Tulalip News

Tribe donates $300,000 to three food banks

By Chris Winters, The Herald

ARLINGTON — An unexpected Christmas present arrived early this year to three local food banks: $100,000 in cash, a donation from The Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians.

Sue Keezer, board chair of the Arlington Community Food Bank, said the charity had put in a request for a $25,000 grant this year from the tribe. The tribe has always been a strong supporter of the food bank, she said, and this has been a tough year both in a reduced amount of donations and an increase in need.

“They called us on Friday and they said they had a check for us, but it was only for $7,500,” Keezer said.

She went to pick up the gaily wrapped check Saturday morning. When she took off the wrapping, however, she was shocked.

“I’m just speechless, it’s just overwhelming, really,” she said.

Eric White, vice chairman of the Stillaguamish Tribal Council, said the tribe broke with its usual giving pattern this year to present an early gift to the three food banks, which included the Stanwood/Camano Island Food Bank and Northwest Harvest.

White said the tribe was motivated not just by general holiday spirit but also from hearing about a lot of people in need. While the tribe has supported the Arlington food bank in the past, they reached out to the other charities as well to help more people with their $300,000 gift.

“In our community, we have a lot of tribal members that live in Stanwood, so we reached out to Stanwood,” White said.

“It is undoubtedly the largest single donation we’ve ever received,” said Rick Bentley, executive director of the Stanwood/Camano Island Food Bank.

“When we get $5,000, that’s big news,” Bentley said. “One hundred thousand dollars is almost beyond comprehension.”

The Stillaguamish Tribe typically receives applications for charitable donations through the end of December, with donations given out in January. A second round of donations goes out in July. The tribe donated approximately $3 million to various charities in 2012, White said.

The Stillaguamish Tribe also gives out Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas hams to food banks. This year the Arlington food bank gave out 373 Thanksgiving baskets, Keezer said.

“Without their donations last year and this year we wouldn’t have had enough turkeys for our Thanksgiving baskets,” she said.

“This community has never let down this food bank,” she said.

Keezer said some of the money will help get through the holiday season and complete construction of a new permanent facility at 19118 63rd Ave. NE. The food bank is renting space owned by the Arlington airport.

The board will meet soon to make plans for the bulk of the donation

Hawks secure another victory

By Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News

Tulalip Heritage Hawks win 70-33 against Shoreline Christian. More to follow

Hawks tip-off against Shoreline Christian at 7:30 tonight

By Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News

Tonight, Tulalip Heritage Hawks play against the Crusaders at Shoreline Christian High School. Last year the Hawks won a regular season game against Shoreline 58-17. Meeting them again at districts, the Hawks won 67-40.

Shoreline will be looking to redeem themselves after a devastating defeat early in the season, losing again to the Hawks in the first round of districts.

House Farm Bill Provision would make eating fish more dangerous

As featured on eNews Park Forest.com, Dec 5, 2013

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–December 5, 2013. It’s farm bill debate time—again. And as conferee members saddle up to the negotiation table to attempt yet another meeting of the minds before the winter recess, most of the public watching and waiting for word on a resolution are focused on issues like food stamps and milk.

What most are not waiting for and has not been at the forefront of the media and public discussion concerning the pending farm bill negotiations are the small but dangerous provisions of the House bill concerning the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (expanded and overhauled as the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate pesticides used near, over, and in water. It should be.

Seeking to nullify the Sixth Circuit’s ruling in National Cotton Council v. EPA and the resulting general permit, sections 12323 and 100013 amend CWA to exclude pesticides from the law’s standards and its permitting requirements. Known as the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), CWA requires all point sources, which are discernible and discreet conveyances, to obtain either individual or general permits. Whether a point source must obtain an individual or general permit depends on the size of the point source and type of activity producing the pollutants. Regardless of whether it is a general permit or individual permit, an entity cannot pollute without a permit and in most cases can only permit in the amounts (called effluent limitations) and ways prescribed in the permit.

Separate, but inextricably linked to the NPDES program, are CWA’s water quality standards, under which states are responsible for designating waterbody uses (such as swimmable or fishable) and setting criteria to protect those uses. If a water body fails to meet the established criteria for its use, then it is deemed impaired and the states, or EPA, if the state fails to act, must establish a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a kind of pollutant diet. The system comes full circle in that impaired waters with TMDLs can be integrated into the NPDES permits.

Neither CWA nor the NPDES program are perfect, but one need look no further than the fish we eat to understand the important role that this critical environmental framework plays in limiting human exposure to pesticides and other toxins.

