A recent article in the Highline Times illustrates how little we as humans really understand of nature and salmon recovery: http://www.highlinetimes.com/2012/01/09/news/csi-highline-investigation-uncovers-more-salmon-s. This year Miller Creek has shown a remarkable amount of salmon returning to the creek.  There are far more fish returning than the Port of Seattle, the Cities of Normandy Park and Burien and the citizens of the area ever expected to count. When the third runway was under dispute, the Port of Seattle claimed that there were no fish in Miller Creek and therefore claimed there was nothing worthy of protection in the creek. Only through the constant efforts and insistence of the two groups-Trout Unlimited and CASE-was the Port forced to do a study on the fish populations in the creek. When the scientists came out to do an electric shock treatment on the creek, they found that Miller Creek was a creek that had fish population worthy of saving. Of course those of us who have lived around the creek-citizen scientists-knew this from their own personal observations.

While more fish are returning to the creek than ever expected, there are still some big problems for the fish. 40% of the fish are dying before they can spawn due to polluted storm water.For sure Burien needs to improve its Storm Water management system. Burien has known this for a long time but simply has not allocated the adequate funding to do the job correctly-to keep the waters clean. As individual citizens we can still do our part to help in the recovery of Miller Creek and the entire Sound. Please follow these simple practices in your own neighborhood and help to keep the fish that manage to make it back to the creek alive and spawning in Miller Creek.

HOW TO MINIMIZING SURFACE AND STORM WATER RUNOFF:

• Preserve plantings next to streams, lakes, wetlands and the Sound.  Plant trees and shrubs native to the Northwest whenever possible.
• Control pet access to streams and lakes.  Pet wastes-poop-degrade water quality.
• Maintain your vehicle regularly.  Leaking substances from vehicles contains toxic metals and are a major source of water pollution.
• Wash your vehicles on the grass, over dirt or at a commercial car wash.  Keep suds out of streams, lakes and the Sound.
• Recycle your motor oil at the nearest gas station.  Don’t dump it down the storm drain or pour it on the ground.
• Sweep your walks and driveway instead of hosing them down.  Dirt, gravel and debris from these paved surfaces contain contaminants that pollute water.
• Reduce the use of chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers.  If you fertilize your lawn, use a fertilizer with the lowest numbers available.  Try to use a fertilizer with a zero as the middle number-example 3-0-3.  The middle number is the amount Phosphorus in the fertilizer and it is this element that causes toxic algae problems in the shorelines.  By the year 2014, this element will be outlawed in fertilizers.
• Maintain your septic tank.

Sincerely,
Linda Plein

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The City of Normandy Park is reporting that salmon have been returning to Miller and Walker Creeks, with a count that “far exceeds last year’s total.”

“To date, the volunteers of the Community Salmon Investigation Team have reported seeing 209 live coho, and 44 carcasses!” reads the City Manager’s Report. “This far exceeds last year’s total coho count of 25 and only 6 carcasses.”

Salmon investigation results are now posted on the Miller-Walker salmon monitoring web page here.

The city says that results will be updated about once a week.

“Among the interesting facts the CSI volunteers have uncovered is that the pre-spawn mortality rate is only 23% (higher than a pristine stream, but much lower than some of the urban streams nearby), and the proportion of hatchery fish (as indicated by the carcass inspections) is so far 61%,” the report said. “No one has reported seeing any chum yet, but it could be any day. Last year the first chum was reported on November 7.”

New King County Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward Elissa Ostergaard wants our Readers to know that volunteers are needed for ‘CSI:Highline,’ also known as ‘Community Salmon Investigation Highline,’ which surveys local salmon in the area.

“In 2010, 20 volunteers each surveyed the creeks each week,” reads an email. “This year, team members will have the option of surveying every week or every other week. This means we need between 10-20 new volunteers in 2011!”

Volunteers will go through training on Wednesday, Sept. 28th, and will need to commit to volunteering either one day per week or one day every other week for the 2.5 month period from mid-October to late December.

To help out, please reply before Sept. 20th to Elissa at elissa.ostergaard@kingcounty.gov, and include answers to these questions:

• Would you like to survey every week? Or every other week?
• What days of the week are you available? (If you can manage weekdays, that will be especially helpful.)
• Will you attend the training on September 28 from 4-6pm?

