Thank you to all of our wonderful docent volunteers who helped make our small group tours possible this season! To those of you who joined us, we were delighted to be able to share the salmon season with you, and we look forward to seeing many more of you next year! Here’s to a good new year full of cool, flowing water, eggs, alevins, frys, fingerlings, smolts and returning adults! Keep ’em coming home!
Your Friends at FISH
The hatchery is and has been a crucial partner in the Kokanee restoration efforts. We can now celebrate the second safe transfer of Kokanee to Orcas Island to be reared. Read the latest great news!
Annual Report:
We’ve had an incredible year and are so thankful for all of the wonderful volunteers who made it possible. Check out these 2019 statistics:
Individuals reached by FISH volunteers and staff:
Farewell, Pepper!
It is said that all good things must come to an end. Such is our time with Kris “Pepper” Hambrick, our Program Coordinator, who has developed curriculum and taught classes and summer camp for the past three seasons. She is moving on to her next adventure. From the beginning, Pepper brought a spark of enthusiasm and energy. She taught us about questioning, learning and presenting styles – how to look through different lenses. Not from the “fishy” world, Pepper has brought her intelligence and inquisitive nature to the Issaquah Hatchery. In good weather, we would find her enjoying lunch outside by the stream, doing hatchery historical research, reading the latest salmon book or article and, in turn, sharing the new information with us. She integrated that breadth of knowledge, and excitement, into her classroom visits and presentations. She will be missed! We will be following her as she boldly goes where no one has gone before. Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning!
Best of luck Pepper!
Your FISH friends
Thank you to everyone who supported FISH during the incredible 50th Salmon Days Festival! Here are some numbers to celebrate:
Today members of third and fourth grade classes from Issaquah Valley, Blackwell, and Arrowhead elementary schools joined us at Confluence Park for a day of education, restoration, and fun! Under the auspices of the Kokanee Work Group, participants included FISH, the Snoqualmie Cultural Department, Mountains to Sound Greenway, Trout Unlimited, Triangle Associates, City of Sammamish, City of Issaquah, Mid-sound Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife, Gibson Ek High School, and concerned citizens. Students learned about invasive weed removal, mulching, salmon anatomy, river dynamics, traditional rope and net-making, water quality stewardship, and how to toss kokanee into culverts. We were also honored to share songs with the drummers from the Snoqualmie Tribe and Chief Andy. Thanks to everyone who made this day a success students will remember for a long time!
Sometimes it may feel like we’re toiling in obscurity over here at the hatchery, but this year brings a reminder that per City of Issaquah Resolution 93-15, the Issaquah Creek/Salmon Run and the Salmon Hatchery are numbers 1 and 2 on the list of treasures that make up part of the city’s work plan for 2019. These treasures were determined by a year-long, open community process that solicited input on those features of the community that make it special and unique. This will bring renewed attention to the hatchery and its operations from both officials and the public, a well-deserved recognition for all the work we do and a reminder that these treasures are important not only to us, but the community at large.
David St. John of the Kokanee Work Group shared an update about Remote Site Incubators:
“I am happy to share that we now have eggs in the gravel in the egg boxes on Zackuse Creek and Idylwood Creek! These RSIs are a key element of our recovery strategy, as we look to recolonize streams and improve the survival rates of offspring from fish coming through our supplementation program. Through WDFW’s genetics lab in Olympia, we have concluded (just in time) with high confidence that the eggs in the RSIs (and the supplementation program as whole) 1) are the progeny of native Lake Sammamish kokanee and 2) are not the result of sibling matings, which is a bit of good news. We expect this first batch of eggs to hatch in the next week or so.”
