.

 Pink salmon lay their eggs, or spawn, near estuaries—protected areas at the mouths of rivers where freshwater mixes with seawater—or even on tidal beaches. During spawning season, males fight with each other over the opportunity to reproduce with females. To spawn, a female uses her strong tail to dig a nest, called a redd, in the gravel streambed or tidal beach, where she lays her eggs. The victorious male sprays milt (sperm) over the eggs to fertilize them. The female then covers the eggs with additional gravel and guards the nest until she dies a week or two later. Shortly after hatching, juveniles migrate to the Pacific Ocean. They grow to adulthood in about eighteen months.

 The number of pink salmon that spawn in a particular river or stream usually differs greatly in alternate years. In Alaska, the number that spawn in even years is always much larger than in odd years; in Canada, the odd years have higher spawning numbers. In Washington State, pink salmon only spawn in odd years.

 In Alaska, pink salmon are often so numerous that they are considered a nuisance to commercial fishers, who often throw back pinks in favor of more valuable coho or chinook salmon. Healthy pink salmon populations are rare south of British Columbia, where salmon spawning habitat is threatened by construction and development that destroys or modifies natural streams and estuaries. 

Chum Salmon, also known as dog salmon, one of five Pacific salmon species. Like many members of the trout and salmon family, chum are anadromous—they hatch in freshwater, then migrate to the ocean. Chum salmon spend three to five years at sea before returning to their native streams to lay their eggs, or spawn, then die.

 Chum salmon range along the west coast of North America from southern California to northern Alaska, and west across the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

 Mature chum usually weigh 4.4 to 6.6 kg (9.7 to 14.6 lb) and average 60 cm (24 in) in length, although chum as large as 13 kg (30 lb) and 102 cm (40 in) have been recorded. At sea, chum have steel-blue upper bodies and silver bellies. As they approach freshwater to spawn, their coloration changes to shimmering reds, browns, and greens. In preparation for fighting over females, males develop a humped back and a very exaggerated upper jaw with prominent doglike teeth. Spawning females develop slightly less prominent jaws than males, and their abdomens swell with 5000 developing eggs.

 Juvenile chum feed by sifting plankton from the water as it passes through their gills. When chum salmon return to freshwater as adults, they stop feeding altogether, gradually starving until they die roughly two weeks after spawning.

 Most chum salmon spawn in estuaries, the shallow, protected waters where rivers meet the ocean. A female digs a nest, called a redd, by turning over on her side and vigorously digging in the streambed with her powerful tail. Once the female is ready she lays her eggs in the nest. Males fight with each other over the chance to spawn with a female, and the victorious male sprays milt (sperm) over the eggs in the nest. The female then covers the eggs with additional gravel to protect them and then leaves them to hatch on their own.

 Chum are the least commercially valuable member of the Pacific salmon fishery. In Alaska, chum salmon are so numerous that low prices often keep commercial fishers from trying to catch them. But like most salmon, few wild chum populations remain healthy in the southern part of their range, where they are threatened by destruction of spawning habitat. When the land around rivers is developed or logged, the resulting eroded soil clogs gravel streambeds, making them unsuitable for spawning. Dams and other river diversions that block fish passage also threaten chum survival. 

4.2  Bear Creek Salmon

The Bear Creek Basin naturally produces fairly large numbers of mostly wild salmon fry yearly.  Coho fry are planted, but the other species primarily sockeye, chinook, and cutthroat, are present naturally in reasonably high numbers. Other species inhabiting the Bear Creek Basin are kokanee and steelhead salmonoids. Preliminary genetic sampling conducted on the sockeye and chinook salmon indicate that these stocks are unique to the Bear Creek Area. 