To sign up, or of if you have any questions about whether this volunteer activity is right for you, please contact Elissa at elissa.ostergaard@kingcounty.gov or 206-296-1909.

Here’s more info from Elissa:

Willing to Mentor a High School Senior?
I am looking for one generous volunteer to offer to mentor a senior high school student for their culminating senior project. Are you willing to have a high school student participate on your team? Help them determine another way to use what they learn, such as give a talk at a neighborhood meeting, or a class, or write an article, or ??? Please let me know right away – we are recruiting high school seniors soon.

Information for New and Potential Volunteers – Be part of Miller/Walker Creek Stewardship
How many adult salmon return to Miller and Walker Creeks in Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac each year? The fact is we have only a general idea, but last year we learned a lot. In addition, we need to know how many of these fish are stricken by pre-spawn mortality each year, and thus how many are surviving long enough to lay the eggs of the next generation.

A better understanding of the numbers of fish returning to the streams and the extent of pre-spawn mortality is one of the top recommendations the community identified as part of coordinated monitoring of the streams (see the 2009 monitoring coordination recommendations). Adult salmon in our streams are the Pacific Northwest equivalent of the “canary in the coal mine” – they reflect the health of our lands and water. Knowing adult salmon numbers and what’s happening to them once they enter the stream will serve as “vital signs” for our streams. By being part of our Community Salmon Investigation team, you can help us learn more about this community resource.

To accurately monitor adult fish returns and fish health, we need your help! This e-mail asks for volunteers to collect data on adult salmon that will return to Miller and Walker Creeks from mid-October to late December. Please sign up by Tuesday, September 20.

Beginning in mid-October and continuing until late December, we need volunteers to visit Miller and Walker Creeks daily at several locations to look for fish. We need enough volunteers to staff every day of the week because only a sustained, daily (or close to daily) survey will provide us the accurate information we need to understand stream health.

This is an exciting and unusual opportunity to see parts of your community that are normally inaccessible. You will get closer to one of the iconic animals of America – the Pacific salmon. You will be part of an important community effort to better understand how well we’re doing taking care of our lands and waters. And, of course, you’ll get to cut open dead salmon bodies like the CSI teams you watch on TV!

Volunteer Expectations
As a volunteer, here is what to expect:

• You need to commit to volunteering either one day per week or one day every other week for the 2.5 month period from mid-October to late December. (If you can’t volunteer consistently but would be willing to fill in for a regular team member, please let me know and we’ll see if we can include you that way.)
• Two-person teams will be responsible for data collection on one day each week (e.g., every Tuesday). Ideally each team will have three or four people, so each person only needs to go out every other week, and there are enough volunteers to fill in on days when one team-member cannot go out.
• Volunteers should assume spending three or four hours on their day. If we have enough volunteers, we will make the stream reaches shorter and have multiple teams each day.
• You will work only during daylight hours, which will, of course, become more limited as the season progresses. People who work five weekdays will want to volunteer for Saturday or Sunday surveys. Those with flexible schedules will be encouraged to do weekdays.
• You need to be able to walk up stream channels/banks that are rocky and wet/covered in running water. You may need to climb over and under downed trees and push through or go under brush. Overall distance walked each daily survey will be about one mile (only a portion will be in the stream).
• You will need to go out rain or shine but you will not monitor when the stream is running high to keep you safe (plus it’s hard to see fish in high, turbid water).
• There are three sites to be inspected on Miller Creek and two sites on Walker Creek – four sites are in Normandy Park and one site is in Burien because all adult salmon migrate first through the lower part of the creek before spawning (or, sadly, dying before they can spawn). Short drives will be needed for you to reach all the survey sites.
• You will work in pairs for safety and to maximize data quality.
• You will need to follow the access requirements of the private and public landowners who are graciously providing us access to the streams.
• You will count and record information on living fish
• You will take measurements of each dead fish. This will involve handling and cutting open carcasses. Gloves will be provided. You will record information on adipose fin presence (indicating whether the fish came from a hatchery), sex, percent egg retention, spawning status, and if possible, coded wire tag scans (another sign a fish came from a hatchery).
• You will need to provide your own rain gear and footwear. In most cases, we expect you will need to use hip waders but knee-high rubber boots may suffice depending on your height and stream conditions. My rubber hip waders – which have survived many years of rough service already – cost less than $40, so buying a pair is not a big investment.
• You will be given sampling collection kits and recording documents.
• You will be trained or paired up with a trained volunteer who will teach you what to do.

