Local News Archives - Page 60 of 92

Weekend fun: Free flights, music, big pumpkins, more

Rose Windows will perform on Saturday in Everett.

Source: The Herald

Glass gourds: Shack-toberfest is already under way and runs through Sunday in downtown Everett. There will be pumpkin carving and classes on how to make your own glass pumpkin. There will also be glass pumpkins for sale. There is a beer and brat night on Friday. Get all the details here.

Live music: See Rose Windows, who recently signed to SubPop, perform with The Maldives and Learning Team on Saturday at 8 p.m. The show is at Kroakers in Everett. You can get tickets here.

Spruce up your home: The Everett Fall Home Show is Friday to Sunday at Comcast Arena. You’ll find vendors that will do just about anything to improve your home. There will also be free seminars on home improvement. At the same time, there will be a gift and food show in the arena. Taste some good food and get a jump on holiday shopping. Get the details in our story here.

Free parks day: All state parks and national parks will be free on Saturday to celebrate National Public Lands Day. There are also a number of work parties on trails. Check here for more information.

Find a feline: Look for a new family friend, or just go for fun, at The Secret Life of Cats adoption event at the Everett Animal Shelter on Sunday. More than 100 cats and kittens will be available for adoption. There will even be a tarot reader to do readings for humans and felines alike. Get more details in our story here.

Good gourds: Check out the winner of the Giant Pumpkin contest at the Skagit Valley Festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Christianson’s Nursery and Greenhouse, 15806 Best Road, Mount Vernon. In addition to huge veggies there will be music, carnival games and food. And don’t forget the toad races. Read more in our story here.

Go for a flight: Kids can take free plane rides at the Arlington Airport Appreciation Day. The event is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Get the details in our story here.

Look up: Take a virtual trip to Rome to view the unequaled artwork of Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Everett Public Library, 2702 Hoyt Ave. Rebecca Albiano of the Frye Art Museum will be your tour guide at this free presentation.

Friendly persuasion: Grab a pal or meet one at the Friendship Walk Saturday at Arlington’s Legion Park, 114 N. Olympic. Registration for the walk begins at 11 a.m. and donations benefit people with special needs. The one-mile walk begins at 1 p.m. You can also get friendly with reptiles in a special demonstration or enjoy a $5 hot dog lunch. Click here for more information.

Autumn leaves: Pick up some tips on what plants work well in fall and winter gardens at a free workshop with Trevor Cameron at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sunnyside Nursery, 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., Marysville. Call 425-334-2002 for more information.

It’s science, guys: The Arlington Library double-dog dares you to show up at 2 p.m. Saturday to learn some amazing challenges and tricks. The free science demonstrations are for all ages at the library at 135 N. Washington Ave. Call 360-435-3033 for more information.

When in Rome: Stomp some grapes, toss some pizza, watch a bocce tourney and learn to cook Italian at Festa Italiana from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Seattle Center.

Get involved: It’s also Family Day Saturday at the center, thanks to Melinda and Bill Gates. Free events for kids include arts and crafts, games and brainiac activities. The foundation will also show kids how they can give back like the Gates family does. Go to www.seattlecenter.com for information about all center activities.

Poetry reading: Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish will host two renowned poets for a reading and Q&A at 7 p.m. Friday. John Sibley Williams and Amber Nelson will both read from their works. Get more info here.

Hum along: Songwriter Nick Drummond performs at 7:30 Saturday night at Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater, 1211 Fourth St., Snohomish. Drummond used to be with Impossible Bird and The Senate. Tickets are $15 at brownpapertickets or at the door. Call 360-568-9412 for more information.

Who are you? Curious about your ancestors? The Snohomish Genealogy Workgroup will help you get started researching your family history from 10 to 11:45 a.m. Saturday at the Snohomish Library, 311 Maple Ave. Call 360-568-2898 for more information.

Celebrate diversity: Marysville’s first Multicultural Fair to celebrate diversity in the Marysville-Tulalip communities and the many cultures who call the area home is Saturday. The free event is 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Comeford Park, 514 Delta Ave. There will be music, dancing and food. Get more info here.