CWA, Fish, and the Pesticide Connection

In the recently released Environmental Health Perspectives’ article, Meeting the Needs of the People: Fish Consumption Rates in the Pacific Northwest, the complexities of the CWA, its NPDES progam, and its water quality standards criteria are laid out in a disturbing tale of environmental justice and failing bureaucracies.

In short, Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest eat a lot of fish. It’s part of their culture and a way of life preserved in their legal and tribal rights, but they are facing increasing health risks due to the toxic chemicals in those fish. The solution to this problem seems fairly straight-forward: reduce the toxins in the water so that the levels in the fish are safe to eat. It’s a solution envisioned by CWA and its web of regulatory protections, however, as the article explains, “One of the variables used to calculate ambient water quality criteria is fish consumption rate.”

While the takeaway from the article is somewhat defeating and shows the far-reaching weaknesses of existing risk assessment methodologies, the underpinnings of the article —the connection between a water body’s water quality criteria, an entities NPDES permit, and the safety of the fish we put in our mouths— cannot be dismissed as irrelevant tales of woe. Whether the system is functioning perfectly or not, the point is that a system exists that contemplates the risks inherent to consuming toxin-laced fish and has the potential to protect the general consuming public.

From Fish Back to the Farm Bill

What does not have this ability is the Federal, Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Act (FIFRA). It is this federal framework, however, on which supporters of the House provision hang their hats and point to as the already-in-place protective standard capable of preventing water pollution from pesticides. Beyond Pesticides has debunked this argument in more ways than one. Other environmental advocacy groups have also pointed out that the sky has not fallen since EPA’s implementation of the general pesticide permit under CWA.

The Clean Water Act is intended to ensure that every community, from tribe to urban neighborhood, has the right to enjoy fishable and swimmable bodies of water. There is a lot of work still to be done to improve the nation’s waters and protect the health of people dependent on those waters. Without the Clean Water Act, there are no common sense backstops or enforcement mechanisms for reducing direct applications of pesticides to waterways. It may not be perfect, but it is better than nothing, which would be the effect of the House farm bill. We can’t afford to lose these protections.

Tell your Senators to oppose any efforts to undermine the Clean Water Act.

For more information, read our factsheet, Clearing up the Confusion Surrounding the New NPDES General Permit and visit our Threatened Waters page.

Sources: Environmental Health Perspectives, Natural Resources Defense Council, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.beyondpesticides.org/

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

State awards more than $42 million in grants for salmon recovery

Organizations in 30 counties receive funding.

Written by Valley View Staff

The Woodinville Weekly December 9, 2013

OLYMPIA – The Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership has announced the award of more than $42 million in grants to organizations around the state for projects that restore and protect salmon habitat, helping bring salmon back from the brink of extinction.

“Salmon are an important part of both Washington’s culture and economy,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “Healthy salmon populations support thousands of jobs in fishing, hotels and restaurants, seafood processing, boat sales and repair, charter operations, environmental restoration and more. I am very pleased with the work of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and its efforts to fund projects that help our economy and assure future generations of Washingtonians can enjoy the return of wild salmon.”

Funding for the grants comes from the federal Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund and the sale of state bonds. In addition, $24.4 million is from the Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund, which is jointly approved by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Puget Sound Partnership in coordination with local watersheds, for projects that will help restore Puget Sound.

Grant recipients will use the money to remove barriers that prevent salmon from migrating, reshape rivers and streams and replant riverbanks so there are more places for salmon to spawn, feed, rest, hide from predators and transition from freshwater to saltwater and back again.

Organizations in King and Snohomish counties were among those receiving grants. Grant recipients in King County will receive $4,458,129 and recipients in Snohomish County will receive $6,189,644.

Creating Healthy Salmon Habitat

Salmon populations in Washington have been declining for generations. As Washington grew and built its cities and towns, it destroyed many of the places salmon need to live. In 1991, the federal government declared the first salmon as endangered.

By the end of that decade, salmon populations had dwindled so much that salmon and bull trout were listed as threatened or endangered in three-quarters of the state. Those listings set off a series of activities including the formation of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board to oversee the investment of state and federal funds for salmon recovery.

“Without these grants, Washington’s salmon populations would continue to decline until nothing was left,” said David Troutt, chair of the state funding board. “That’s the trajectory we were on before salmon were placed on the federal Endangered Species Act list. In most areas of the state, fish are increasing or staying the same while in some important areas, fish populations are decreasing. Habitat is the key to salmon recovery and continuing to fund these important projects will help to move all populations in a positive direction.”