Training
This community is fortunate to have some citizens who love the fish and work together to restore the streams. People so motivated will be offered more intensive training in late September. (However, everyone is invited to attend.) This self-selected “core group” will provide the “lead” team member. These leads will in turn train the other team member(s). Consequently, lack of previous experience should not be an obstacle to successful data collection.

New and returning volunteers, especially team leaders, are encouraged to attend the training:

• WHEN: Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 4:00-6:00 pm
• WHERE: Normandy Park
• WHAT: New survey locations, fish identification and measuring techniques, staying safe, scheduling. Please contact me to sign up for the training.

Sign Up and Questions
To sign up or of if you have any questions about whether this volunteer activity is right for you, please contact me at elissa.ostergaard@kingcounty.gov or 206-296-1909.

Volunteers are needed to help “outplant” coho salmon eggs on Saturday, Jan. 22nd, beginning at 9am at the Miller Creek Plant of the Southwest Suburban Sewer District, located in Burien.

“Each year, Trout Unlimited volunteers raise coho salmon eggs during December-January,” said Dennis Clark, Miller/Walker Creek Steward. “At the end of the incubation phase in the hatchery, the eggs have turned into salmon fry and are ready to be outplanted in streams in southwest King County, including Miller and Walker Creeks.”

The annual outplant, which takes about an hour, is a fun educational and volunteer opportunity for people of all ages. The outplanting consists of swiftly transporting the fry in coolers or buckets to various locations across the basins and gently introducing the fish to their new home. To see just what the outplanting operation looks like, view:

• January 23, 2010 outplant story and photos
• January 17, 2009 outplant story and photos
• January 19, 2008 outplant story and photos

Basin Steward Dennis Clark gently pours the coho fry into Miller Creek in Normandy Park. Helping Dennis was Marion Yoshino, Normandy Park City Council member, perched on the rocks behind the ice chest. Photo courtesy King County.

Begun in the 1980s, the purpose of the Trout Unlimited hatchery outplanting project is to compensate for the presumed low survival rate of natural-spawning coho in the streams. Due to low adult coho returns and high storm flows caused by extensive impervious surfaces, it is thought that there are fewer fry than the streams can support. Unlike most hatchery operations, this program introduces the fry to the streams as soon as they have “buttoned-up” or absorbed their yolk sacks. The fry are not fed or raised in raceways before being released. This early-release approach means the fry are subject to the same evolutionary pressures as the natural-origin fish in the system. These pressures range from the natural – the frequently-seen great blue herons – to the unnatural – polluted stormwater and extreme flows. Life is hard for small fry and most will not survive to migrate to the ocean. For a very lucky few salmon, though, the outplant marks the start of what will be an epic life journey.

Here are the event details:

WHAT: Trout Unlimited Coho Salmon Outplant.

WHEN: Saturday, Jan 22nd beginning at 9am.

WHERE: Meet at the Miller Creek Plant of the Southwest Suburban Sewer District, located at 1015 SW 174th Street. Enter on the northern entrance:

• West on SW 160th from First Ave South.
• Left onto Sylvester Road SW (first light).
• Left onto 8th Ave SW.
• Follow signs to the sewer plant.
• Hatchery is at the southern end of the complex.
• Parking is limited, so you may need to park at the office (small lot by the flagpole) and walk south along the concrete path by the stream.
• Drive carefully through the complex as there will be a lot of vehicular traffic on Saturday.
• When driving in, note the stream revegetation “test plot” I’m working on with the Sewer District and volunteers.

INFO: Dennis will be at the hatchery at 8:30am to conduct water quality sampling. Parents are welcome to bring their kids early to watch.

Given the growing level of interest in the outplant event, most volunteers will outplant only to one location so the task probably won’t take more than an hour.

