Retrofitted culvert assisting Chuckanut chum
Arroyo Park is one more great site to watch chum as they head upstream to spawn

By Shannon Moore

Chuckanut Creek in recent years has seen runs of chum salmon of robust proportions. Last fall was no exception; chum salmon flooded the system from the intertidal zone, all the way to the waterfalls. Stream surveyors reported that 5,000 chum salmon returned to spawn in the system during November of 2002. This grand run of chums more than likely mimics run sizes seen in the system back in the 1940’s, when a steel bridge spanned the gorge, changing the gorge significantly. The steel bridge was scraped for the war effort and a cement box culvert was installed in the vicinity of the old Chuckanut General Store. The box culvert was poured in place, with fill dumped over the culvert to connect both side of the gorge before Chuckanut Drive could be reconnected. This event took its toll over the years as chum salmon found it increasing difficult to ford the culvert to access available spawning habitat. The population of chum salmon in Chuckanut Creek was in a downward spiral.

This culvert has been retrofitted to allow migrating chum salmon easier access to the headwaters of Chuckanut Creek.

In the early days of salmon enhancement efforts, volunteers working NSEA spent many a cold and wet winter nurse-maiding chum salmon eggs. From 1988 – 1995 chum salmon eggs where incubated deep in the Chuckanut stream gorge. Each winter, roughly 100,000 eggs were loaded into the incubator; with attendants checking daily to make sure all was well with the incubators.

The goals of the project were threefold: to establish a significant population of chum salmon that would be self sustaining, bring salmon back to the community and provide additional opportunity for commercial fishers in Bellingham Bay.

As time went by over this eight-year period, the recruitment of returning parents increased incrementally on a yearly basis with past generations of successful spawning parents and the additional output of the salmon egg incubation station. Mother nature also helped, winter stream flows were more stable than the early flood and freezing years, and ocean feeding conditions were improving.

With the increased recruitment of chum salmon entering the system, anxious spawners began to stack up at the downstream end of the box culvert under Chuckanut Drive. Many years of streambed down cutting created by the outfall of water passing through the box culvert had left the culvert perched above the stream two feet. Coupled with baffles that were not functioning properly, this made it almost impossible for salmon to access the upper watershed spawning grounds.

Volunteers and citizens of Chuckanut Village were persistent in seeing that the box culvert was retrofitted for better passage. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife met the challenge in 1994, by designing and implementing the culvert retrofit. With the improved passage design, access to an additional mile of spawning habitat has helped boost production to historic levels.

The chum salmon in Chuckanut Creek are a keystone species in this stream ecosystem, supporting all kinds of life. Five thousand returning chum salmon represent 25 tons of ocean-derived food and nutrients entering the system. This converts to one ton of nitrogen and phosphorous that acts like a catalyst in the aquatic environment. In addition a considerable amount of important fatty acids and carbon are contributed to the stream and terrestrial food web.

As November arrives, Chuckanut Creek becomes a biological hot spot with Mergansers and Water Ouzels feasting on stray chum eggs, Red-tail Hawks and Bald eagles dine on a diet of Merganser and chum salmon. Raccoons, coyotes and mink drag their share of the salmon into the forest to feast on. Even the cougar has been spotted neatly stacking chum salmon along the streams edge for a late night snack.

Arroyo Park in the middle of November is a good place to view the homecoming of chum salmon as they bring forth yet another generation.