How Projects are Chosen

Projects are selected by local watershed groups, called lead entities. Lead entities are local consortiums that include tribes, local governments, nonprofits and citizens who work together to recruit and review project proposals and make decisions about which projects to forward to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for funding.

Lead entities ensure that the projects are based on regional salmon recovery plans that were approved by the federal government. Then regional salmon recovery organizations and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board review each project to ensure they will help recover salmon in the most cost-effective manner.

“This bottom-up process of local groups identifying what needs to be fixed in their communities and then those projects undergoing regional and state scientific review means only the best and most cost-effective projects will be funded,” said Kaleen Cottingham, director of the Recreation and Conservation Office, which administers the grants. “We have been working for more than a decade to repair the damage that has been done to salmon habitat. But we have much more to accomplish before salmon can be removed from the endangered species list. This process of local priorities and state scientific overview has proven to be the most effective way of getting projects done on-the-ground and it assures we are investing the money we have very strategically.”

The Big Picture

“Restoring our lakes, streams, rivers and ecosystem isn’t just about saving salmon. A healthy ecosystem supports human health, our economy, our traditions, and our quality of life,” said Marc Daily, interim executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership, the state agency leading the recovery of Puget Sound. “These projects help to protect and perpetuate valuable resources today and for generations to come.”

Recent Oregon studies showed that every $1 million spent on watershed restoration results in 15-33 new or sustained jobs, $2.2 million to $2.5 million in total economic activity, and that 80 percent of grant money is spent in the county where the project was located.

Using the Oregon study formula, these new grants are estimated to provide more than 630 jobs during the next four years and more than $84 million in economic activity as grant recipients hire contractors, crews and consultants to design and build projects, including field crews to restore rivers and shoreline areas.

Information about the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Recreation and Conservation Office is available online at www.rco.wa.gov.

Sacajawea: If Not For Her, We Could Be Saluting the British Flag

By Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today Media Network

Few women in U.S. history have had more influence on the nation’s history than the young Lemhi Shoshone woman, Sacajawea. It’s very likely that Lewis and Clark would never have reached the Pacific Ocean had it not been for her help. White settlement would have been different. Indian wars throughout the western half of the country would have been altered. We might even be saluting the British flag rather than the American flag. Sacajawea’s role was gigantic.

The gold dollar coin bears Sacajawea’s image.

Innumerable statues have been created of her, she has graced postage stamps and the copy gold coin bears her resemblance. Despite that, there is great confusion and disagreement about this remarkable woman. No photos exist of her, so images and statues reflect what their creator thinks she would have looked like. There is disagreement about the spelling and pronunciation of her name, even where she was born and certainly where she died. But there is no disagreement as to her role in U.S. history. The Lemhi Shoshone people claim her, but others disagree.

Sacajawea was 11 or 12 when she was captured by the Hidatsa. A couple years later she married Charbonneau. When he was hired by Lewis and Clark as an interpreter she was included because they thought she might prove helpful when they reached her homelands in what is now Montana and Idaho. Four years had elapsed since her capture so she was probably 16 when she joined the expedition.

Dr. Orlan Svingen, a historian, and professor at Washington State University, has worked with the descendents of Sacajawea, the Agai Dika people, since 1991. “Sacajawea, carrying a child, speaking Shoshone, talking to a Frenchman… She disarmed anybody because she was a woman with a child,” he said. “On top of that, when she came to this country (western Montana) she knew people and could speak with them.”

Leo Ariwite, a Lemhi cultural person, and Dr. Orlan Svingen talk in the Lemhi Valley of Idaho. (Jack McNeel)

Perhaps her first major influence on the expedition came in early May when the pirogue (boat) she was in with Charbonneau at the helm capsized. Lewis describes Charbonneau, writing, “Charbono cannot swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world.” The boat contained instruments, books, medicine, much merchandise, “in short almost every article indispensably necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprise,” Captain Lewis wrote.

Sacajawea was calm despite having her newborn son with her and was able to retrieve many scientific instruments and books. Their medical supplies were lost but they were able to continue westward. Without her help, at that point, the expedition would have been much more difficult and less successful.

According to Svingen, well before they reached what is now Idaho, Sacajawea said, “This is the home of my people.” It was August 8, 1805. They soon met some of her own, the Lemhi Shoshone people. The expedition was in desperate need of horses, winter was approaching and a massive mountain range separated them from the Columbia River and the Pacific coast. With the aid of Sacajawea as both an interpreter and friend to both the expedition and the tribe, horses were obtained and a guide, an elder they called Toby, was provided to lead them over the mountains. Without the tribe’s help and Sacajawea’s assistance, this likely would have ended Lewis and Clark’s exploration.