What to wear and bring:

• Warm, weatherproof clothing – even if it’s not raining, the water can splash around from coolers/buckets
• Gloves that can get wet
• Knee-high rubber boots or sturdy shoes/boots – both with good tread – you’ll need to get down the edge of streams to get the fish into the water
• CLEAN, WELL-RINSED COOLER that you don’t mind getting in mud

If you have additional questions, please contact Russ at rwelker@q.com or John at psmuramatsu@earthlink.net.

Trout Unlimited volunteers Russ and John transfer the young coho salmon from a tray into an ice chest. A battery-powered pump oxygenates the water during the time it takes to drive the fish to the stream where they will be outplanted. January 19, 2008. Photo courtesy King County.

This annual visible reminder that there are juvenile fish in the streams underscores how important it is to be good stewards of the land that drains into the streams. The waters of Puget Sound start in our yards, streets, and businesses before flowing untreated into Miller, Walker, and many other streams. You can help increase the survival rates for these little fish and improve Puget Sound by taking simple actions – and encouraging your friends and neighbors to join you:

• Scooping the poop
• Practicing natural lawn care: minimizing use of pesticides and fertilizers
• Fixing oil leaks in your car
• Washing your car at a commercial car wash or washing your car on the grass to soap/detergent out of storm drains
• Lots of other tips !

For more information, please contact Dennis Clark at 206-296-1909.

King County Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward Dennis Clark wants everyone to “mark your calendar – this is one ‘season finale’ you can’t Tivo or watch online,” as “CSI: Highline” will be presenting its findings from its Community Salmon Investigation on Wednesday, Jan. 26th at Burien City Hall, from 7:30pm – 8:30pm.

“The exceptional scientific endeavor of 20 Burien and Normandy Park volunteers last fall gave us our first detailed understanding of adult salmon returns to Miller and Walker Creeks, which drain Burien, SeaTac, and Normandy Park,” Clark said in a statement. “Over an 11-week period, the volunteers navigated water high and low to count living fish and find carcasses for measurement and necropsies.”

Here are the details:

WHAT: “CSI: Highline” Season Finale Public Presentation on Findings from the Community Salmon Investigation for Highline.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 26, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Burien City Hall Activity Room (Council Chambers), 400 S.W. 152nd Street.

INFO: The January 26 “season finale” will feature:

• Overview of the CSI: Highline program – who participated, how they surveyed
• Analysis of the data
• Final population estimates for chum (the number of sightings shown on the web site “double-counted” some fish)
• Photos from the volunteers and me (including many not on the web site)
• Video footage
• What we didn’t expect to see – things exciting and strange
• Overview of key factors affecting salmon health in the streams: stormwater volumes, water quality, streamside vegetation
• Plans for the 2011 CSI: Highline survey season

We’ll also have a brief “thank you” recognition ceremony for the 2010 volunteers.

Whether you want to know more about the Highline environment or are interested in volunteering for the 2011 survey season, this season finale is not to be missed!

For more information, visit the Miller and Walker Creek Stewardship website here, or contact Dennis Clark directly at 206-296-1909.

Miller/Walker Creek Steward Dennis Clark alerts us to a very unique holiday volunteer opportunity: “pluck” coho salmon eggs at Miller Creek in Normandy Park on Dec. 17th!

“Volunteers are needed to help pick dead/diseased (salmon) eggs out of the incubation trays to keep the other eggs healthy,” Clark said in an email. “This activity is suitable for people as young as 12 and all ages are welcome to observe. No special skill is required other than basic eye-hand coordination to pluck unwanted eggs out of the trays.”

Clark adds:

Volunteers will work indoors but the building is unheated and water does splash around so rain gear is useful.

Volunteering is a great activity for families looking for a unique and close-in activity during the winter school break!

Volunteers also are welcome in January as well, although the need is not as acute.

If you are interested in helping pluck “bad eggs” for an hour or two any day of the week, please contact Russ Welker at 206-824-2044 or rwelker@q.com.

Here’s more from Clark’s email:

What’s red, round, and shows up in the tens of thousands each December in Highline? No, not Christmas tree ornaments – coho salmon eggs!

