Suquamish Tribe FY 2019 West Sound Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Planning and Coordination

This project continued the Suquamish Tribes focus on salmon and steelhead recovery planning, coordination, and project implementation within its Usual and Accustomed Fishing Area (U&A). Specifically, this project focused on coordinating implementation of 1) Local chapter of the Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan (2005) and Puget Sound Steelhead Recovery Plan (completed in 2020) through participation in the West Sound Partners for Ecosystem Recovery (WSPER - the East Kitsap Lead Entity for Salmon Recovery) and the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council; this project also included the Suquamish Tribes participation during 2024 and 2025 in the update of the now completed local chapter of the Salmon Recovery Plan (the updated plan is now multi-species and focused on both watershed and nearshore habitat conditions and priorities for recovery), 2) Strategies and actions addressing factors affecting abundance, productivity, spatial structure, and diversity of salmon and steelhead populations important to the exercise of the Suquamish Tribes treaty rights.



Specifically, to support the East Kitsap Steelhead Recovery Plan, the Tribe allocated $44,944 of PCSRF FY19 to contract with a consultant to support the development of the East Kitsap Steelhead Population Monitoring Plan, a recommendation from the 2020 East Kitsap Steelhead Recovery Plan. The tasks and deliverables of this project included 1) two meetings of a focus group convened by the Tribe and the consultant to identify approaches and methods for monitoring ESA-listed steelhead populations in the East Kitsap Demographically Independent Population (DIP), 2) The compilation of reports and publications to support the monitoring plan, and 3) A technical memorandum (see attached) that describes the major findings of the focus group meetings and outlines a draft of a monitoring plan. The Tribe will allocate about $35,000 of PCSRF FY22 to the development of a draft and final East Kitsap Steelhead Monitoring Plan, scheduled for completion by December 31, 2025.

The goal is to maintain the Tribes participation in salmon recovery planning and implementation. The project purpose is well coordinated salmon recovery efforts in East Kitsap. The expected benefit is more effective protection and restoration of freshwater, estuarine, and nearshore habitat necessary to support recovery of listed salmonids and to prevent future listings.