2. A highway in eastern Idaho is designated as the Sacajawea Historic Byway. (Jack McNeel)

“This was huge!” Svingen said about Sacajawea and the tribe’s help. “This was like atomic energy! This was enormous!” Had Lewis and Clark not reached the Pacific, they would not have been able to claim the land for the United States.

Many questions will likely remain unanswered but few will argue the importance of Sacajawea to the Lewis and Clark expedition or to her impact on U.S. history.

City prepares for winter weather

Eric Erga, Maintenance 2 Worker with the city of Marysville, stands ready by one of the city’s plow trucks for winter weather to come.— image credit: Kirk Boxleitner — Eric Erga, Maintenance 2 Worker with the city of Marysville, stands ready by one of the city’s plow trucks for winter weather to come.
— image credit: Kirk Boxleitner

By Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Although the freezing temperatures that have already arrived could be coupled with precipitation over the weekend, the city of Marysville began planning for winter snow and ice when the fall had barely started.

“We’ve got between 700-800 tons of sand here at Public Works,” said Charlie Burke, Streets and Surface Water Manager for the city of Marysville. “We’ve got an additional 200-250 tons at the north end of town, to take care of that area and the Lakewood triangle. We actually reclaim a lot of our sand.”

Burke touted the city of Marysville’s fleet of vehicles equipped for snow and ice control, including four 10-yard trucks and a single one-ton truck for plowing and sanding, another 10-yard truck that sands exclusively, two five-yard trucks, and another truck that dispenses anti-icing liquid.

“We provide 24-hour coverage, but we split it into three eight-hour shifts from Monday through Friday, and two 12-hour shifts during the weekend,” Burke said. “The number of employees per shift is slightly heavier during the day, but you’ve got about 10 during the day, between eight to 10 on the swing shifts and around eight to nine at night.”

Burke characterized last year’s winter as mild, since the city only used 830 yards of sand on its streets, but he agreed with city of Marysville Public Works Director Kevin Nielsen that road safety remains a top priority for the Streets Department, as it maintains 196 miles of streets within the city to keep traffic moving throughout Marysville as efficiently as possible.

“We check the weather forecasts daily,” Burke said on Wednesday, Dec. 4. “When we had that cold snap on Monday, [Dec. 2,] we put down de-icer, which lasts for a few days, depending on the temperature, the wind and the moisture in the air. At least every three days that the temperature is below freezing, we lay down more de-icer.”

Even before any de-icer was applied to the city streets, the city began amassing its sand supply and assembling its snow and ice response crews in September, before it met with the Washington State Department of Transportation in October to review any changes to their routes, procedures or equipment. Prior to the city’s subsequent meetings with the Marysville Police Department, the Marysville Fire District and the Marysville School District in November, to review their resources and map out how they might overlap, city crews conducted an in-house training exercise in early November.

“It’s a field exercise that gets them used to the trucks and equipment again,” Burke said.

“We’re proactive in our approach, ready and prepared for any major snow and ice events that affect Marysville this year,” Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said. “Our dedicated snow and ice response teams are ready to keep traffic moving and motorists safe on local roadways, to the best of our ability and with the least amount of disruption, while protecting lives and property.”

Just as city of Marysville Public Works and Emergency Management staff meet to share strategies and information with neighboring jurisdictions and utilities before the arrival of winter weather, so too will the city’s in-house database system track its dispatched crews’ responses to create a more efficient work flow. Nielsen added that the city’s snow and ice removal plans aim to augment that efficiency further by designating snow and ice routes, for sanding and plowing, according to prioritized zones based on the streets’ topography, traffic volumes and any special usage.

Street crews will concentrate their snow and ice removal efforts on arterials leading into and out of the city, as well as arterials on hills within the city limits, routes providing fire and police access, and then all other arterials within the city limits. As such, city crews’ responses will be focused on priority routes and arterials, such as State, 51st, 67th, 83rd and Twin Lakes avenues, as well as Fourth, Grove, 88th, 116th, 136th, 152nd and 172nd streets west of I-5 in the Lakewood area, and Sunnyside, Ingraham and Smokey Point boulevards. A full map of the city’s snow routes can be found on its website at http://marysvillewa.gov.

