Suquamish Tribe, partners celebrate decade-long work to support wild chum run
The Suquamish Tribe, in partnership with Washington State Department of Transportation and Kitsap County, recently celebrated the removal of significant fish-passage barriers within the Chico Creek watershed, home to the county’s largest wild chum salmon run.
This effort has been nearly 40 years in the making, said tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman. The tribe has an ancestral connection to the Chico watershed, as several Suquamish families remained on their traditional homesteads in Erlands Point and Chico and Phinney bays instead of moving to the reservation when it was created in 1859.
“Tribal members had established such a relationship with the ecosystem that they stayed here and did their best to maintain it, despite obstacles to keeping the culture alive,” Forsman said.
As a teenager in the early 1970s, tribal member Dave Sigo would visit the culverts under Kitty Hawk Road, where Chico Creek empties into Chico Bay, and transport salmon upstream so they could spawn and keep the population alive—just volunteering on his own, Forsman said.
“There were young tribal members taking care of these fish before we had the treaty rights recognized in court, before we were able to do all the work that we’ve done to get here,” Forsman said.
Since 2014, the tribe and partners have removed metal and concrete box culverts from Chico Creek at Kitty Hawk Road and Golf Course Club Road. The most recent projects were under State Route 3 and on an adjacent tributary—a multi-year effort replacing two 8-foot-wide box culverts with a 215-foot-long bridge, and on the tributary, replacing a 36-inch-wide metal culvert with a 53-foot-long bridge. Additional restoration work has been completed upstream on Chico, Dickerson, Lost and Wildcat creeks.
The culmination has resulted in opening 22 miles of habitat to salmon. The tribe’s goal with the improved habitat is to maintain annual returns of at least 20,000 fish in the Chico Creek watershed. Historically there have been 100,000 in the system.
Work continues upland of Chico Creek
After restoring salmon habitat at the mouth of Chico Creek for more than a decade, the Suquamish Tribe expanded its efforts upland, starting with land adjacent to the creek estuary.
“The primary goal is to restore the parcel to be functional upland riparian habitat and reconnect it to a corridor that is not only used by salmon but also otters, deer and coyotes, as well as birds and beavers,” said Hanna Brush, a field biologist for the tribe. “It works like a true wildlife corridor.”
Trails also are available for tribal members and the community to access the creek and Dyes Inlet for recreation and fishing.
Restoring a .75-acre site purchased by the tribe in 2022 involved removing a three-bedroom house and outbuildings. The tribe and volunteers, including from Chief Kitsap Academy and a local women’s correctional center, helped install 8,000 plants to promote ecological diversity and for medicinal and cultural use, including elderberry, yarrow and Evergreen huckleberry. Native grasses and flowers were planted to add nutrients to the soil and are good for birds, bees and other pollinators, Brush said.
“We’re weeding everything by hand, which is a lot of work, but also just kind of trying to let nature do as much of the work as possible,” she said.
A new 215-foot-long bridge on State Route 3 at the mouth of Chico Creek replaced two 8-foot-wide box culverts to improve fish passage. Stories and photos: Tiffany Royal