Art Walk: A Stanwood art walk will cover the historic east end of Stanwood, encompassing the 8700 block of 271st Street NW one block north of Highway 532, from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday. Get your “passports” stamped and initialed at the participating businesses then turn in your completed “passport” for a chance to become a winner in the free drawing. Fifteen small local businesses are showing paintings, pottery, jewelry and more.

Car show: The Snohomish Classic Car & Hot Rod Display is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. More than 600 antique, classic and exotic hot rod cars and trucks will be on display. Get more details here.

Live sustainable: Check out the Sustainable Preparedness Expo on Sunday at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. The show focuses on preparing your family in the case of disaster, sustainable living and homesteading. Vendors will be there with hard-to-find supplies and there are a number of workshops and seminars planned. Click here for the details.

So soft: Stop by Fern Ridges Alpacas in Clinton to learn more about alpacas their fiber and the farming business on Saturday and Sunday. Find out more about the farm here. The event is part of National Alpaca Farm Days.

Celebrate salmon: Enjoy riverside salmon viewing tours, Indian tacos, a native flute concert and more at the Return of the Salmon celebration in Sultan. The event, featuring kid’s activities, live music, dance and horse-drawn covered wagon rides, is from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Osprey Park, 801 First St. For details, call 425-359-8936.

Cheers! Taste and celebrate the return of Foggy Noggin Brewing’s seasonal scotch ale at a special tasting event on Saturday. You can also buy pint and growlers of the seasonal beer, which will run out within eight weeks, at the brewery’s tasting room in Bothell. More information here.

Sultan celebrates salmon

Source: The Herald

Return of the Salmon

Sultan’s Return of the Salmon Celebration begins at noon Saturday at Osprey Park, 801 First St. The event runs to 4 p.m.

There will be a Tulalip tribal welcoming ceremony honoring of Sultan’s namesake, Chief T’seul-ted; riverside salmon viewing tours; Indian tacos; a native flute concert; vendors, children’s activities; watershed education; plains-style drumming and round-dance; horse-drawn covered wagon rides and much more.

Sultan Mayor Carolyn Eslick has proclaimed Sept. 28 as “A Day of Remembrance for Chief T’seul-Ted, and a Day Celebrating the Return of the Salmon.” More info: Contact Craig Young, 425-359-8936.

Live music: Rose Windows, which recently signed with SubPop, performs with The Maldives and Learning Team on Saturday at 8 p.m. The show is at Kroakers, 3021 Rucker, Everett. Richie Rekow, bassist for Rose Windows, attended Everett High School. You can get tickets, for $10, at http://bit.ly/14qAWaC. This is an Everett Music Initative show. Check out what else they have coming up at www.everettmusiciniative.org.

Cats need homes: Anyone who has ever been owned by a cat knows that the creatures can be a bit mysterious. For one thing, why do they dash around the house at top speed at 2 a.m.?

The Everett Animal Shelter is having some fun with the mystery of cats, and hoping to find loving homes for some felines, at the Secret Life of Cats adoption event and garage sale Sunday.

More than 100 cats and kittens will be available for adoption from the Everett Animal Shelter, Purrfect Pals, Homeward Pet, NOAH and PAWS.

“This year we’ve had help from several local groups to really make this a fun event,” said Dee Cordell with the Everett Animal Shelter. “We’ll even have a tarot card reader on hand if you want to find out what’s really going on in your cat’s mind.”

Yes, there will really be tarot card readings for your cat. Your cat doesn’t need to be present. The reader, Bev Bryant, also will do readings for humans.

There will be a garage sale to benefit the Everett shelter’s veterinary clinic. Lunch items will be for sale.

The event is set for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the shelter, 333 Smith Island Road, Everett.

Marysville goes multicultural with diversity fair

September 21, 2013

Everett Herald Staff

MARYSVILLE — The city is planning its first Marysville Multicultural Fair to celebrate diversity in the Marysville-Tulalip communities and the many cultures who call the area home.

The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 28 in downtown Comeford Park, 514 Delta Ave. There will be music and dance from around the world on stage in the Rotary Pavilion, demonstrations and displays of traditions from other lands, and a food court where ethnic foods will be available for purchase.