Although there is no accurate way to assess the salmon population before 1960, when the population of Redmond exploded, limited historical accounting suggests large numbers of both salmon and trout in the Bear Creek Basin from 1940 to 1960. Back then, Chinook, sockeye, kokanee, steelhead, and cutthroat salmon all thrived in the relatively undisturbed habitat. In the 1940s and 1950s there is documentation from the US Forest Service that the approximate numbers of kokanee salmon were around 180,000 annually. There is also a reference in the same report that the Bear Creek Basin was the largest producer of coho salmon in the Sammamish Watershed (10,000-15,000 adults). [The report is A Preliminary Report on the Fish and Wildlife Resources in Relation to the Sammamish River Project by the USFWS in June of 1950] 

Currently, however, the numbers have dwindled. Coho numbers, once over ten thousand, were measured at less than a thousand in 1996. Sockeye salmon, also once common in the Bear Creek of yesteryear, is now less than five hundred. Steelhead probably do not even spawn in Bear Creek anymore, according to Ray Heller, the Bear Creek steward. They were last observed spawning in the early 1990s. Kokanee populations have plummeted from historical levels and only a few spawners have been observed annually for the past 4 years. But the worst population to have suffered huge decline is the chinook salmon. The 1980s and 1990s saw immense development in the Bear Creek Basin, leading to disrupted habitat and the decline of the chinook population, as shown in the following table: 

Table 4.2.1               

Numbers of Chinook Salmon Populations

4.3  The importance of Salmon

Salmon, besides being an important part of Northwest culture, are economically important to many people who live in the Northwest. Salmon that come from this area are caught and sold commercially fresh, canned, and smoked. They also provide recreational opportunities for many people.  But their economic importance perhaps derives for the most part from the extent to which their essence has permeated Northwest culture.   

Their viability as a distinct native and wild species ensures their viability as a cultural icon. The economic importance of iconography should not be underestimated, especially in this time of dynamic change for the Puget Sound area. It seems at every street fair there are multiple vendors selling impossibly vivid pastel drawings of sockeye, graceful, looping metal sculptures of chinook, sedate carvings of coho of burled and knotted wood. Their cyclic return provides a focal point for the annual “Salmon Days” festival in Issaquah, which of course provides the opportunity for many local artisans to sell their wares.               

Picture 1: He won't be doing this anymore!

However, the chief importance of salmon to this region is not economic. It seems that in American society today we are loosing any kind of genuine culture. Diverse tradition, original and varied music and food, all the things that imbue a place with unique character, are daily being quashed beneath the wheels of the monstrous juggernaut that is commercialism. American culture is being unified, but the force behind this unification is economically driven. Every town is getting a Wal-Mart or a K-Mart, a McDonalds or a Burger King, a Safeway or a Denny’s.  Bluegrass and folk, jazz and blues, are being relegated to stations at the low end

of the dial and occasional festivals, while songs with all the emotional and intellectual depth and musical merit of a diesel engine reign supreme on Top 40 stations throughout the country. Salmon are just as integral a part of our unique Northwest culture as blues and jazz are to cities in the Deep South. They are a constant in this era of dynamic change, with its constant influx of people from all over the country and the world. They are a

focal point and a unifying force.  In loosing them we would loose a part of our cultural identity, something that could never be replaced.  

4.4  Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Salmon

Chinook salmon were recently listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The Act defines a “threatened species” as “any species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”  Threatened species do not automatically become off-limits to those who want to “take” them, where “take” is defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, shoot, wound, hunt, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such contact.”  Under the Sweet Home case, the US Supreme Court ruled that destruction of such habitat, such as the building of roads, constitutes a “take.”  A 4(d) rule under the ESA must first be adopted.  In the case of the Chinook Salmon, preliminary steps have been taken in this direction, and a final ruling is expected soon.  Endangered species are automatically protected from takes.

So, how did the Chinook salmon get to be listed as a threatened species?  The Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has the power to list saltwater and anadromous fish, such as salmon.  They shall list them if one or more of the following is present: 

            A.        There is present or threatened habitat destruction

            B.        Overuse for commercial or recreational purposes

            C.        Disease or predation

            D.        Existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate

E.        Other natural or man-made factors affect the continued existence of the plant, fish, or wildlife.

 They were found to meet one or more of the criteria. 

