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Kokanee Salmon Release in Sammamish Promotes 'Earth Week'

Kokanee salmon recovery partnership celebrates important progress, looks ahead

Federal, state and local officials were joined by hundreds of elementary school students Friday afternoon at Ebright Creek to release hundreds of juvenile kokanee salmon to celebrate work done locally in Sammamish and Issaquah to restore salmon migration to the Lake Sammamish Watershed.

Staff from the City of Sammamish, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger, and officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife joined with children and members of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group, released several hundred juvenile kokanee salmon as part of an ongoing effort to return the declining native salmon population to robust health, say officials.

The kokanee release was held near a recently installed culvert on land owned by local resident Wally Pereyra, who reportedly spent a considerable amount of his own money on improving the Ebright Creek habitat on his property, which officials say should improve the future survivability of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee salmon. The culvert helped triple the amount of spawning area in Ebright Creek for returning adult fish, and allows free passage of juvenile fish downstream to Lake Sammamish.

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Officials say the release is the latest sign of progress toward kokanee recovery, including the 2012 kokanee spawning run, which was the largest in several decades.

Momentum to bring Sammamish kokanee back from the brink was also gained through key contributions from businesses Darigold and the Coho Café, non-profit organizations Trout Unlimited and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe.

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The fish released into the creek are the offspring of adult kokanee salmon collected last fall as part of an ongoing emergency hatchery supplementation project.

Lake Sammamish kokanee spend their entire lives in freshwater, before return to spawn in only a handful of streams.

The supplementation project is coordinated by the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group, which includes King County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the cities of Sammamish, Issaquah, Bellevue and Redmond, the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, Trout Unlimited, Save Lake Sammamish, Friends of Pine Lake, and additional kokanee recovery advocates.

Work Group members designed the supplementation program with the goal of preventing the loss of this native kokanee population and increasing future numbers of adult kokanee spawning in the Lake Sammamish watershed.

The hatchery supplementation program is one component of the overall kokanee recovery project developed by the Work Group, which was established in 2007 to prevent the extinction of Lake Sammamish kokanee, bring them back to robust health, and ultimately re-establish a legal kokanee fishery on the lake.

The hatchery program is funded primarily by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and implemented with the support of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and King County.

The kokanee release is one of a number of environmental activities King County is promoting during Earth Week through the “It’s Easy Being Green” campaign.

Visit King County’s website to discover a long list of green activities happening around the county and learn easy tips for saving money, conserving natural resources or improving our environment.

(Ed. Note: Information in this article was taken from a city of Sammamish news release.)


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