Commentary: A salmon’s incredible journey through Edmonds and how you can help

Pavi Chance

In downtown Edmonds, many residents have creeks running through their yards. Trickling down from natural springs in the earth, they all lead to the Puget Sound. These creeks do much to improve the beauty of a homeowner’s property, but as Edmonds resident Jenny Anttila found out recently, they can prove valuable in other ways, too.

Last fall, while clearing debris away from the rebar installed at the end of the stretch of Shellabarger Creek that runs through her yard on its way to the Edmonds Marsh and, ultimately, Puget Sound, Jenny was startled to find a fish trapped among the leaves. The rebar had done its job of preventing leaves from clogging the culvert into which the stream feeds, but in doing so it had inadvertently put an end to this fish’s upstream journey. Jenny touched the fish, surprised to find it was still alive, but it slithered from her hands and into the creek, its tail thrashing audibly against the sides of the culvert as it slipped back downstream.

What makes this story really interesting is that Jenny believes this fish was a Coho salmon. While Coho salmon were once common in Edmonds streams, a number of factors have prevented them from thriving as they once did. Over time, the population of Edmonds has increased along with the prevalence of artificial products such as oil and gasoline from vehicles, soap, pesticides, herbicides, much of it draining into streams and storm drains, which make their way to Puget Sound. This creates an environment toxic to a variety of wildlife, including salmon. As development continued, many natural streams were channeled through culverts and often homeowners landscaped streams with concrete and rocks, unknowingly making it difficult for fish to survive. This is problematic for salmon, because inside culverts it’s often too dark for them to see where they’re going, thus preventing them from traveling upstream. You can imagine how difficult it would for a salmon to navigate long dark passages, like this one amazingly did.

Excited by her finding, Jenny phoned the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to tell them what she’d seen and with their information she assumed it was a Coho. She asked if anyone else had made any calls reporting salmon sightings, but no one had. Jenny then proceeded to email Teresa Wippel, the editor of My Edmonds News. Teresa forwarded the email to Val Stewart, an Edmonds Planning Board member and founder of Students Saving Salmon, an environmental organization at Edmonds-Woodway High School working to restore and preserve local salmon habitat.

The high school became involved in local environmental preservation in the 1970s, when John Cooke, then a high school biology teacher, began bringing classes of students to the Edmonds Marsh to teach them about ecology. However, Cooke and the students soon became aware of the ways in which the roughly 100-acre estuary had changed from its original state, where saltwater from the Puget Sound and freshwater from the local streams that feed it mingled to create a uniquely significant habitat — serving as a source of food, refuge and a breeding ground for many types of wildlife. Realizing how far the health of the marsh had declined as a result of development and prior uses, Cooke and the students joined together, gathering information and working to convince lawmakers to take the actions necessary to ensure the Marsh’s continued existence and begin the long road to cleaning it up.

Now Students Saving Salmon is working to continue the legacy of John Cooke and his students. Much of their work thus far has been geared toward helping restore healthy marsh habitat, preparing comments to the City Council encouraging them to vote on zoning regulations that won’t damage the marsh’s delicate ecosystems, and participating in marsh clean-up projects.

So when Val Stewart told the group about Jenny Anttila’s sighting, they were excited and arranged a date to meet with Jenny Antilla to discuss her finding and its implications. On a warm afternoon at the end of January, three representatives from Students Saving Salmon and Joe Scordino, a NOAA fisheries expert, met with Jenny, who told them that this was the first time in the 29 years she’s lived there that she had seen a salmon in the narrow Shellabarger Creek. But if one considers the number of obstacles a salmon would have to surmount to make it to Jenny’s front yard, this is quite incredible.

First, the salmon had to find the underwater 48-inch pipe opening in the intertidal area of Marina Beach. From there, it had to swim through a 1,275-foot-long pipe that travels underneath the beach, the parking area, and the road, through a tide gate open only between April and September. After passing through the tide gate, the salmon had to enter a culvert that took it under the BNSF railroad tracks into a channel and the Edmonds Marsh. Then, it had to journey through the marsh until it found the opening to the culvert that took it beneath the four-lane SR 104 Highway and into the area of the marsh east of the highway. After doing so, it had to travel up Shellabarger Creek, passing through the culvert underneath Third Avenue, through the 500-foot pipe between 4th and 5th Avenue under the IGA store and parking lot, through the pipes and culverts between the end of Homeland Drive and 6th Avenue, and finally through the culvert beneath 6th and 7th Avenue South that empties into the portion of Shellabarger Creek that runs through Jenny’s yard.

Stories like this are evidence of the tenacity of nature, demonstrating how the instinctual desire that drives a salmon to travel upstream to breed can be strong enough to overcome the challenges that humans have presented it with. But our impact on the natural world doesn’t have to be harmful. Currently, efforts are being made to mitigate the negative effects of Edmonds’ urbanization. The Edmonds City Council is considering a proposal to daylight Willow Creek, which runs through the Marsh, along with Shellabarger Creek. This means the creek would be released from the 1,600-foot pipe in which it is currently enclosed. In doing so, this would enable fish to travel up the creeks, which serve as spawning grounds as well as refuges for juvenile salmon (including the endangered Chinook salmon). Daylighting the creek would additionally allow for better water flow throughout the marsh, helping reduce the heavy flooding known to affect Edmonds in heavy rain.

But Edmonds citizens don’t have to be on the city council to make a difference. Anyone can now report past or present sightings of salmon or cutthroat trout in local streams by emailing EdmondsSalmon@yahoo.com with the date and location of the sighting, as well as a description of the fish. This information will be entered into a student-run database along with other sightings to help people gain a greater understanding of how Edmonds is progressing towards restoring salmon populations. We could also start a “Salmon Watchers” program, like the one in King County.

Even if you don’t see a salmon, there are other ways you can help. Write to the City Council, voicing your support for the plan to daylight Willow Creek, and encourage them to take all legal action and secure funding necessary to ensure the continued health of the Edmonds Marsh, Edmonds creeks, and their inhabitants.

And as Jenny told the student representatives who came to speak to her, every small change makes a difference – not just salmon, but for the Earth which we all inhabit. It might be an uphill journey, but as salmon have shown us, if we persevere, we can accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Pavi Chance is a junior at Edmonds-Woodway High School, where she plays on the tennis team and works with Students Saving Salmon to protect local wildlife habitats. She has lived in Edmonds since she was 7.

 

 

  1. Fantastic story, Pavi! Thanks for sharing this with our community. I’m incredibly impressed with the passion and drive of the Students Saving Salmon group. A huge thanks to you and your fellow EWHS peers, Val Stewart and Joe Scordino.

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