Because of this ruling of Chinook as a threatened species, involved agencies “are required to adopt and implement a recovery plans for the conservation and survival of the listed species.” It seems pretty slight and insignificant, and the Endangered Species act seemed indeed to be pretty innocuous at the time it was passed, but its ramifications are far-reaching and involved.  So involved, in fact, that the federal agencies now have a huge backlog of cases that they have to work on.  It could take many, many years for them to get around to the Chinook Salmon.  Not to worry, however!  King County has issued a mammoth, dense proposal chock-full of jargon, useless information, and self-congratulating rhetoric about how much it has done in the past to save the salmon!  How much it is currently doing to save the salmon! And how much it will do in the future to save the salmon!  In fact, this huge book, titled “The Return of the Kings,” is chock-full of wonderful information!  It’s so good, in fact, that they didn’t even worry about making sure it had all of the right pages in the right order!  They didn’t even worry about spelling or grammar!  Nevertheless, it has been of some use in this report.  Its major implications are covered in the next section.

4.5  Saving the Salmon

Because of the atrocious low numbers of salmon in the Bear Creek Basin, King County has come up with a plan to ‘save the salmon.’ Ray Heller is the King County steward of the Bear Creek Basin [including Evans Creek]. Along with his team of advisors, King County has come up with a few ideas to increase salmon populations.  

The first of these wonderful ideas is protective regulations. These protective regulations were enacted in 1994 and include: designated widths for stream buffers, requirements for clearing wilderness, and standards for environmental Research and Development. In addition, the Redmond City Council, along with the King County Council at the recommendation of Mr. Heller, enacted a conservation program that has so far (as of October 1999) protected over 2000 acres of important habitat. Using a fund from the State of Washington, the habitat along five streamside miles of Bear Creek has been restored to its pre-development state. Two important programs have come out of these plans have been a monitoring program of the salmon population along Cottage Creek and Bear Creek, and a Temporary Erosion and Sedimentation Control program to monitor erosion levels.  

Waterways 2000 is a unique program that is a part of King County’s plan to restore the environment in the Bear Creek Basin. Through this program, King County has preserved over 1200 acres in the basin. The program is a mix of a number of both economic and ecological factors. Property owners were offered a voluntary choice of acquisition, conservation easements, or property tax reduction for conservation lands. King County has cooperated with Snohomish County in order to protect and preserve 800 acres in the northern area of the Bear Creek Basin, near Paradise Lake. Working in the Evans Creek portion of the Bear Creek Basin, the City of Redmond has allocated significant portions of four miles of the lower Bear and Evans Creek corridors, from the Sammamish River to Novelty Hill Road for the Bear and Evans Creek Trail and Greenway project. To date, over 100 acres of wilderness has been purchased for this project and the City is in negotiations to buy several more acres for restoration.

 Over the past nine years, 75 habitat restoration projects have been implemented in the Bear Creek Basin. King County, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Mid-Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group, the City of Redmond, numerous private developers and property owners have all pitched in cash to restore habitat. The lower 0.9 mile of Bear Creek is a special project sponsored by the City of Redmond that has two distinct parts: one, started in 1999, was constructed by the Washington Dept. of Transportation, the other, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is currently in progress.

 Community groups also take an important role in saving the salmon. These groups commonly sponsor watershed initiatives, the most visibly active being the Water Tenders. They distribute a quarterly newsletter, sponsor adopt-a-park programs, educate elementary school classes about Bear Creek, and do litter clean-ups throughout the Basin.

 Water quality in the Bear Creek Basin has been monitored consistently since King County placed a priority on restoring much of the habitat in the Basin. The steward and his office are responsible for monitoring several Basin-related factors, including: water and air temperature, stream flow, precipitation, lakes, fish counts, bug counts, stream habitat, restoration projects, salmon genetics, water quality tests (see Section 5), salmonid migrant counts, and development (including UPDs, the most notable being Redmond Ridge and Blakely Ridge).  