The multicultural fair is sponsored by Sea Mar Community Health Centers, HomeStreet Bank, Marysville/North County YMCA, Molina Healthcare and the Marysville Free Methodist Church.

The day’s performances open with the Korean Dancers and Drums. The will be Celtic music from Seattle favorites the BOWI Band, Mariachi Juvenil Voces, American Indian flautist Peter Ali, American Indian S-du-hoo-bsh storyteller Lois Landgrebe, belly dance performances, and Karen Ann Krueger, a former paralympian and inspirational speaker on disabilities.

Some cultural food favorites include Mae Phim Restaurant (Thai), Sampaghita Cuisine (Filipino-American), Rosie’s Frybread (Tulalip/Native American), La Hacienda (Mexican), Craving Cajun Grill, Sons of Italy and others.

The multicultural fair will also have dozens of cultural resource booths, informational displays and hands-on activities for children.

For more information, contact diversity committee staff liaison Doug Buell at 360-363-8086, email dbuell@marysvillewa.gov, or visit the website at http://marysvillewa.gov/multiculturalfair.

Northwest Tribes Exult as Nearly One Million Chinook Return to Columbia River

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Northwest tribes are exultant to see nearly a million fall Chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River this year, nearly 400,000 more than have returned since the Bonneville Dam was built 75 years ago.

With a month still left in the run, said the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in a media release, more than 920,000 adult and jack fall Chinook had already come up the river. Among the record numbers cited: On September 9 alone, 63,780 fall Chinook were counted crossing the dam, the Fish Commission said. Chinook also returned to tributaries in the 140 miles of river downstream, adding to the huge run, the commission said.

The abundant, historic run is due to several factors, the commission said, some of which began between two and five years ago. River flows were high in spring, when the juvenile fish migrated to the ocean back then. In addition juvenile fish have spilled over dams, ocean conditions have been good, and numerous ongoing projects have been undertaken to improve the fishes’ ability to pass by dams and exist in their spawning habitat. Higher survival of hatchery-produced fish also contributes to the historic numbers, said the commission.

“The abundance of this year’s fall Chinook run is the perfect example of what this region needs to focus on and how we all benefit from strong returns,” said Paul Lumley, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, in the statement. “Partnerships and collaboration are rebuilding this run. Focusing on rebuilding abundance allows the region to move beyond unproductive allocation fights and puts fish back on to the spawning grounds.”

In addition, an abundance of jacks, three-year-olds and four-year-olds are harbingers of a potentially big return next year as well, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission biologist Joe Hymer told The Columbian.

Salmon experts, including those at the commission, cautioned that the work was not over.

“You can’t lose sight of the fact that there are 13 distinct populations of salmon that remain at risk,” said Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the conservation group Save Our Wild Salmon, to the Los Angeles Times. Those species in the Columbia and Snake rivers are listed as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, he said.

Indeed, recent studies have shown that overall in the region, salmon habitat is deteriorating faster than it can be restored.

And even as Chinook shattered records, the Technical Advisory Committee, made up of managers of state, tribal and federal fisheries, noted that returns of summer steelhead, fall Chinook and coho were down, The Seattle Times reported.

“Is this something to celebrate? Absolutely,” said commission spokeswoman Sara Thompson to the Los Angeles Times. “But this is one population of salmon. There is still more work to do.”

Below is footage of the record-shattering Chinook return, first at the Bonneville Dam and then at the mouth of Eagle Creek, a mile upstream from the dam.

Native Vegetation Filling in Restored Skokomish Estuary

Skokomish Tribe habitat biologist Shannon Kirby takes note of the types of vegetation found in the Skokomish Estuary.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commiussion

Kneeling in a thicket of vegetation in the Skokomish estuary, Shannon Kirby combs her hands through the tall green grasses in front of her, calling out codes that identify them by size, type and abundance.

The habitat biologist for the Skokomish Tribe is studying the native freshwater and saltwater vegetation that is taking over the Skokomish estuary, which was diked and dredged for 100 years until recently.

