Author Archives: eoconnell

Millie Judge, keynote speaker

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We’re recording Milly’s talk, but here are some quick notes. Just a reminder, you can watch the live-stream all day at this link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/southsoundscience

From the talk:

  • Are some areas of improvement. There is more to be done and habitat is still the driver.
  • Forest cover continues to decline. Where development happens, habitat declines.
  • If we don’t get a handle on habitat, especially forest cover, we aren’t going to get to salmon restoration.
  • Despite the best shoreline regulations in the nation, we’re still seeing declines in shoreline habitat. This is true outside of shoreline protection.
  • Funding for salmon recovery projects is even too low. We’re hitting a ceiling. Only 31 percent of the funding we actually need. Its actually a $1 billion project.
  • Funders like funding projects, not people or capacity to “do the work.” You can’t develop projects without people to do the work. So the bottleneck in restoration is people, not project money.
  • The problem with the growth management act is that is always plans for growth. There’s never an “enough is enough” step that creates shortages and forces people to move elsewhere.
  • Scientists should keep on saying what’s going on. Its hard when the status quo is criticized. She was told that if she criticized funding, it would be cut off. She doesn’t buy that.
  • We need to do a better job influencing people who hold the purse strings.

From the Q&A:

1. Can we redirect litigation funds to restoration funds? The idea behind the growth management hearing board is that it wasn’t supposed to be a legal process. But, it turned out to be a legal process.

2. In response to a question about possibly cutting operational funding, Judge says that one of the major things we do is outreach to legislators.

3. Do you agree that legislators don’t want to hear science, as opposed to what impacts people in their districts? Yes, unless its a crisis, the lawmakers want to hear good stories. Hire wonks.

Johns Creek conditions after the Powerline 2 fire

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Joe Puhn, resource technician with the tribe, walks through the burn area near Johns Creek. View more photos here: http://go.nwifc.org/creekfire

Earthfix has the news on the aftermath of the Powerline 2 fire on the Johns Creek watershed:

“The fire burned all the way down to the water,” says John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe. “It’s in a steep ravine and you look up the hillside and all you see is all this ash, this blanket of ash. It looks like a snowstorm actually.”

There’s rain expected this weekend. That could be bad news for the tens of thousands of summer run chum salmon that are spawning in the creek right now.

Konovsky worries that the ash will irritate their gills and smother the eggs.

History of the Deschutes River Estuary available

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How the Deschutes River estuary came to be dammed in the 1950s has been a heated topic locally the last few years. A history of the local efforts to dam the estuary and create Capitol Lake is now available.

The history covers the time from just after statehood when the first dam was proposed to just after World War II when the funding for Capitol Lake became available. The piece refutes the position that the lake was entirely inspired by the “City Beautiful” design of Wilder and White in the 1911 proposal for the capitol campus.

History of the Deschutes Estuary, 1895 to 1948:
Google docs format
PDF format

Also available is the total works cited for the history
Works cited
Other related materials

Finding low summer flows on the Deschutes

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The Squaxin Island Tribe is conducting a season long study to find out when the Deschutes’ flows get low:

In order to establish how much water salmon need to survive during the summer months, the Squaxin Island Tribe is starting a lengthy examination of streamflow in the Deschutes River. “We want to look at the relationship between flows and salmon habitat,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the tribe. “As flows decrease, available habitat also decreases. We’re trying to identify the point when that lack of flow and habitat becomes critical for juvenile salmon survival.”

The end result of the tribe’s research will be set of minimum flow targets or standards for the watershed between April and December. A state-adopted standard would mean that if flows drop beneath the minimum, the state can take corrective action to bring flows back up. The state set a minimum flow standard over 30 years ago for the winter months, but didn’t address summer flows.

A historical analysis by the tribe shows that in recent decades summer flows have gotten lower and winter and spring floods more frequent and larger. The analysis points to an increase in impervious surfaces and a loss of forest cover as prime causes of the change in hydrology. Those changes have decreased flow during the summer months by at least 20 percent.

Read the entire piece here.

Working together to make sure shellfish stay safe to harvest

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The Squaxin Island Tribe and Mason County are forming a new partnership to protect one of the most productive shellfish growing areas in the world. The new working relationship will manage an enhanced Pollution Identification and Correction (PIC) program, as part of the state’s recently announced Shellfish Initiative.

