Posted: October 5, 2023
Category: Creeks
Subcategory for creek related blog posts.
Reader view: Can we stop the demise of Edmonds salmon streams?
By Joe Scordino
Posted: August 26, 2023
First it was Perrinville Creek and now it is Shell Creek that is losing its natural functions and salmon habitat — this time because of neglect and inaction by city administration in Edmonds’ Yost Park.
In the case of Perrinville Creek, the loss of salmon is due to both inaction to implement a watershed restoration plan (as promised by Mayor Nelson in a press release over two years ago), and an apparent illegal action the city took in January 2021 to totally block salmon access to Perrinville Creek.
Continue reading “Reader view: Can we stop the demise of Edmonds salmon streams?”Saving Washington’s salmon from toxic tire dust
Department of Ecology
January 25, 2023
We are taking action to reduce 6PPD-quinone, a chemical that is deadly to coho salmon
For over 20 years, scientists faced a toxic mystery: coho salmon returning to urban streams and rivers in the Puget Sound region were dying before they could lay their eggs. The culprit was unknown, but it seemed linked to toxic chemicals running off our roads and highways.
Continue reading “Saving Washington’s salmon from toxic tire dust”Reader view: Community volunteers dig in to restore Edmonds Marsh
By Joe Scordino
Posted: September 17, 2022
After 500 hours of hard labor on 18 days this summer, over 50 community volunteers relished in their success in restoring stream flows in the Edmonds Marsh that had been blocked by chain-link fencing and a huge, spreading mass of an invasive plant called bittersweet nightshade.
Continue reading “Reader view: Community volunteers dig in to restore Edmonds Marsh”Restoring the Edmonds Marsh: Volunteers making a difference
Posted: August 10, 2022
Link to My Edmonds News article
Community volunteers are tackling the “motherlode” of invasive bittersweet nightshade in the Edmonds Marsh along Highway 104.
Continue reading “Restoring the Edmonds Marsh: Volunteers making a difference”Letter to the editor: What’s the status of Perrinville Creek restoration project?
Posted: September 26, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News article
(The following letter was sent to Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson and is being published here at the author’s request)
Mayor Nelson:
Last March, you put out a press release titled “Mayor Nelson Calls for Perrinville Creek Restoration Project” that acknowledged the stormwater damage to Perrinville Creek and said “Once staff have formulated a better idea of the full effort and cost required to pursue a restoration project, they will present it to City Council for their review and direction, which will also include an opportunity for public input.”
Continue reading “Letter to the editor: What’s the status of Perrinville Creek restoration project?”Volunteers making a difference at Edmonds Marsh
Posted: August 25, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News article
The “before” and “after” photos show the remarkable difference that community volunteers have made in restoring freshwater connections and native plants in the Edmonds Marsh-Estuary, according to project coordinator Joe Scordino.
Continue reading “Volunteers making a difference at Edmonds Marsh”Volunteers making progress on Edmonds Marsh restoration
Posted: August 5, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News article
Community volunteers and Students Saving Salmon club members made progress Thursday in removing invasive nightshade thickets and several sections of fence in the marsh along Highway 104. Volunteers got creative in putting the fence rails and chainlink down over cleared areas to make it easier to walk across wet areas and thick mud.
Continue reading “Volunteers making progress on Edmonds Marsh restoration”Scene in Edmonds: Volunteers help restore the Edmonds Marsh
Posted: July 31, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News article
Over 30 Edmonds community volunteers helped remove invasive nightshade and blackberry along Highway 104 over two days under a Washington State Department of Transportation “Adopt-A-Highway” restoration project.
Continue reading “Scene in Edmonds: Volunteers help restore the Edmonds Marsh”Edmonds Marsh restoration volunteer work parties set for July 29, 31
Posted: July 26, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News Article
Two volunteer work parties are scheduled for this Thursday and Saturday, July 29 and 31, to begin removing the invasive nightshade in the Edmonds Marsh along Highway 104.
Continue reading “Edmonds Marsh restoration volunteer work parties set for July 29, 31”Mayor proposes Perrinville Creek Restoration Project to address long-term flooding, threats to fish
Posted: March 2, 2021
Link to My Edmonds News article
Citing heavy rainfall that overwhelmed the lower portion of Perrinville Creek, causing floods in December and January that washed out Talbot Road, damaged private property and threatened critical infrastructure, Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson on Tuesday called for “immediate creation” of a plan to restore Perrinville Creek.
Continue reading “Mayor proposes Perrinville Creek Restoration Project to address long-term flooding, threats to fish”Scene in Edmonds: At work on Shell Creek
Posted: March 5, 2019
Link to My Edmonds News article
The Edmonds-Woodway High School’s Students Saving Salmon Club has received well-deserved press for their restoration work in Shell Creek. But there is another important person working behind the scenes:
Continue reading “Scene in Edmonds: At work on Shell Creek “Students Saving Salmon help restore local salmon populations
Posted: January 14, 2019
Link to My Edmonds News article
Students from Edmonds-Woodway and Meadowdale high schools are helping restore and enhance local salmon populations.
Continue reading “Students Saving Salmon help restore local salmon populations”Coho salmon released into Shell Creek
Posted: May 20, 2018
Link to My Edmonds News Article
Edmonds-Woodway High School’s Students Saving Salmon Club were out in Shell Creek on Saturday releasing juvenile coho salmon in Yost Park, along Sprague Avenue, near Holy Rosary Church, and along Brookmere Drive.
The students netted about 1,000 small salmon from the pond at the Willow Creek Hatchery and moved them into their natural habitat in Shell Creek. Streamside residents and others joined the students in trying to spot the small salmon swimming free in the creek after release.
Students worked with Walter Thompson, Trout Unlimited’s volunteer hatchery manager, to help raise these coho salmon from eggs that were brought to the Willow Creek Hatchery in December 2017. Once the eggs hatched, the small salmon were placed in the hatchery pond in February, and students participated with other community volunteers in daily feedings of the 50,000 small salmon in the pond. After growing to about 2-3 inches long in the hatchery, the small coho salmon are released to streams where they will live until next spring when they begin migration to the ocean. Coho salmon will grow in the ocean for two years and return as adults to these streams to spawn.
EWHS Students Saving Salmon club has been working to restore salmon runs in Edmonds through water quality monitoring, stream surveys, habitat restoration, and bolstering declining salmon runs through release of juvenile salmon into Edmonds streams.
“Shell Creek does have good water quality and habitat for salmon, but adult coho salmon cannot reach the upper areas of Shell Creek to spawn due to obstacles in the creek such as a 5-foot man-made waterfall located near Glen Street and 7th Avenue,” said club advisor Joe Scordino, a retired fisheries biologist. “The juvenile coho salmon placed in Shell Creek will grow in the good habitat and return back to the creek as adults to spawn in the lower areas of the creek thus bolstering the population. “
Students hope to continue enhancing the wild salmon population with juvenile releases until such time that passage obstacles can be removed and the natural population increases, Scordino said.
Students give good news about salmon; councilmember criticizes opinion pieces
Posted: July 19, 2017
Link to My Edmonds News article
For the second year, members of Edmonds-Woodway High School’s Students Saving Salmon club delivered an update to the Edmonds City Council regarding stream quality in Edmonds — and the news was mostly good.
Continue reading “Students give good news about salmon; councilmember criticizes opinion pieces”