Each year, volunteers from Trout Unlimited receive coho salmon eggs from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery at Soos Creek near Auburn. The eggs are raised for about a month in a small hatchery building on the grounds of the Southwest Suburban Sewer District plant on Miller Creek . Continuously bathed in clean well water, the eggs incubate and turn into 2-3 cm long fish (alevins). Just as the fish have absorbed their yolk sacks in mid- to late-January, volunteers then outplant the salmon throughout Miller Creek and Walker Creek as well as Des Moines Creek and other smaller streams in Highline. Once in the streams, the baby fish have to survive the same evolutionary pressures that naturally-hatched fish experience: high and low water flows, water quality problems (soap from car washing, leaking oil, dog poop, etc.), food scarcity (more bugs, please!), and predators (great blue herons). Nonetheless, the outplanted hatchery fish help compensate for “pre-spawn mortality” among adult coho salmon – as documented in the CSI: Highline fish-counting program – and damage to salmon egg nests (“redds”) caused by flooding/high flows.

This year, the eggs will be delivered to the hatchery in Normandy Park on December 17. Particularly during the first two weeks, volunteers are needed to help pick dead/diseased eggs out of the incubation trays to keep the other eggs healthy. This activity is suitable for people as young as 12 and all ages are welcome to observe. No special skill is required other than basic eye-hand coordination to pluck unwanted eggs out of the trays. Volunteers will work indoors but the building is unheated and water does splash around so rain gear is useful. Volunteering is a great activity for families looking for a unique and close-in activity during the winter school break! Volunteers also are welcome in January as well, although the need is not as acute.

- Dennis Clark
206-296-1909 additional contact information
Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward
Miller/Walker Creeks Basin Stewardship

Here’s a video of chum salmon migrating up Miller Creek in Normandy Park, on Nov. 27th, courtesy Barb and Darrell Williams during the Community Salmon Investigation for Highline program:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo of salmon eggs courtesy Miller and Walker Creeks Stewardship Community Salmon Investigation (CSI) Page.

Dennis Clark, Miller/Walker Creek Basin Steward, tells us that the Community Salmon Investigation for Highline – aka “CSI: Highline” – has garnered great interest from the Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac communities, and that training begins this Thursday, Oct. 7th.

If you haven’t yet signed up, don’t fear – back-up Investigators are still needed.

Thursday’s training session will run from 4pm – 6pm at Normandy Park City Hall Council Chambers, located at 801 SW 174th Street in Normandy Park.

Clark encourages all CSIers to wear comfortable and weather-appropriate clothes as you will be outside the City Hall building (but not in the streams) for a half hour.

Here’s the draft Agenda:

1. Introductions.
2. Purpose of the Community Salmon Investigation: Highline: Not just a catchy acronym.
3. Investigating Carcasses for “Pre-Spawn Mortality”: Let’s cut up dead bodies!
   We will have salmon carcasses and demonstrate how to cut them open.  Bring the kids – seriously!  Steve Damm, US Fish & Wildlife Service, has been running pre-spawn mortality surveys in Longfellow Creek in West Seattle and will be the “visiting forensic investigator” for this activity.
4. Identifying Salmon: Actually, they don’t all look alike.
   PowerPoint presentations they way they were meant to be used – fast and mostly visuals.
5. How to Monitor: It’s not just a walk in the Park.
   Safety requirements, equipment, property access and locations, how to walk the streams, recognizing/marking redds, and how to record data.
6. Teams and Scheduling: Speed dating for salmon lovers.
   Pairing up individual volunteers; how to request a backup volunteer for schedule conflicts; liability waivers; and distributions of supplies.

Here are more details from Clark:

RSVP AND SUPPORT
RSVP. If you cannot make the training, please let me know. Everyone will benefit from it but it is vital that at least one person from each team go through the training. If you are an individual (currently unmatched) volunteer and cannot attend, I will pair you up with someone who gets the training and will send you the training materials.

Also, I will accompany each team on their first or second investigation in October and then once or twice during the season for quality control.  So while we will cover a lot of info, you don’t have to master all of it on October 7. You will also be able to call me most any time for coaching when dealing with new/unexpected issues.

SURVEY PLAN
Click here to download the DRAFT Survey Plan for CSI: Highline (as a .doc file). This will be further revised and expanded by October 7 but at present it describes the basic steps the volunteers will follow. You will note that there is a lot of discussion about recording data. This is because good data collection is essential to produce reliable information about the creek. Good data collection is something anyone who is detail-oriented and a keen observer can do.