“The response in vegetation is very promising, as is the diversity that’s out here,” Kirby said. “Estuarine plants are a huge source of food for animals, and double as a water filtration system, neutralizing pollutants and providing nutrients for plant growth. We’re right on target for where an estuary should be.”

The tribe is finding pickleweed, salt grass, sedges, rushes, sea arrow grass and Puget Sound gumweed.

Since 2010, every August, when vegetation is in full bloom, tribal staff visit 75 sites throughout the 1,000-acre estuary, looking at plant types, sizes, growth and soil composition.

These observations coincide with the tribe’s insect studies, which include conducting lavages on juvenile salmon to determine the insects they are eating.

“The quality of salmon habitat is determined by the plants that are out here and the insect food source,” Kirby said.

The tribe has been restoring the estuary at the mouth of the Skokomish River since 2007, through dike and culvert removal, large woody debris installation and native plant revegetation. Through three phases so far, the tribe has restored up to 1,000 acres of habitat for salmon and wildlife.

Lummi Nation holds reef net fishery at Cherry Point

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries, September 17, 2013

For the first time in generations, the Lummi Nation held a reef net fishery at Cherry Point.

“It feels good to say that as of yesterday, we, the Lummi Nation have been reef netting,” said Lummi Chairman Tim Ballew at a tribal event Aug. 28. “To know that tomorrow we will reef net and the days after we will too.”

The traditional reef net is suspended between two canoes. Tribal fishermen watch for the salmon to swim close to the surface, then lift the net.

“A sxwole (reef net) is a gift from our creator, therefore an inherent right,” said Al Scott Johnnie, tribal cultural administrative policy assistant. “The sockeye salmon spirit came to our people and showed them how to make the reef net from the willow and other materials that were used from long ago. This was a way of life for our people, and the method was also to allow our sockeye to go up into the river so they could replenish, because they were our extended family.”

Known in the tribal language as Xwe’chi’eXen, Cherry Point was a Lummi tribal village and traditional reef net site for hundreds of years. After the Lummi Nation signed the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855, tribal fishermen continued to reef net until about 1894, when non-Indian fish traps out-competed them, according to the 1974 U.S. v. Washington ruling that reaffirmed tribal treaty fishing rights.

A 1934 ban on fish traps in Puget Sound gave tribal fishermen renewed access to their traditional sites, but the 1939 opening of a cannery brought more competition from non-Indian fishermen who were able to reef net in more profitable locations.

In the U.S. v. Washington ruling, Judge George Boldt noted that there were 43 reef nets operating off Lummi Island at the time; none of them by tribal fishermen.

“Members of the Lummi Tribe are entitled to and shall have, as a matter of right, the opportunity to fish with reef nets in such areas,” Boldt wrote. “(W)hile non-treaty fishermen when licensed by the State to fish in reef net areas have the privilege of fishing in those areas ‘in common with’ Lummi Tribal members, they do not have the right to do so.”

North of Bellingham, Cherry Point is the site of the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, a coal export facility that would be the largest in North America if built. Lummi tribal leaders strongly oppose the coal terminal, because of the damage it would do to natural resources and the traditional grounds.

The pink salmon reef net fishery celebrated the tribe’s traditional use of the area. “We want our young people to remember some of the teachings of our ancestors and this way of the reef net,” Johnnie said.

Marysville adopts one-year moratorium on marijuana businesses

By Kirk Boxleitner, The Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Marysville has given itself a year to work out how it will handle marijuana businesses within its city limits.

By a 5-1 vote on Monday, Sept. 9, the Marysville City Council approved an ordinance adopting a one-year moratorium “on the establishment, siting, location, permitting, licensing or operation of marijuana cultivation, production of marijuana or marijuana derivatives,” with Council member Rob Toyer casting the lone dissenting vote out of expressed concerns that the Council might wait to make its decision until shortly before the moratorium would be set to sunset.

According to Marysville Chief Administrative Officer Gloria Hirashima, the city needs to conduct local reviews of its zoning and licensing before it can even consider entertaining applications or licenses for marijuana businesses, especially since she expects the Washington State Liquor Control Board to release draft rules on the production, processing and retailing of marijuana for comment as early as October.