“We go all-out to make our roads as accessible as possible for the public, and commuters heading to and from work or schools, but the city doesn’t have the resources or the equipment to plow or sand residential neighborhood streets and cul-de-sacs,” said Burke, who acknowledged that city crews can remove snow and ice outside of those parameters, if requested by Marysville Police or Fire personnel, even as he deemed this a rare occurrence.

“We have crews driving sanitation trucks and other heavy Public Works vehicles on a daily basis, in addition to the police and their vehicles,” said Nielsen, who warned that the city might close certain roads during winter weather due to safety concerns. “We won’t jeopardize the safety of city employees by putting them in dangerous winter driving situations.”

When “Snow Closure — Do Not Enter” signs and barricades are placed at these locations, motorists and even pedestrians are advised not to go around them.

“In general, be cautious and use common sense when out driving or walking in freezing weather,” Burke said. “Make sure your tires are appropriate for the weather, either studded or with chains, and if you have to park on the side of the road, park safely. Our plows are about 10-12 feet wide, so it’s hard for them to move around a lot of cars.”

For the most current online information about local emergency or road conditions and preparedness, you can visit the city’s website at http://marysvillewa.gov, which includes several interactive features, among them an Emergency Alert Center that offers the latest updates. You can sign up to get emergency alerts sent to your email address and cell phone through the site’s “Notify Me” email subscription service.

Updates are also posted on the city’s Facebook and Twitter sites, as well as on Marysville Comcast TV 21 and Frontier TV 25 cable access stations. You can even call the city’s message-only Emergency Alert Hotline at 360-363-8118. For water and sewer emergencies during business hours, call 360-363-8100, or 911 after hours.

Winnemem Wintu reject Bay Delta Conservation Plan, denounce it as a death sentence for salmon and violation of Indigenous rights

December 9, 2013. Source: Winnemem Wintu

Chief Caleen Sisk will speak at rallies in Sacramento today and Friday and re-affirm the Winnemem Wintu opposition’s against the construction of the peripheral water export tunnels and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), as Governor Jerry Brown’s administration releases the preliminary Environmental Impact Report and the BDCP plan to the public today.

As California’s State Water Project currently operates, far too much water is sucked from the San Francisco/Sacramento Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast, and sent to the state’s water brokers, who support unsustainable industrial agriculture, destructive hydraulic fracking for oil extraction and municipal developments in the desert.

The proposed peripheral tunnels, with a conservatively estimated price tag of $54 billion, will undoubtedly kill the sensitive Delta, a delicate mix of salt and freshwater, that is vital to the life cycle of California salmon as well as thousands of other fish and species.

“There is no precedent for the killing of an estuary of this size, so how could any study be trusted to protect the Delta for salmon and other fish? How can they even know what the effects will be?” said Chief and Spiritual Leader Caleen Sisk. “The end of salmon would also mean the end of Winnemem, so the BDCP is a threat to our very existence as indigenous people.”

As one of the many traditional salmon tribes in California, the Winnemem rely on access to salmon to maintain our cultural and religious practices. The peripheral tunnels if ever constructed would therefore be in violation of our indigenous rights to maintain our cultural practices with salmon, as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Recently at a public meeting in Redding, Governor Brown’s Deputy Director of the Natural Resources Agency Jerry Meral, disclosed that the peripheral tunnels are connected to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s plan to raise Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet, a project that would destroy or submerge nearly 40 sacred sites and destroy potential salmon spawning areas. We are currently working on plans to re-introduce our salmon above the dam into the McCloud River.

The planned Delta tunnels will require more water be taken from the Trinity River and the Shasta Dam, which is fed by the Upper Sacramento, McCloud and Pit Rivers. This will add even more stress to the struggling ecology of these rivers.

This plan is not meant to benefit the public of California, native and non-native, but purely to line the coffers of the lobbyists who have been buying off Gov. Brown all along, such as Beverly Hills Big Ag billionaire Stewart Resnick and his wife Lynda who contributed $99,000 to his 2010 campaign. The Western States Petroleum Association has spent more than $4.5 million in lobbying the state government in 2013 alone.

The peripheral tunnels are a violation of the public’s trust in Gov. Brown, and not the answer to dealing with the state’s forthcoming water shortages. There are better solutions.

The Winnemem are proud to announce that we will be standing with our allies during a press conference today and a rally Friday, Dec. 13 at the West Steps of the Capitol. Chief Sisk will speak.

These events are sponsored by Californians for A Fair Water Policy and dozens of other environmental, fishing, farming, government, and water agencies.