Please read the DRAFT Survey Plan to begin to familiarize yourself with the data collection protocols. We will go over the protocols on October 7 but reading the plan now will prepare your brain!

MORE VOLUNTEERS WANTED
Response to the CSI: Highline program notice has been great and we currently have enough volunteers to field seven two-person teams, one for each day of the week.  We also have one backup volunteer but I would like more since there will be inevitable attrition. If we get enough “backups”, we may establish three-person teams from which two members survey on their given day of the week. Three-person teams can establish their own “rotations” based on interest and availability of the members. This will lighten the load for all and increase certainty that there will be two-person teams surveying each day, which is very important for data quality.

If you talk to people who are interested, please invite them to the training session. (Also, some of you stewardship “regulars” are BCC’ed – you’d make great “backup” volunteers given your knowledge of and dedication to the streams! Join us for the training session if you’re tempted.)

CONTACT INFO
For more information, contact Dennis Clark at 206-296-1909 or via email at Dennis.Clark@kingcounty.gov.

RSVP
EVERYONE SHOULD RSVP for the October 7 training by 9 a.m. Wednesday, October 6.

Thank you for your interest in CSI: Highline.  This is an exciting program that relies on your energy and enthusiasm to gather valuable information on stream health.  I look forward to working with you all.

It’s almost Fall (it starts this coming Wednesday, Sept. 22nd), and aside from the changing color of leaves and cooler temps, there’s other evidence that something’s in the air – namely, spider webs and their host spiders.

Spiders often are seen as ugly, menacing creatures, but once you study Francis Zera’s closeup photos for today’s Photo Friday, you may change your mind.

Or not actually.

These eight-legged arthropods are indeed kinda creepy aren’t they? Yet, they are a part of our every day world and are definitely beneficial as they capture lots of bad insects. And it’s the time of year is when you might spot some larger spiders crawling around the house, as they mature and start wandering around looking for food or mates.

We think they’re pretty cool lookin’, but agree that walking through their homes or getting them on our heads isn’t that cool.

The good news? Francis’ Sound Slideshow can’t bite you – just be sure to turn your speakers up!:

Click to Play Francis Zera’s Sound Slideshow

Dennis Clark

How many adult salmon return to Miller and Walker Creeks in Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac each year?

The fact is we have only a general idea.*

In addition, we don’t know how many of these fish are stricken by pre-spawn mortality and thus how many are surviving long enough to lay the eggs of the next generation.

According to Clark, a better understanding of the numbers of fish returning to the streams and the extent of pre-spawn mortality is one of the top recommendations the community identified as part of coordinated monitoring of the streams (see the 2009 monitoring coordination recommendations here). Adult salmon in our streams are the Pacific Northwest equivalent of the “canary in the coal mine” – they reflect the health of our lands and water. Knowing adult salmon numbers and what’s happening to them once they enter the stream will serve as “vital signs” for our streams. By being part of our Community Salmon Investigation team, you can help us learn more about this community resource.

To accurately monitor adult fish returns and fish health, your help is needed! Volunteers are being sought to collect data on adult salmon that will return to Miller and Walker Creeks from mid-October to late December.

Please sign up by Tuesday, Sept. 28th, by contacting Dennis Clark at dennis.clark@kingcounty.gov or 206-296-1909.

Beginning in mid-October and continuing until late December, volunteers are needed to visit Miller and Walker Creeks daily at several locations to look for fish.

Clark adds:

“We need enough volunteers to staff every day of the week because only a sustained, daily (or close to daily) survey will provide us the accurate information we need to understand stream health.”

This is an exciting and unusual opportunity to see parts of your community that are normally inaccessible. You will get closer to one of the iconic animals of America – the Pacific salmon. You will be part of an important community effort to better understand how well we’re doing taking care of our lands and waters. And, of course, you’ll get to cut open dead salmon bodies like the CSI teams you watch on TV!

Volunteer Expectations
As a volunteer, here is what to expect:

• You need to commit to volunteering at least one day per week for the 2.5 month period from mid-October to late December. (If you can’t volunteer consistently but would be willing to fill in for a regular team member, please let me know and we’ll see if we can include you that way.)
• Two-person teams will be responsible for data collection on one day each week (e.g., every Tuesday). Ideally we will have enough volunteers to fill in on days when one or both team-members cannot go out.
• At this point, we don’t know how long it will take to survey but volunteers should assume spending two hours on their day, at least initially as they’re learning the stream reaches and how to collect data.
• You will work only during daylight hours, which will, of course, become more limited as the season progresses. People who work five weekdays will want to volunteer for Saturday or Sunday surveys. Those with flexible schedules will be encouraged to do weekdays.
  

