Several thousand baby coho salmon from the Willow Creek Salmon Hatchery in Edmonds were released into local streams on Saturday.
Imogen and Adelia ready to release baby salmon into Willo Creek. (Photo by Emily Benson)
This hatchery has raised salmon since the mid-1980s, and in recent years, under management by Sound Salmon Solutions, has focused on re-introducing and bolstering coho salmon populations in Edmonds’ streams, such as Shell Creek, Perrinville Creek, Willow Creek, Shellabarger Creek, Lunds Gulch Creek and Northstream Creek.
Adelia Benson with her cup of baby salmon.
Releases of baby coho salmon (called ‘salmon fry’) into local streams now involve volunteers of all ages to promote public engagement in enhancement of the quality stream habitat that these fish need to survive.
Saturday was no different with adults, students, and young families helping release the salmon fry into Shell Creek in Yost Park and into Willow Creek next to the Hatchery.
Imogen carefully releases her salmon.Hatchery Manage Megan Moran scoops salmon into cups.Fry are off and running, er, swimming.
The Edmonds City Council at its Tuesday, April 28 business meeting will consider a $383,456 amendment to consultant contract for the second phase of a flow reduction study in the Perrinville drainage basin.
The city has been working for years to develop strategies to control flooding on Perrinville Creek between Talbot Road and Puget Sound. A flow reduction study in 2015 resulted in a list of recommendations, from drainage improvements to a municipal raingarden program.
The City of Lynnwood, which sends stormwater runoff to the basin, is partnering with the Edmonds on the project. Both cities were awarded a $469,200 state Department of Ecology grant toward this effort to analyze the problem, which requires $82,800 in local matching funds from Edmonds and Lynnwood. The grant and matching funds are split bet
According to the staff agenda memo regarding this item, the grant and matching funds are split between the two cities. The amendment to the professional services agreement is $383,456 and includes a $20,455 management reserve, the memo states.
“In 2024, Edmonds and Lynnwood entered into an interlocal agreement and contracted Herrera Environmental Consultants to provide design services for the study update, the memo says. “Phase 1 of the study update involved a review of the recommended projects and planning level design and estimating work of new projects. Projects were rated based on criteria including impact on flows, constructability and cost effectiveness.”
The contract’s second phase “will include a more in-depth analysis, including geotechnical investigations for the sites that include mitigation via infiltration, for the 10 highest-scoring flow reduction projects from first phase of the study update. Once the analysis is completed, the project rankings will be reassessed and the consultant will provide conceptual design for the six highest-scoring sites.”
Other items on the council agenda include:
2025 Prosecutor’s Office Annual Report
2025 Public Defender’s Office Annual Report
The council will also hear an update from Police Chief Loi Dawkins on the public safety sales tax.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave. N., Edmonds. You can also access the meeting remotely at this Zoom link. Or listen by phone at +1 253 215 8782. The meeting ID is 957 9848 4261.
A student releasing salmon one cup at a time. (Photos courtesy Joe Scordino)
Fourth graders from St Thomas More School in Lynnwood were enthralled this week to release 100 coho salmon babies that they had successfully raised from eggs in their school aquarium, according Edmonds Stream Team leader Joe Scordino.
As part of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Salmon in Schools program (now called School Cooperative Program), the Edmonds Stream Team obtained 100 coho salmon eggs in January from WDFW’s Issaquah Hatchery and delivered them to the fourth graders’ aquarium at St. Thomas More School.
The students raised 100 coho salmon babies from eggs in their school aquarium.The St. Thomas More fourth-grade class with their salmon in a transport bucket.
Raising baby salmon has been a special part of being in 4th grade at St. Thomas More School for many years, Scordino said. The students learn about the life cycle of salmon and the importance of healthy streams where these fish live — and get to actually see salmon eggs hatch and transition from the “alevin” stage (with a yolk sac) to the “fry” stage when they begin feeding in the aquarium.
“Over 500 schools in Washington have participated in the Salmon in Schools program, and it no longer surprises me when a young adult will tell me they still remember the joy of having a salmon aquarium at their school,” Scordino said.
Edmonds Stream Team leader Joe Scordino, right, watches as a student gets ready to release a baby salmon into Willow Creek.
“This year was especially exciting for St. Thomas More in that the fourth graders, with the help of teacher Kari Hopper, made sure all of the 100 salmon eggs hatched and became salmon fry that were then carefully released into Willow Creek — no mortalities,” Scordino added.
It’s now that time of year when the Edmonds Stream Team and Sound Salmon Solutions are working with community volunteers to place ‘baby’ coho salmon from the Willow Creek Salmon Hatchery in Edmonds into local creeks. The 2- to 3-month-old ‘baby’ coho (called salmon ‘fry’) will bolster local populations whose habitat has been affected by development and stormwater.
At Perrinville Creek, neighborhood families, along with students from Meadowdale High School, helped release 4,000 coho salmon fry into the upper creek (near the Perrinville Post Office).At Shellabarger Creek along the Hwy 104 Marsh Restoration Project, members of the Edmonds Rotary Club and restoration volunteers captured 1,000 coho salmon fry from the Hatchery pond and released them into the restored, re-opened creek (previously enmeshed with invasive bittersweet nightshade).
Next Sunday, March 29, 5,000 coho fry will be released into Lunds Gulch Creek in Meadowdale Beach Park around 10:00am near the wood bridge (visitors are welcome to watch). On May 16, Sound Salmon Solutions will release 3,500 coho into Shell Creek in Yost Park (see SSS website).
