Fishery task force meets with Squaxin Island Tribe

Kirk Boxleitner | Mar 24, 20220

Gordon Weeks

Coulter Creek meets North Bay near Allyn on Monday.

Port of Grapeview officials received a monthly update last month on the work of the Case Inlet Fishery Task Force from task force facilitator Brad Pomroy.

The task force is supported by the Grapeview and Allyn ports, with Grapeview Commissioner Art Whitson and Allyn Commissioner Ted Jackson representing their ports.

Pomroy said the task force has spent the better part of the past year getting up to speed on salmon matters in Case Inlet and working to understand who stakeholders are.

Pomroy cited an early lesson for the group about fostering a relationship with the Squaxin Island Tribe before engaging in other activities.

Several members of the task force met with the tribe's Natural Resources Department on Feb. 2. The meeting was "very positive," Pomroy said. Peters added, "I also felt the initial meeting was successful. We appreciated the task force reaching out to us, and we look forward to working with them to consider potential solutions."

Pomroy said the tribe's Natural Resources Department was "very interested" in partnering with the task force to consider options to increase native and hatchery salmon populations in Case Inlet, which led the group to discuss looking at the future for the Coulter Creek facility, the potential of net pens for rearing smolts and salmon runs in Sherwood Creek.

During a Dec. 6 meeting of Port of Allyn commissioners, Jackson said the past quarter-century has seen no shortage of groups trying to revive salmon runs in Sherwood, Coulter and Rocky creeks, but he touted the diversity of backgrounds represented among the task force's members. He described them as having experience in "all different aspects of community involvement, education and fisheries."

In addition to the two port commissioners and Pomroy, other members of the task force include fish biologist adviser Mark LaRiviere, North Bay adviser Jim Hanson, communications adviser Robert Pastore, education adviser Thom Worlund and Harstine Island adviser Rick Witters.

Jackson and others learned the state Department of Fish and Wildlife stopped releasing fish from the Coulter Creek facility in the early 2000s.

While 2 million chinook smolts are raised at Coulter Creek each spring, the fish are not released at Coulter Creek, but are instead taken to the Tumwater facility on the Deschutes River, where they are reared to the proper age, released and ultimately return.

After what Pomroy deemed a "successful" initial meeting with the tribe's Natural Resources Department on Feb. 2, he said the task force is now ready to take additional steps, one of the first of which will be to schedule a joint meeting with the Fish Management Group within the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The plan is for members of the Case Inlet Fishery Task Force and the Squaxin Island Tribe Natural Resources Department to attend the meeting.

Pomroy said the task force also is "excited" to reach out to the rest of the community in order to get their ideas and involvement.

In addition to launching a public website "soon," the task force also plans to host booths at the Grapeview Water and Arts Show at Fair Harbor Marina on July 23 and the Allyn Days Salmon Fest and Geoduck Festival, traditionally at Allyn Waterfront Park during the third weekend in July. Further updates will appear at allyntown.com.