“We’ll be working through a local committee to conduct those reviews, with representatives from the City Council, the Planning Commission, local businesses and local citizens,” Hirashima said. “We’ve already done detailed mapping, according to the boundaries outlined in Initiative 502, of where marijuana retailers can’t be in Marysville, so we need to look at the remaining areas within the city, where they’re not restricted under I-502, and determine which of those areas we want to see those retailers allowed in, and under what conditions.”

Although Hirashima noted the number of citizens who have already expressed strong interests in this issue at Council meetings, which she believes is good for prospective members of a local review committee, she also acknowledged that the city would need to ensure that the interests of the citizens who do become members of the committee are relatively balanced.

“A couple of people who have come to Council meetings and followed this issue closely are also looking to open their own marijuana businesses, so their interests are obviously going to be different from those citizens who might be next-door neighbors to such establishments,” Hirashima said. “We need to make sure various opinions and perspectives are represented.”

Hirashima anticipates that the committee’s lineup will be finalized during the month of October, and reassured the rest of Marysville’s citizens that their voices would also be heard.

“We’re tentatively looking at potentially adopting our marijuana rules as soon as April of next year,” Hirashima said. “Before we do that, those proposed rules will go up for public comment in front of first the Planning Commission, then the City Council. It’s important that this process remain public and involve our citizens’ participation. This is a fast-moving area. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law, but the state is initiating a system of licensing for it, so there’s still a wide range of opinions on this issue.”

Pink salmon return to Nisqually River in record numbers

By John Dodge, The Olympian

Pink salmon, Puget Sound’s smallest, most short-lived and most abundant of five native salmon species, are returning in record numbers to the Nisqually River.

There are so many of these 3- to 7-pound fish stacking up in the river, it conjures up the old saying: “They’re so thick, you could walk across the river on their backs.”

They aren’t quite that thick, but they are pulsing upstream to spawn in numbers that boggle the mind. More than 700,000 pinks are expected to enter the river this year out of an estimated Puget Sound run size of 6.2 million fish.

Flash back 10 years and tribal biologists were hard-pressed to find pink salmon in the river at all.

What gives? The first phrase out of the mouths of fish biologists is: “good ocean survival.” But that’s a catch-all phrase that might not tell the whole story.

A little more about a pink salmon’s life history: A pink salmon migrates to saltwater shortly after it emerges from the gravel as a fry salmon. They quickly make their way through Puget Sound to ocean waters.

They live only two years, returning to spawn in odd-numbered years. By comparison, the four other species of Pacific Northwest native salmon – chinook, coho, sockeye and chum – live three years or more in fresh and salt water.

So pink salmon live the simplest of lives – less time exposed to pollution, predators and harvesters.

And they eat pretty low on the food chain. Their diets consist of things like zooplankton and small, abundant marine crustaceans, said tribal salmon-enhancement manager Bill St. Jean.

So while marine scientists puzzle about why the more prized salmon such as coho and chinook experience disturbingly low survival rates in Puget Sound, the pink salmon seem to be growing in abundance and geographic reach.

“Their ocean survival has been phenomenal, but their simple life history may be playing a role in the increase,” Nisqually tribal natural resources manager David Troutt said. “Meanwhile the more complex species in Puget Sound are struggling. It’s a potential indicator that Puget Sound is becoming a simpler ecosystem, which should be a source of concern.”

While Nisqually sport and tribal fishers are taking a small share of the large pink run, the vast majority of the fish are being passed upstream to spawn. A tribal fish weir was installed in the river primarily to sort through chinook salmon to keep hatchery chinook from swimming upstream to interfere with naturally spawning chinook. But it has been dominated by pink salmon the past two weeks.

“We’re passing 200-plus pinks upstream every 10-20 minutes,” said Tom Friedrich, an intern with the Nisqually River Foundation, and part of the crew working at the fish weir near the tank crossing on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

An occasional chinook salmon is found mingling with the pinks. However, it appears the chinook are waiting for the pinks to move upstream first, Troutt said.