“The enhanced program will bring a new emphasis to making sure cleaned up areas stay clean,” said John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the tribe. The tribe will monitor water quality after corrective actions are taken to make sure they’re working and continue to work. Corrective actions may be implemented through voluntary compliance or, as necessary, enforcement against polluters who fail to cooperate.

“We’re going to work with landowners to make sure they clean up pollution, and we’re going to keep on going back to trouble spots to make sure they stay clean,” Konovsky said.

The waters of Oakland Bay and the rest of South Sound are much more sensitive to pollution than the remainder of Puget Sound. “Our community must be more diligent than most in keeping waste out of the water if we are to continue to have the opportunity to harvest shellfish,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources manager for the tribe.

The shorelines of Mason County are among the most productive shellfish growing areas in the world. For example, 40 percent of the country’s manila clam production is from Oakland Bay.

Shellfish are also a large part of the tribe’s culture and economy. More than 20 percent of Squaxin Island tribal members make part or all of their income from harvesting shellfish.

“The Squaxin Island Tribe has always had natural resources, and especially shellfish, at the center of our economic and cultural way of life,” Whitener said. “Pollution that prevents us from being able to harvest is a direct threat to our treaty-reserved rights to shellfish.”

The Mason County Commissioners and the Squaxin Island Tribal Council will sign the inter-local agreement at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29th at the Squaxin Museum in Kamilche. All are invited to attend.

(END)

For more information, contact: John Konovsky, environmental program manager, Squaxin Island Tribe, (360) 432-3804. Emmett O’Connell, information officer, (360) 528-4325, eoconnell@nwifc.org

Squaxin Island Tribe, Capitol Land Trust, LOTT work together to protect habitat

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The Squaxin Island Tribe and the Capitol Land Trust are hoping to purchase and protect an important piece of forestland between Henderson and Budd inlets as part of a joint effort to restore and protect habitat between the two south Sound inlets.

“In total, we would protect almost 60 acres,” said John Konovsky, resource protection manager for the Squaxin Island Tribe. “Most importantly, the property contains more than 10 acres of a vital 70 acre wetland.”

The purchase will largely be funded by a grant the tribe received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The balance of the funding would come the LOTT Clean Water Alliance, the local wastewater utility.

Protecting the forestland and shoreline between Budd and Henderson inlets is a high priority for both the tribe and the land trust because the area is relatively undeveloped. “Since this area is so close to an expanding urban center, it’s important to protect as much as possible before it is destroyed by development,” Konovsky said.

In addition to land purchases, the partnership could also lead to habitat restoration projects, such as culvert removals.

The unique partnership between the tribe and the land trust is key. “The tribe has expertise with research and directly managing natural resources, while the land trust has worked with hundreds of landowners to protect important areas” Konvosky said. “The tribe and the trust have a long-time working relationship.”

The Squaxin Island Tribe has been studying deep South Sound for decades and recently completed a habitat assessment of Budd Inlet, where the tribe has been monitoring juvenile salmon populations.

“Protecting and restoring habitat is the single most important thing we can do to restore salmon and to bring Puget Sound back to health,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the tribe. “Restoring salmon and repairing Puget Sound is a massive undertaking. It’s great that we have been able to find partners in the community to help us out.”

“Protecting our treaty-reserved right to harvest depends on a healthy ecosystem, we appreciate the support we get from our neighbors,” Whitener said.

The myth of the connection between Wilder and White and Capitol Lake

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The creation of what we now know as Capitol Lake was not the natural outgrowth of a landscaping plan for the Capitol Campus. Rather, it was the result of a decades-long lobbying effort by local businessmen, politicians and city-fathers to create an appealing water feature and “scrape the moss off” Olympia.

Recently, lake defenders have distorted the origin story of Capitol Lake for use as a cloak of legacy. The defenders of the lake present the argument that the Wilder and White plan for the campus was the origin of the lake idea. This position is wrong. They claim that restoring the estuary would disparage our own history. The true origins of Capitol Lake inform not only our misunderstanding of local history, but also how we move forward with the future of the lake and the Deschutes River estuary.

The initial campus plan called for a modest reflecting pool, but it was a group of prominent Olympia citizens that suggested creating a much larger lake by impounding the Deschutes River with a dam running east-to-west. This more drastic proposal was not embraced by the State Capitol Commission and was immediately rejected.
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