Edmonds Stream Team – Edmonds Environmental Council

St. Thomas More fourth graders release baby salmon into Willow Creek

April 18, 2026

*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.

Stream Team helps bring salmon back to Edmonds

March 25, 2026
By Joe Scordino

PRESS RELEASE Bringing Salmon Back to Edmonds Download

Link to My Edmonds News article
Link to Edmonds Beacon article

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)

Stream Team volunteers at work at Edmonds Marsh

Posted Thursday, August 21, 2025

By Beacon Staff

From left: Joe Scordino, Seth Zeon, Eric Monroe, Aiden Curran, Bob Seidensticker, Janelle Cass, John Brock, Heather Marks, Dianna Maish, Chris Walton, Belinda Hughes, and Sally Jo Sebring. Not pictured: Nancy Scordino and Mason Hughes. (Photo courtesy Joe Scordino)

Link to Edmonds Beacon article

The Edmonds Marsh restoration volunteers were hard at work last week, spreading wood chips to prevent regrowth of invasive nightshade.

Scene in Edmonds: Marsh restoration volunteers back to work

July 26, 2025

Link to My Edmonds News article

The Edmonds Marsh Restoration Volunteers were back at the reopened Shellabarger Creek along Highway 104 Saturday controlling invasive vegetation using wood chips. The volunteers are working under a new four-year Adopt-A-Highway Landscaping Agreement between the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Edmonds Stream Team. The agreement supports continued community volunteer efforts to control invasive vegetation in the Edmonds Marsh and Shellabarger Creek and to plant trees and shrubs to preserve the new stream habitat.

Are you interested in volunteering too?
Email: Joe Scordino at: edmonds.envir.council@gmail.com

Scene at Meadowdale Beach Park: Students helping salmon

May 20, 2025
Edmonds Stream Team

Link to My Edmonds News article

Christopher Erwert checks coho fry before release. (Photos courtesy Edmonds Stream Team)

Students from Meadowdale High School’s Eco Club joined community volunteers with the Edmonds Stream Team and Sound Salmon Solutions in releasing several thousand baby coho salmon into Lunds Gulch Creek Sunday.

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)

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:

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)**

Stream Team report: Record number of salmon in Shell Creek

Posted Sunday, January 12, 2025

By Joe Scordino
Edmonds Stream Team

20250112-180154-505-3. Maija Jinneman observing a female chum salmon protecting her eggs laid in the gravel..psd

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.

2024 surveys show record number of salmon in Shell Creek

— Story and photos by Joe Scordino
Project leader, Edmonds Stream Team
January 1, 2025

High school students collecting data on stream conditions and salmon occurrence.

The Edmonds Stream Team completed its annual adult salmon surveys in Edmonds’ Shell Creek and Lunds Gulch Creek (located in Meadowdale Beach Park) in December. The Stream Team documented the highest number of chum salmon spawners in November 2024 since surveys began in Shell Creek in 2017.

Letter to Shell Creek residents

By Joe Scordino
November 23, 2024

Shell Creek Residents:

As many of you have noticed in your creek, we are having a banner year in the numbers of adult chum salmon returning to Shell Creek.

I want to THANK YOU for allowing the Edmonds Stream Team to continually access your property in the fall to collect data on the salmon run. We’ll be continuing our salmon surveys into mid-December when most of our observations will probably shift to just examining dead salmon to collect data on their spawning success (we’re currently still seeing ‘new’ arrivals as well as dead spawned-out salmon).

Letter to Edmonds Stream Team

From Joe Scordino
November 23, 2024

Students – Linked below is a news article on the Edmonds Stream Team “coming to the rescue” to resolve a fish passage problem for spawning salmon in Shell Creek.

The stream habitat and salmon abundance data collected by students was used to justify an emergency permit from the WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to make changes to a blockage DURING the salmon run. Normally, such instream work would not be allowed during salmon migration – – but I had the data (collected by students) to justify the emergency action.

So… THANK YOU for participating in the Stream Team. You have made a big difference for our local salmon population!

Joe bypassing Shell creek salmon barrier