Monday, December 9, 2013

—Press Conference and Rally at the Capitol

—Location: Starting in Room 112, moving to West Steps if needed

—Starting Time: Noon with 12:30 p.m. press conference – arrive as early as 10:30 for possible walk to California Resources Agency.

Friday, December 13, 2013

—Friday the 13th Rally to begin the 120 Day BDCP Response Countdown

—Location: West Steps of the Capitol

—Starting Time: 11:30 a.m.

This rally is sponsored by Californians for A Fair Water Policy and dozens of other environmental, fishing, farming, government, and water agencies.

To stop this boondoggle please writ letters to Governor Brown expressing your opposition to the peripheral tunnels plan! Letters should be addressed to:

Governor Jerry Brown

c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA 95814

– See more at: http://www.winnememwintu.us/news-and-media/#sthash.dUttYCD8.dpuf

Leroy Martin “Lee” Fryberg Jr.

Leroy (Lee) Martin Fryberg Jr. Leroy (Lee) Martin Fryberg Jr. Sut ‘u kaad was a Tulalip Tribal member born on November 12, 1957 in Everett, WA. He entered into rest on December 7, 2013. He was born to the late Leroy M. Fryberg Sr. and Ella M. Hill. He was also adopted out and raised by the late Robert and Keeta Cameron, where he lived with them until he graduated from Everett High School in 1976. Leroy had a large heart and was committed to serve his family and his people. Throughout his life he helped many different people any way he could, he volunteered to help out at community events, helped cook for community gatherings, he loved being out on the water, beading, cutting wood, playing sports, and especially playing and spending time with the grandkids. During Leroy’s life he worked as a logger, security officer, commercial fisherman, as well as other odd end jobs. He met his lifelong partner of 24 years, Lahneen Fryberg, and together they raised eight wonderful children, Tanisha (Merlin), Kiah (Andy), Natasha (Ryan), Josephine (Chandell), Leila, Andrew, Brandee, Cameron. Also grandchildren, Keiara, Ladainian, Kailonna, Maleia, Bryson, Anderew Jr., and Aiden. He is also survived by siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, many adopted children and grandchildren, as well as many friends. Leroy was truly blessed with an amazingly large family. Leroy is preceded in death by his parents, Leroy M. Fryberg, Ella M. Hill, Robert and Keeta Cameron; his brother, Martin J. Fryberg and sister, Dee Dee Cameron; and grandsons, Dason Blondin and Jordyn Moses. A viewing will held December 11, 2013, 1p.m. at Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home with an interfaith service to follow at the Tulalip Tribal center at 6p.m. Funeral services will be held December 12, 2013, 10 a.m. at the Tulalip Tribal Center with burial to follow at Mission Beach Cemetery.

Tulalip Tribes turn “gulch” into Greenwood Creek

Tulalip biologist Brett Shattuck strolls along the recently restored, and named, Greenwood Creek.

Source: Northwest Indian Fishieries Commission

The Tulalip Tribes recently improved rearing habitat in a small coastal stream popular with juvenile chinook.

Known to locals as “the gulch,” the unnamed stream had one of the highest densities of juvenile chinook of all the coastal streams sampled in the Whidbey basin by the Tulalip Tribes and Skagit River System Cooperative. During one electrofishing survey, natural resources staff found 280 chinook among a total of 600 juvenile salmon that also included coho and other species.

“They can live there for many weeks, so it’s more than just acclimating,” said Derek Marks, Timber Fish and Wildlife manager for Tulalip. “They’re actually rearing and growing in there.”

Despite those numbers, the tribes saw room for improvement. At the time, the gulch was little more than a ditch overgrown with invasive plants. Old county stormwater assessments referred to it as Greenwood Creek, probably named for a nearby grange.

A degraded culvert partially impeded fish passage upstream. “The culvert was rusting and on its way out,” said Tulalip biologist Brett Shattuck, project manager for what became the Greenwood Creek Stream Enhancement Project. “The stream was lined with rocks that created more of a flume than a channel.”

Greenwood Creek is county-owned and in a public right-of-way. The tribes and Snohomish County worked with Adopt-a-Stream to replace the culvert, clear the invasives and realign about 250 feet of habitat.

Interpretive signs are planned to help the public understand the importance of small coastal streams to migrating salmon. Before the restoration, people may not have realized that the small drainage ditch was being used by juvenile salmon.

“We want to show people how successful restoration can be in coastal streams, and to raise awareness that these streams have value for fish,” Shattuck said. “We monitored fish use for three years before the project and will continue to monitor it for several years after construction.”