Creeks – Edmonds Environmental Council

Shell Creek Waterfall Fish Blockage

By Dave Teitzel
September 29, 2019

General information

Shell Creek is a natural, spring-fed creek that originates near the eastern boundary of Yost Park, a large city-owned park in Edmonds, Washington that has been preserved in a largely natural state.

Edmonds Stream Inventory and Assessment

July 29, 2002
Pentec Environmental

The attached report was prepared for the City of Edmonds to establish baseline information on stream conditions in order to support work toward meeting National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and ESA requirements. This report covers all of the appropriate significant streams under the City’s jurisdiction.

Baby salmon head out to sea. Then they do something unexpected, new research shows

April 30, 2025
By Lynda V. Mapes
Seattle Times environment reporter

Link to Seattle Times article

Coho salmon smolts are collected in a fish trap as researchers assess local salmon populations in an Olympic Peninsula stream. (Karrie Hanson)

Who knew that baby salmon were such explorers?

The long-held understanding that baby salmon emerge from the streams where they hatched to head out to sea actually is missing a far more complex story — and a far more interesting one, scientists explain in a new paper.

Scene in Edmonds: Salmon fry released in Yost Park

Posted: April 13, 2025
My Edmonds News

Link to article

Edmonds Stream Team’s Maya LaBelle, Emma Roberts and Maija Jinneman net baby salmon from the Willow Creek Salmon Hatchery.

Coho fry released in Shell Creek

On Saturday, April 12th, Megan Moran from Sound Salmon Solutions and Joe Scordino released several thousand Coho fry with the help of volunteers and local residents. These “baby” salmon were released in Yost Park near Olympic Avenue and near Holy Rosary parish in Edmonds.
It was great fun.

Here are a few photos:

Student volunteers release coho frye into Shell creek near Holy Rosary in Edmonds — Student volunteers release coho frye into Shell creek

Joe Scordino describing the release process Yost parl — Student volunteers release coho frye into Shell creek

Coho fry released into Shell creek

Yost Park: Volunteers help save Shell Creek salmon

Posted Sunday, April 13, 2025
By Joe Scordino, Stream Team Project Leader

A large crowd gathered at Yost Park to help release several salmon at a time. They used clear cups so everyone could see the baby salmon. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)

Link to Edmonds Beacon aticle

Edmonds Rotary, Perrinville neighbors help repopulate streams with salmon

by Joe Scordino
April 7th, 2025

Volunteers used a “bucket brigade” to get coho babies down to Perrinville Creek. (Photos courtesy Joe Scordino)

Edmonds Hearing Examiner decides on Perrinville Creek saga

The examiner revoked the city’s Determination of Non-Significance, forcing Edmonds to address infrastructure issues on the creek

By by Eliza Aronson
Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Perrinville creek diversion structures and blockage

Link to Everett Herald article

EDMONDS — The city of Edmonds has work to do on Perrinville Creek.

On Friday, City Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts decided city staff must address safety issues about a corroded pipe that connects the last few hundred feet of stream to Puget Sound, and consequently restore fish passage along the lower portion of the creek.

Letter to the editor: A request to continue Edmonds Marsh work

By William Alexander
March 30, 2025
My Edmonds News

Editor’s note: This letter to Mayor Mike Rosen is being republished here at the author’s request. We did ask the city last week if they had a response but so far have not received one.

Dear Mayor Rosen:

Scientists discover ‘potential breakthrough’ in protecting salmon from urban killer

March 28, 2025 at 6:00 am

By Amanda Zhou
Seattle Times staff reporter

For decades, toxic tire dust has choked coho salmon before they can spawn in their natal streams. Now, King County scientists say they have made a “potential breakthrough” in how to save them.

Western Washington University student researchers split a sample of treated stormwater into smaller amounts for analysis. (Courtesy of Curtis Hinman)

Link to Seattle Time article

Bolstering Shell Creek’s salmon population

By Joe Scordino
For the Beacon

Posted 3/20/25

The Edmonds Stream Team released 5,000 baby chum salmon into lower Shell Creek on Monday. The Suquamish Tribe donated the salmon fry to help the community effort to bolster salmon populations in local creeks that flow directly to Puget Sound.

This item is available in full to Beacon subscribers.

**Sandra Centala helps carry aerated buckets loaded with chum salmon fry donated by Suquamish Tribe for release in Shell Creek. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Stream Team)**

Examiner to decide route of Perrinville Creek

by Eliza Aronson
Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Closing arguments were submitted last week in a hearing that could determine if the creek will be passable for salmon in the next three years.

Press release: Bolstering Shell Creek’s Salmon Population

By Joe Scordino, Project Leader
Edmonds Stream Team
March 12, 2025

Photos by Clint Wright, Joe Scordino, and John Brock

Reported in My Edmonds News

Sandra Centala helping carry aerated buckets loaded with Chum salmon fry donated by Suquamish Tribe for release in Shell creek

The Edmonds Stream Team released 5,000 “baby” chum salmon into lower Shell Creek on Monday. These chum salmon “fry” were donated by the Suquamish Tribe to help the community effort to bolster salmon populations in local creeks that flow directly to Puget Sound.

The State of Edmonds Waters: Part 2 — Edmonds streams

Posted: February 2, 2025
By Bill Derry

Edmonds resident Bill Derry is the president of the Pilchuck Audubon Society and a member of the Edmonds Marsh Estuary Advocates. He previously served six years on the board of directors for People for Puget Sound.

Part 2 of a 5-part series. You can read part 1 here.

In the first article on Edmonds’ waters, I discussed what happens when old growth forests are replaced by development and rain becomes contaminated stormwater runoff. This article looks specifically at Edmonds’ streams and how our choices are changing them.

Edmonds has four streams that could support salmon, in addition to several smaller streams (see map below). The four salmon streams are Willow, Shellabarger, Shell and Perrinville Creeks, all of which drain toward Puget Sound.

Stream Team report: Record number of salmon in Shell Creek

Posted Sunday, January 12, 2025 6:12 pm

By Joe Scordino
Edmonds Stream Team

Maija Jinneman observing a female chum salmon protecting her eggs laid in the gravel. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Meadowdale High students – Maija Jinneman, Aspen Spivey, Maya LaBelle, Emma Roberts. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Meadowdale Beach Park visitors responded to this sign with photos and videos. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Edge of this bridge was modified to provide a salmon passage channel after the underside of the bridge was blocked by sediment, (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Avery Bergan helps salmon passage in her backyard by clearing debris that washed into creek during rainstorm. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
High scchool students collecting data on stream conditions and salmon .occurrence. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)
Maya LaBelle examining a chum salmon that died before it could lay its eggs in the creek. This “pre-spawn mortality’ may have been caused by toxic tire dust (6PPDq) that enters the creek through storm drains on roads.

There’s good news coming from the Edmonds Stream Team after completion of its annual adult salmon surveys last month in Edmonds’ Shell Creek and Lund’s Gulch Creek in Meadowdale Beach Park.

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