  Members of the “CSI Highline” team will cut open fish like this one on Miller Creek last October to see if it had a chance to spawn before it died. Cool.

• You need to be able to walk up stream channels/banks that are rocky and wet/covered in running water. You may need to climb over and under downed trees and push through or go under brush. Overall distance walked each daily survey will be about one mile (only a portion will be in the stream).
• You will need to go out rain or shine but you will not monitor when the stream is running high to keep you safe (plus it’s hard to see fish in high, turbid water).
• There are two sites to be inspected on Miller Creek and two sites on Walker Creek – all are in Normandy Park because all adult salmon migrate first through the city before spawning (or, sadly, dying before they can spawn). Short drives will be needed for you to reach all the survey sites.
• You will work in pairs for safety and to maximize data quality.
• You will need to follow the access requirements of the private and public landowners who are graciously providing us access to the streams.
• You will count and record information on living fish
• You will take measurements of each dead fish. This will involve handling and cutting open carcasses. Gloves will be provided. You will record information on adipose fin presence (indicating whether the fish came from a hatchery), sex, percent egg retention, spawning status, and if possible, coded wire tag scans (another sign a fish came from a hatchery).
• You will need to provide your own rain gear and footwear. In most cases, we expect you will need to use hip waders but knee-high rubber boots may suffice depending on your height and stream conditions. My ProLine rubber hip waders – which have survived two years of rough service already – cost less than $40 so buying a pair is not a big investment.
• You will be given sampling collection kits and recording documents.
• You will be trained or paired up with a trained volunteer who will teach you what to do.

Training
This community is fortunate to have some citizens who love the fish and work together to restore the streams. People so motivated will be offered more intensive training in early October. This self-selected “core group” will provide the “lead” team member. These leads will in turn train the other team member(s). Consequently, lack of previous experience should not be an obstacle to successful data collection.

If you want to be part of this “core group” that gets the full training, please contact Dennis at dennis.clark@kingcounty.gov or 206-296-1909.

* Thanks to reports from members of the Normandy Park Community Club at the Cove, we know that people have seen from between 65 to nearly 200 adult salmon migrating upstream between early October and late December (examples: 169 fish in 2005, 168 in 2007, 65 in 2008). Some of these sightings may be double counts and they were not methodically collected, however. Cove users should continue to report sightings to Staci in the office to continue this community recording initiative! Our “CSI” effort will add to this historical record.

Caroline Bobanick, a Burien resident since 2001, has been appointed as Executive Director of the Environmental Science Center (ESC), a local non-profit located in Seahurst Park that promotes environmental stewardship, sustainability, and academic achievement through science-based education.

“We are very excited to have a Burien resident with Caroline’s knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead the ESC as we grow our programs and work to complete the Environmental Learning Center at Seahurst Park,” said Ron Kreizenbeck, President of the ESC Board of Trustees.

Bobanick brings more than 15 years of experience in administration, marketing and non-profit development to the ESC. Her previous work experience includes leading development at Gage Academy of Art and serving as an Arts Commissioner for the City of Burien where she wrote grants and worked with various constituent groups to make arts education accessible to children. She holds a master’s degree in visual art and a professional certificate in Marketing Management from the University of Washington.

Caroline Bobanick

The ESC is the only environmental learning program serving K-12 children across South King County and operates in close partnership with the City of Burien and the Highline School District to ensure equal access to its programs for all families.

“I am thrilled to be working in our community and with the ESC which provides so many of our kids with high quality, hands-on science experiences at our local beaches and forests, ” stated Bobanick, who has been a volunteer at Marvista Elementary for five years and has a son entering 5th grade.

Working closely with the City of Burien, the ESC is in the final stages of completing a state-of-the-art Environmental Learning Center at Seahurst Park in Burien which will provide a much needed indoor learning space for the more than 12,000 children they serve at annually.

For more information see: www.envsciencecenter.org.