Lummi Nation South Fork Nooksack River Skookum Edfro Phase 1 Adaptive Management FY22

The South Fork Nooksack River Skookum Edfro Phase 1 Adaptive Management Project (project) will install engineered logjams to improve salmonid habitat in the South Fork Nooksack River. This urgent project is needed to address a major pre-spawn mortality of over 2,500 adult South Fork Nooksack Chinook due to high water temperatures, poor instream habitat, and low flows in the South Fork in September 2021. Pink salmon and summer steelhead mortalities were also found. The Lummi Indian Business Council (LIBC) declared the mortality event a disaster (LIBC Resolution #2021-159) and directed staff to develop and implement a plan to prevent future mortalities. The Lummi Natural Resources (LNR) Restoration Division is working closely with the LNR Salmon Enhancement Division on this project. The project includes adaptive management in the Skookum Edfro Phase 1 project reach adjacent to the Skookum Hatchery to recruit brood into the hatchery much earlier in the summer and to provide higher flows for migrating natural origin Chinook. Under current conditions, the mainstem South Fork splits around an island near the hatchery, with insufficient flows for migrating adult chinook. The project will use engineered logjams to divert flows during spawning season to the hatchery side of the island, allowing improved upstream passage for adult chinook returning to the hatchery or portions of the river above the hatchery to spawn.

The Lummi Nation, along with the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, have worked tirelessly and invested time and money to bring the South Fork Chinook back from the brink of extinction through the South Fork Chinook Captive Brood hatchery program. The program has been successful in building the numbers of returning fish from a near extirpation level of 11 fish in 2013 to more than 3,000 observed in 2021. The successful hatchery program has helped restore Lummi Nation’s ceremonial and subsistence fishery and in 2020 and 2021 Lummi Nation was able to offer a special fishery for our community members. This funding will ensure that we address this serious issue and prevent further impacts to tribal trust resources.



The 2005 WRIA 1 Salmonid Recovery Plan (Plan) identified the South Fork¿(SF) and¿North Fork/Middle Fork¿Nooksack early Chinook populations¿as the highest priority for actions that benefit recovery and production of salmonid populations¿(WRIA 1 Salmonid Habitat Restoration Strategy (Strategy) Version 2.5a 2005, pp.5). Restoring habitats used by early Chinook populations in the South Fork is the highest priority for recovery of South Fork early Chinook (WRIA 1 2005).¿The Skookum Edfro Phase 1 Adaptive Management Project reach (River Mile 14.0-14.2), is among the highest priority areas for restoration for South Fork early Chinook in terms of expected improvement in abundance, productivity and diversity for the population (WRIA 1 Strategy Version 2.5a 2005, Table C-1 pp.41, Jones Cr to Skookum Cr). This project addresses the habitat limiting factors of habitat diversity, high water temperatures, low flow, and key habitat quantity (Section 4.1.3.3.8 (pp. 112-116) and Fig. 4.5 (p. 143) of the WRIA 1 Plan. The Skookum Reach is a WRIA 1 Tier 1 priority for two restoration strategies: 1) engineered logjams (ELJs) to form deep complex pools: cool-water inflow areas and 2) ELJs to form deep complex pools: other areas (Fig.¿3;¿WRIA 1 2021¿SRFB Grant Restoration and Protection Strategy¿Matrices). This is a critical section of the river to improve habitat as Chinook return to spawn upstream and return to the Skookum Hatchery as part of the Lummi Natural Resources (LNR)-sponsored SF Chinook Rescue Program. The Skookum Edfro Phase 1 Adaptive Management project is¿included as a project in the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe joint submission to the Puget Sound Partnership Legacy Projects list.



The project¿also¿addresses the 2018 - 2022 Puget Sound Action Agenda Regional Priority CHIN7.¿“Continue to restore degraded habitat and fish populations”¿by following the Priority Approach CHIN7.1:¿“Protect and/or restore¿critical habitat for salmon populations”¿(PSP 2018,¿Table 3-4, pp.28).¿The South Fork Nooksack River is considered critical¿habitat for ESA-listed threatened Puget Sound¿Chinook salmon,¿as well¿as bull trout¿and steelhead (USFWS 2010, NOAA¿2016). This project will also include methods recommended by the South Fork Nooksack Temperature TMDL (Ecology 2020) to address existing and projected climate change impacts to water temperature through instream rehabilitation.