The two-inch coho salmon fry will spend their first year of life in freshwater streams and then go out to sea where they’ll grow into 2-foot+ adult salmon. Then in fall of 2028, the survivors will return to freshwater streams as spawning adult salmon to create future salmon generations. The adult spawners will return to the creeks where they were born, or in the case of these fry to the creeks that they lived in (and imprinted to) prior to going out to sea. Unfortunately, for the Perrinville Creek salmon, they won’t be able to return unless the blockage the City placed in 2021 is removed (for detail on the blockage see 7/15/25 My Edmonds News article on the Edmonds Environmental Council’s complaint about the City’s illegal diversion structures).
The community salmon enhancement program is authorized under Cooperative Agreements between the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, the Edmonds Stream Team, and Sound Salmon Solutions.
Joe Scordino, Project Leader Edmonds Stream Team Edmonds.Envir.Council@gmail.com
The Edmonds Stream Team is a community all-volunteer Citizen Science project to monitor and improve the condition of Edmonds creeks and nearshore wetlands to enhance salmon and wildlife populations (and benefit people who appreciate preservation of our natural resources)
The Edmonds City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 6 in Edmonds, Washington. (Will Geschke / The Herald)
EVERETT — The Edmonds City Council unanimously approved a moratorium on development near Deer Creek on Tuesday following code changes that have raised difficulties for processing permits.
Increasing concerns surround PFAS in products from wastewater treatment plants. How great a risk do they pose, and are there feasible approaches to removing them? We continue our occasional series on water quality and wastewater management in Puget Sound. Funding for the series is provided in part by King County.
Ecology’s current work to address 6PPD and 6PPD-quinone (6PPDQ) is highlighted below. This update includes current agency actions. Contact us at 6PPD@ecy.wa.gov.
Momentum Builds for Solutions to Tire Wear Pollution: Last month, Ecology hosted a virtual 6PPD State of the Science Forum, connecting researchers, policy practitioners, and partners from across the globe to share knowledge and accelerate progress.
Since 2015, Puget Soundkeeper has monitored coho salmon health in Seattle’s Longfellow Creek, producing data on the impacts of urban pollution on salmon survival. For years, Longfellow Creek has been the epicenter of research studying the effects of 6PPD-quinone — a toxic tire chemical lethal to coho salmon.
According to a Puget Soundkeeper news release, exposure to 6PPD-quinone causes a condition called Urban Runoff Mortality Syndrome (URMS), a disease characterized by symptoms such as disorientation and gasping for air, often killing coho within 24 hours. Furthermore, this chemical has been strongly linked to Pre-Spawn Mortality (PSM), where adult salmon die before successfully reproducing, the news release said.
Puget Soundkeeper’s annual Pre-Spawn Mortality Surveyanalyzes the spawning success of coho salmon in Longfellow Creek to better understand the impacts of 6PPD-quinone. From October through December, trained volunteers count and dissect returning coho salmon, particularly assessing the presence of eggs and milt to determine whether spawning was successful.
Results from the 2025 study show that 55.5% of coho salmon died before spawning. This aligns with data collected since 2015, which shows that 49-90% of returning salmon die before reproducing each year.
“This level of pre-spawn mortality is devastating,” said Ewan Henderson, clean water program specialist at Puget Soundkeeper. “The dramatic reduction in successful spawning opportunities is a huge blow to our ecosystems, particularly for our resident orcas who already face major challenges as their food sources dwindle.”
According to the press release, Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) projects, such as rain gardens or bioswales, can effectively remove toxins from runoff and prevent harmful chemicals from entering local waters. In addition to GSI projects, a bill (HB 2421) aimed at removing 6PPD from tires was introduced to the Washington State House and Senate Environment Committees last week.
Puget Soundkeeper will be recruiting the next cohort of salmon surveyors in August. More information will be made available on their website.
Councilmember Susan Paine, center, makes a point about the critical areas ordinance during a Q&A with staff Tuesday night.
Key takeaways:
Michelle Dotsch elected council president, Jenna Nand selected president pro tem.
Numerous residents testify in support of a measure they say would better protect the Deer Creek critical aquifer recharge area (CARA) — and council approves it 4-3.
Councilmembers sworn in and last year’s council president gets a sendoff.
Council votes to increase the city’s transportation impact fees.
EDMONDS — The Edmonds Environmental Council and Olympic View Water & Sewer District have raised concerns regarding revisions to the city’s Critical Areas Ordinance, warning that a delay in updating policy surrounding underground stormwater wells could cause the city drinking water to become contaminated.
On July 18, 2025, the Edmonds Environmental Council (EEC) hosted a workshop at the Port of Edmonds to discuss how the organization should engage with the City of Edmonds. Participants expressed concern that the City was not adequately advancing the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) update required by the end of 2025. Based on that discussion, the EEC decided to engage constructively.
We have a serious human health issue brewing in Edmonds at the Deer Creek CARA (Critical Aquifer Recharge Area), which provides drinking water to south Edmonds, Woodway, and Esperance. The issue is accommodating potential development instead of avoiding contaminating our drinking water with PFAS – a pervasive, forever chemical known to have serious human health effects.
Believe it or not, the City actually wants to allow new development to inject potentially toxic stormwater (containing forever chemicals, PFAS, carcinogenic pollutants, etc.) into the Deer Creek drinking water Aquifer.
