Quilcene National Fish Hatchery Centennial

On August 20, 2011, the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery celebrated 100 years of work with important fish stocks in Jefferson County and the Puget Sound/Hood Canal Region.

The hatchery was completed in August 1911, the brainchild of F.W.Hastings, who introduced a bill in 1903, calling for a fish hatchery on the Big Quilcene River. “The enormous catches of prime salmon which have recently been the order on Puget Sound prove conclusively even to the inexperienced mind that the supply will eventually be exhausted unless the propagation of this fish is carried on to an extent at least approaching the terrific inroads made in the salmon schools by the fishermen, and it is to conserve and promote the profitable industry that the government has taken a hand in scientifically propagating the salmon in the federal hatcheries.”

- Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader, 1903

To learn more about the history of the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery, check this site from the Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader, 2011:

http://ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=29783

2011 Beach Watchers, Katie and Keith were on the scene before the gates opened, setting up the display titled Stormwater - the major polluter of Puget Sound". Katie and Keith, along with fellow 2011 graduate, Tina, put in many hours before the event took place to zoom in on a message that would be appropriate to an event celebrating healthy fish.

The display points out that stormwater is toxic, coming from sources like yard run-off, roadways and car washing areas, animal waste and failing septic systems. It then leads you to the side showing things that you can do to help.

The hand-outs also centered on things a person could do to be a part of the solution: Turning the Tide on Toxics, Taking Care of Streams, Pick Up after your pet bookmarks, Rain Garden manuals and resources, Welcome to Your Watershed papers and Shore Stewards applications.

Over 100 people took a look at the booth and visited with us about water quality. We were glad to have been a part of the many agencies sharing in this super event. If you would like to know more about the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery, please visit their site http://www.fws.gov/quilcenenfh

This is a wonderful site celebrating the centennial anniversary. It has links about the day-to-day operations of the hatchery, a link about the history and links to many of the projects undertaken by the hatchery. Take a moment and take a virtual tour.

“In the early years, you didn’t hear the word conservation, it was all about fishing and industry and economy and development. Today, restoration efforts involving threatened species of Pacific salmon continue to grow in importance.”

-Dan Magneson, fishery biologist, Quilcene National Hatchery

LID (and fish) in Puyallup

A wonderful mix of people from Jefferson County piled in to vans and cars and headed south to visit to the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center in October. The group of over 30 included WSU Beach Watchers and Master Gardeners, WSU staff, County & City staff, Marine Resources Committee members, Shore Stewards and staff from the Jefferson Conservation District.

We went to Puyallup to learn about Low Impact Development (LID). LID is a word used to describe a new way to manage stormwater using landscaping, engineering methods, and new products that mimic nature to treat and control runoff. Stormwater runoff is the main source of pollutants in Puget Sound.

The city of Puyallup, in partnership with WSU, was awarded a $1 million grant to retrofit the WSU Puyallup campus with LID structures and then monitor their performance. The structures include porous pavements, rain gardens, and rain water harvesting systems. Scientists plan to study the effectiveness of the structures and answer questions such as what how to best maintain previous pavement, which pollutants plants take up, and which soils work best to filter stormwater.

Before touring the LID developments, Dr. John Stark, Director of the Puyallup campus and the keynote speaker at our WSU Watershed Day last year, took us to the Salmon Lab on campus. Dr. Stark told us that pesticides, even in the very, very small concentrations found in stormwater, can harm fish. Furthermore, some chemicals, when combined with others can become even more potent. Research in the Salmon Lab has revealed that fish can lose their sense of smell after exposure to very low concentrations of common herbicides. They need their sense of smell, not only to find their way to their home stream, but also to avoid predation. When attacked by a predator, fish emit a pheromone that warns other fish. Fish in the area smell the pheromone and drop to the bottom of the stream to avoid being eaten. Dr. Stark and his team have proven that fish exposed to certain common chemicals do not react to the pheromones, making them easy targets for predators. Yikes!

Okay, so now that we knew why treating stormwater is important, the next step was a tour of the LID projects from WSU's own Curtis Hinmann. Sixteen raingardens all in a row - that is what we saw. Each identical in size and each bristling with monitoring equipment. They are all slightly different with different soils and plants in each.

There are huge tubs of various soils being tested separately and a giant vat that will allow scientists to “dose” the different plots with concoctions.

Then there is the parking lot with several types of concrete and asphalt along with monitoring equipment to test each parking stall. Curtis tells us that nobody has tested LID products in real time with real cars in the real world. Ground breaking stuff!

So bottom line what did we learn?

+ Use natural products around our gardens and homes

+ If using chemicals, read and follow the directions (it's the law!)

+ Make sure nothing but rain goes down the storm drains.

And we learned that we should stay tuned to find out what WSU researchers learn over the coming years. Many thanks to John and Curtis for the tour. Keep up the great work!

Want to learn more? http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/stormwater/