Are our actions working?
Implementation Progress Report 2006-2015

Outdoor meeting

Ten years is a very brief period in salmon recovery time. Salmon advocates must secure funding for restoration, acquire property from willing sellers, and mobilize construction resources within a short building season. Completed projects may take years to mature, as plants take root and grow. Many projects must be coordinated and combined in this manner to have an ecological effect. And after all that, effects on a given cohort of salmon may not be detected until four years later, when they return as adults to spawn. Therefore, even under the best of circumstances, 10 years is not much time to expect measureable results for salmon recovery.

Fortunately, planning and implementation of salmon recovery actions in WRIA 8 began well before 2005. Many partners had worked to protect and restore salmon habitat in the watershed as early as the mid-1990s, and some long before that. In addition, agreements such as the Cedar River Habitat Conservation Plan (2000) helped preserve and restore habitat in critical areas for our highest priority Chinook population. Because of these and many more habitat protection and restoration actions, we are beginning to see some signs of progress.

The WRIA 8 Technical Committee collects information on Chinook population status and habitat conditions to gauge whether our actions are resulting in a trajectory toward Chinook recovery. These monitoring efforts are essential to salmon recovery as we determine whether course corrections are necessary (i.e., adaptive management). The following sections summarize information we have compiled to date.

WRIA 8 Chinook Salmon Recovery Goals

Average prior to Plan 10-year Goal (2006-2015) 10-year average results (2006-2015) 50-year Goal
Cedar Sammamish Cedar Sammamish Cedar Sammamish Cedar Sammamish
Abundance*
Adult Abundance 643 1,056 1,680 1,083 1,250** 1,337** 2,000-8,000 1,000-4,000
Juvenile Abundance‡ 113,213 17,397 ‡ ‡ 551,564 31,174 ‡ ‡
                 
Productivity‡‡
Adult Productivity 2.6 r/s 1 r/s or less 3.1 r/s 1 r/s or more ‡‡ ‡‡    
Juvenile Productivity 9.2% 2.9% 13.8% 4.4% 24.0% 8.8% 20% 10%
                 
Spatial Distribution
1 blockage one partial blockage no blockages -- historic distribution no blockages -- historic distribution no blockages -- historic distribution
Spawning area limited to lower river Spawning in NLW tribs inconsistent Maintain or expand spawning area Expand spawning area in NLW tribs Maintain or expand spawning area Expand spawning distribution in NLW tribs Recapture historic distribution Recapture historic distribution
Diversity
Juvenile Life-History Diversity (instream rearing) 34% n/a 40% n/a 8% n/a 50% n/a
Hatchery-Origin Spawners unknown unknown less than 20% status quo or decrease 20% 90% 10% or less (not established)
Hatchery Operations (Sammamish population only) n/a n/a n/a Operations meet HSRG+ goals n/a Operations meet HSRG goals n/a Operations meet HSRG goals
  Meeting goals
  Approaching goals
  Not approaching goals
  No assigned goals

Notes

r/s = adult returns per previous year's spawner;
* = Abundance data from WDFW and Seattle Public Utilities. Current year data are provisional;
** = Adult abundance has exceeded 10-year Cedar goals of 1,680 adults in 3 of last 10 years;
‡ = Goals not established;
‡‡ = Updated adult productivity data not available at time of printing; juvenile productivity data from WDFW.
+ = HSRG in table is Hatchery Scientific Review Group

 

Salmon cycle