However, the most important area that needs to be addressed is the issue of the Chinook salmon. Essentially, the salmon have two needs: (1) Preservation of the critical process areas in the watershed, and (2) additional restoration of instream habitat in the Bear and Cottage Lake Creek corridors. Significant progress on both of these factors has been made, but the main problem in ensuring the survival of the chinook is the problem of money. Additional funds are needed to continue programs such as Waterways 2000, which was extremely successful, and more government-sponsored habitat cleanup projects. By restoring instream habitat, large wood debris can be removed and can no longer decompose and affect runoff and erosion in the Cottage Lake Creek system, meaning that the water in Bear Creek stays healthy.

Other major issues include the incorporation of roughly eight percent of the Bear Creek Basin into the Cities of Woodinville (3%) and Sammamish (5%). In addition, purple loosestrife, a noxious weed, is invading much of the Bear Creek Basin through Evans Creek. Nothing is currently being done about this.

4.6  What can you do to save the Salmon?

Instead of stop eating deep fried salmon fish sticks, what can you do to save the salmon?  Well, for one thing, you can start recycling those aluminum cans.  I know what you’re thinking: What in the good name of Dave Thomas does aluminum have to do with salmon? Well, my salmon concerned friend, dams are the main reason salmon runs have been seriously declining.  And why do we have dams?  Because we like cheap electricity! And who really, really likes cheap electricity?  The aluminum industry!  It takes considerably less energy in the form of electricity to recycle aluminum than to obtain it from raw materials.  Using less electricity means that possibly someday the dams might be removed. Until then, however...           

There are many earth-friendly things that you can do that will not only benefit salmon but will also benefit the whole environment.  Used automotive fluids should be recycled or disposed of in a manner befitting their toxic nature, but NEVER dumped into the street or on the ground.  While we’re on the subject of cars, you should stop washing yours on the street.  The soapy water that runs into the drain is not good for salmon.  Instead, try taking it to a car-wash, where the water and soap are collected and recycled.  It’s really best to drive as little as possible.  Cars generate by far the largest amount of non-point source water pollution.  Cars leaking all sorts of nasty fluids: propylene and ethylene glycol, motor oil, brake fluid, differential fluid, transmission fluid....the list goes on and all.  All of these latter are petroleum derivatives, which cause that beautiful opalescent film seen on the surface of puddles in parking lots.  Salmon, having little or no aesthetic sense, merely view the oil as something that makes them ill, however.  

Garden pesticides and herbicides should be avoided, as should fertilizer. Anything that ends in “cide” is likely to hurt salmon, because those chemicals are designed to kill living things.  Fertilizers tend to be bad for salmon, and indeed the entire riparian environment, because they encourage algae blooms.  In fact, anything with nitrates and phosphates in it can trigger this kind of event.  Many brands of detergent contain phosphates as brighteners.  Eventually “graywater” containing phosphates could wind up in a local aquatic environment.  For this reason it is important to use phosphate-free detergent. 

You can also reduce the total amount of pesticides and fertilizers used if you buy organically grown produce. (You could also buy produce grown in another part of the country, some miserable hell-hole like, oh, say, the San Joaquin Valley.)  After the algae bloom, they die, and little decomposers soon come to feast upon their pitiful dead bodies. This triggers a sharp increase in the number of decomposing organisms, which lowers the amount of oxygen in the water.  This process is called “eutrophication.”  Organisms, including salmon, that live in the stream and do not happen to be anaerobic soon die from this lack of oxygen.              

All this is well and good, but the principal threat to salmon is not something the average person has the ability to change.  Rampant, unmitigated development and the presence of dams do more to harm salmon populations than any other factor.  There’s very little that can be done about these two problems (aside from recycling aluminum) beyond lobbying for the removal of dams or writing letters on EIS’s to attempt to stop development.