Salmon swim above Toutle River retention dam for first time since 1980
COLDWATER LAKE - For the first time since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, spring chinook salmon are once again swimming above the sediment retention dam on the North Fork Toutle River.
About 70 people - including elected officials, leaders of environmental groups, and representatives from state and federal agencies - gathered near Coldwater Lake on Wednesday to witness the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife return spring chinook to the river.
"We come together to witness a sacred moment: the return of salmon to waters where their ancestors once traveled freely. Our people have always known that salmon are much more than a resource," Tanna Engdahl, spiritual leader for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, told the crowd.
Engdahl said the Cowlitz tribe has had a sacred agreement to protect salmon since the beginning of time.
"The salmon people came before the creator and said, 'We will give ourselves so that the two-legged may live. We will return year after year and feed them, and we'll help them survive.' In return, the Cowlitz promised the same," she said.
The Mount St. Helens eruption released a staggering 3.3 billion cubic yards of debris. The sediment clogged the Toutle, Cowlitz and Columbia rivers. Even today, the mountain continues to release about 5 million cubic yards of sediment annually.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a structure on the North Fork Toutle River in 1989 to trap some of the sediment flowing off the mountain. But the sediment retention structure, known as SRS, also blocked upstream river access for native salmon.
"Since that time, coho salmon and steelhead have been trapped and hauled around the SRS. However, chinook salmon have not been moved upstream for about 40 years," said Toby Harbison, a research scientist with Fish & Wildlife.
Large hatcheries usually release fish from a tanker truck with a chute. In this case, workers carried the salmon - each 4 to 5 years old and weighing from 10 to 30 pounds - by hand in specially designed bags to nearby Coldwater Creek.
With assistance from Kris Warner, a hatchery biologist with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, each salmon was removed from the bag - one hand under the tail and one under the head - and placed in the creek. While some slipped silently below the surface of the water and disappeared, others slapped and splashed as they escaped into the creek.
"They will distribute throughout the watershed and find suitable spawning habit, with any luck," Warner said.
From Coldwater Creek, Warner said, the spring chinook will travel downstream along the Toutle River and eventually head out to sea. After spending an average of two to four years in the ocean, the salmon will try to return to their spawning grounds. Because of the sediment dam, returning upstream requires assistance from Fish & Wildlife staff.
A weir between the mouth of the Toutle River and the sediment structure collects the salmon so Fish & Wildlife can trap and haul them.
Releasing the spring chinook wouldn't have happened without the collaboration of several state and federal agencies, and it is part of a larger story, said Dusty Vaughn, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
"Just as Mount St. Helens has become a global symbol of ecological resilience and recovery, the return of salmon represents another important step in restoring the natural processes that have shaped this landscape," he said.
Vaughn also thanked the researchers who will continue to study Wednesday's reintroduction. This research, he said, will ensure that the knowledge gained here informs future conservation efforts.
Fish & Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind said continuing the collaboration that made Wednesday's salmon release a success will be essential moving forward. Working separately, Washington won't be able to meet the monumental task of recovering salmon, he said, adding that cooperation is the only hope.
"Salmon restoration is Pacific Northwest restoration. It is our identity. It is our culture. It provides our economy, and it feeds our souls. It's in our DNA," he said. "Salmon is not just a fish. It's who we are."
This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.
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