The chinook might have to wait. As of Wednesday morning, more than 90,000 pinks had passed upstream, and they show no sign of letting up.

The 2013 pink run on the Nisqually is the source of extra work at the in-river fish trap, but no one seems to complain.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s really fun to see all these fish,” St. Jean said, pointing at the mature male pinks distinguished by their humped backs, thus the nickname humpy.

The pink salmon, which die in the river shortly after spawning, are also returning valuable marine nutrients to the river watershed.

“I think we’re all glad to see the increased numbers of pink salmon,” said Lance Winecka, executive director of the South Sound Salmon Enhancement Group, a nonprofit working on habitat restoration projects. “They are a source of marine nutrients that South Sound river systems have been short on for several decades.”

In addition, the pink fry moving out of the river into saltwater in the spring provide food for young coho salmon, Troutt said.

Roy Wells, a tribal fish commissioner with a long history around the river, said he can’t remember seeing healthy pink salmon runs on the Nisqually since the 1970s. Tribal elders talk about prolific runs 60-70 years ago, St. Jean said.

“My mom used to fry them up – they’re good to eat,” Wells said. But first, she would trim the hump off the backs of males because they are full of fat, Wells said.

Wells on Tuesday hauled about 400 pounds of pink salmon to a cannery on Yelm Highway operated by Faith Harvest Helpers, a faith-based nonprofit that cans pink salmon for shipment overseas with other food and medical supplies to disaster-stricken countries,

“We hope to do a whole lot of pinks this year,” said Richard Norton, the faith group’s vice president.

Troutt said tribal officials are starting to talk about new ways to utilize pinks if they keep coming back in big numbers every other year.

Caviar anyone?

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2013/09/19/2730648/pink-salmon-return-to-nisqually.html#storylink=cpy

St. Helens’ tribal significance marked

Mt S — Mount St Helens
source: Mountsthelens.com

Mountain given status of Traditional Cultural Property

By The Chronicle (Centralia)

September 19, 2013

For its significance to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Mount St. Helens on Sept. 11 was designated a Traditional Cultural Property and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

According to the Forest Service, Mount St. Helens’ qualified for listing in the register because of its position as a cultural landscape central to local tribes’ oral traditions and identities.

The listed area encompasses 12,501 acres of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

“The Forest Service has profound respect for the cultural significance of the area,” Gifford Pinchot National Forest Supervisor Janine Clayton said. “This formal recognition further validates our deep and long-standing relationships with our tribal partners.”

The mountain is of particular importance to the Cowlitz Tribe; it falls within the area of their land claims made during treaty negotiations with the federal government in the 1850s.

An image of the volcano appears on the official seal and emblem of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

“For millennia, the mountain has been a place where Tribal members went to seek spiritual guidance,” Tribal Council Chairman William Iyall said. “She has erupted many times in our memory, but each time has rebuilt herself anew. She demonstrates that a slow and patient path of restoration is the successful one.”

The National Register is part of a program intended to coordinate and support efforts to protect America’s historic, archaeological and traditional cultural resources.

Mount St. Helens’ nomination process took several years and was a collaborative effort between the Gifford Pinchot and the Cowlitz, the Forest Service said in the news release.

Formal listing was recommended earlier this year.

This is the second Traditional Cultural Property listing in Washington State and one of the very few Traditional Cultural Property listings nationwide, according to by Allyson Brooks, Director of the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

Plenty of opportunities for local anglers

By Wayne Kruse, The Herald

If you’re a sport fisherman, these are the good ol’ days. A record number of fall chinook are wending their way up the Columbia, providing catches of one to two chinook per rod at the mouths of the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers the past several weeks. Some 900,000 coho are due in Puget Sound, and are taking up the slack left by a big pink run. So many razor clams are available on the ocean beaches that state officials have decided to start the fall digging season early.

And on and on. If you don’t want to get bit by a fish, stay away from the water.

State Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Joe Hymer, at the agency’s Vancouver office, said last week marked the largest fall chinook count (and still counting) since Bonneville Dam was built in 1938. The old record was a run of 611,000 fish in 2003, and this one is predicted to be somewhere in the 800,000-fish range.

Many of these big kings are “upriver brights,” headed for the Hanford Reach, and should be the basis for a gunnysack fall fishery in the area of the Vernita Bridge, upriver from the Tri-Cities.

Creel checks on the Reach last week showed 762 boat anglers with 244 adult and 132 jack chinook, but that success rate will improve rapidly.

Farther downriver, below the mouth of the Lewis, anglers made 5,654 trips on Sept. 6, 7 and 8, and nailed 5,351 kings for a success rate of 0.95 fish per rod. That’s unheard-of fishing on the lower Columbia.

On the local front, the annual derby for the blind was held Monday, and results bode well for this weekend’s big Everett Coho Derby. Jim Brauch, avid angler and an Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club member, hosted a derby participant Monday and limited out in Brown’s Bay on silvers of 5 to 8 pounds. He said 55 feet was the magic depth, and an Ace High fly the top lure.

“Other fish were caught throughout the system,” Brauch said. “The big fish contest was won by a nice 15-plus-pounder from the east side of Possession. (There’s) lots of fish from Mukilteo to the shipwreck and on the west side of Possession. I don’t know how many fish were caught, but all blind participants had at least one fish and most had more than one.”

Brauch said he also talked to anglers at Douglas Bar on the Snohomish River on Sunday. They reported coho as far up as the Highway 522 bridge.

Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood said there seems to be good numbers of silvers in the area, and that the derby should draw well. He said the fish are moving, not schooled up particularly, and that fishermen should cover a lot of water.

“Coho are where you find them, and hanging around all the rest of the boats can be counter-productive,” he said.

Chamberlain likes the Grand Slam Bucktail in green, and the Ace High fly in either chartreuse or green spatterback, or purple haze, behind a green or white glow flasher. The “Mountain Dew” series of Hot Spot flashers also are fish catchers, he said. Rig the flies 32 or 36 inches behind the flasher, and add a small herring strip.

There will be two free fishing seminars prior to the Everett Derby. The first is tonight — from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. — at the Tulalip Cabela’s Conference Center, where Ryan Bigley of Soundbite Sportfishing will share tips and tactics for advanced coho fishing in Puget Sound. Space is limited; RSVP by calling 360-474-4880.

The second seminar is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and features John Martinis of John’s Sporting Goods in Everett, with everything you need to know to fish the coho derby. The venue is Everett Bayside Marine. For more information, call Bayside at 425-252-3088.

In a first for this area, the Sportsman Channel and Comcast are teaming up with the Everett Derby to donate fish caught by participating anglers to help those less fortunate. The event is part of the Sportsman Channel’s Hunt.Fish.Feed. outreach program that taps an underutilized food source of game meat and fish donated by sportsmen to feed those struggling with hunger across the country.

Participating anglers from the Everett derby are expected to donate more than 1,000 pounds of fresh fish to the Volunteers of America food bank in north Everett.

Lots of clams

State shellfish managers are practically begging diggers to take razor clams off their hands, as the fall season arrives.

“We have a huge number of clams available for harvest this season, paricularly at Twin Harbors,” said Dan Ayres, the state’s coastal razor clam honcho. “There are only so many good clamming tides during the year, and we decided there was no time to waste in getting started.”

Ayres said that while the fall digging schedule is still being developed, managers saw no reason to delay a dig at Twin Harbors.

So Twin Harbors is open tonight through Monday. Tides are as follows: Today, minus 0.3 feet at 7:13 p.m.; Friday, minus 0.5 feet at 7:57 p.m.; Saturday, minus 0.5 feet at 8:39 p.m.; Sunday, minus 0.3 feet at 9:21 p.m.; and Monday, 0.0 feet at 10.04 p.m.

Ayres said estimates of coastal razor clam populations indicate some 800,000 more clams available for harvest this year than last. And last year saw 420,000 digger trips harvesting 6.1 million clams, for an average of just under the per-person limit of 15 per day.

And if 2013 is going to be better than that, it’ll likely get wild down there in the dunes.

For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.