The Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, located between Olympia and Shelton (here is a map), will be open for visitors on weekends beginning Saturday October 31, through Sunday November 29. This is an excellent opportunity for local South Sound residents to see thousands of chum salmon spawning in a natural environment.

This is the ninth year of the Trail, and we have shown a tremendous amount of growth during the past several years. The Trail is a community asset and each year over 5,000 people visit the Trail to learn more about salmon. This year the Trail will be also highlighted in the 2009 November issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine. Come check out what all of the hype is about.

The half-mile trail is hosted by the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG) and Mason Conservation District (MCD) and is partially ADA accessible. Volunteer trail guides will be on-site during the weekends to answer any questions. For more general information, call (360) 412-0808 x 2 or go to spsseg.org.

The Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail is directly supported by SPSSEG and MCD (plus many other partners). Taylor Shellfish owns the Trail property and has committed to a 20-year lease with SPSSEG.

Open to the Public:
Saturdays and Sundays, October 31 to November 29
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Holidays Open: Wednesday, November 11 and Friday, November 27
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Directions
The Salmon Trail is located off Highway 101 halfway between Olympia and Shelton. Southbound from Shelton, turn west on Old Olympic Highway at milepost 356. Northbound from Olympia, turn west on Old Olympic Highway between milepost 358 and 357. Go ¾ mile to a gravel logging road signed “Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail.” Follow the gravel road ½ mile to the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail parking lot.

Group Tours
Weekday visits for schools and other organized groups are available by reservation only. For more information or reservations, contact Stephanie at the Mason Conservation District (360) 427-9436 x 13 or stephanie@masoncd.org

While we were there we took a look at what was happening in the creek.

There were amazingly a few live chum, but most of them were in an advanced state of decay.

Notice the whiteness in the water around the fish? It isn’t a reflection,  it is (they are) actually saprophytic oomycetes or (water molds). These molds are a keen source of food for the caddisfly larvae that put on their best growth at the time of the fall salmon return. You’ll notice that in the late summer and early fall, the caddisfly larvae, encased in a sheath of sand and rock particles, develop on the rocks in the stream bed, growing big enough to roam around (Larry Dominguez, personal communication 12/12/08).

This life history is one that has adapted to specific types of available nutrients at a certain time of year. It is one of the mecahnisms for the absorption into the food chain of marine derived nutirents (Larry Dominguez, personal communication, 12/12/08).

Here is a photo that shows the entire stream bed covered by the water molds:

Now, we like to keep it real here at SPSSEG….

and we just couldn’t help ourselves from prodding some carcasses to see what was happening inside of them…

and just beneath them…

Maggots galore! Yet another way the marine-derived nutrients pass from salmon to others in the food chain.

Here’s a little video for those of you who are interested in some more maggot action ; )

LETS NOT FORGET THE WILDLIFE CAMERA!

This is the first year we installed a game camera to catch predators in the act of eating the Kennedy Creek chum. Though we did not catch anything like bear (though we know they’re out there!), we did get some critters on film. (Alas, there is always next year.)

This week it is clear to me that salmon are such an integral part of the health of this ecosystem.  Even in death they provide for new generations of many different organisms.  In nature it seems nothing goes to waste!

Chums Swimming and Dying

Station 3 did not provide the best viewing this week since most of the salmon were too close to the bank to see well.  It did, however, host some active, redd-building females and associated males.  These fish, unlike their kin upstream at Stations 8/9, were brightly colored and relatively healthy (not pictured.)

Since my last blog the turbid water had cleared up and the water level had fallen.

Of course, there were many dead salmon in the vicinity as well as the sea gulls that feasted on them.   Eagles and mink are other common predators that were also spotted this weekend.

The tell tale sign of the end of the season is, of course, the smell that keeps on giving : )

Fiscus Creek, while hosting spawning salmon earlier in the season, had not a single (visible or audible) live salmon.  In fact, the number of dead salmon in both creeks far outnumbered the live salmon.

The smell, to me, has become an oddly welcomed signal of the salmon’s return and of the season.  I am well aware these dead chum offer new life to the forest ecosystem, particularly to their offspring, who will emerge from the gravel as fry in the spring, fortified for the 18,000 mile journey ahead of them.

Stations 8/9 were once again clear since the higher flows have subsided.

The conditions were ideal for viewing our chums.  At this point, most of the fish in the creek were covered in fungus that made female hard to distinguish from male.  In fact, they looked a bit like koi…

I also noticed that Fiscus and Kennedy Creeks had a layer of silt that now covered the creek bed, disguising reds and the gravel that was ‘cleaned’ by the females constructing their redds.

All in all, this was a successful season for our docents and staff.  The salmon run, on the other hand, was very small compared to recent years.  About 17,000 chum made it to the creek this year.   This small return could have had to do with any number of variables such as conditions in the creek when the salmon were incubating or emerging, estuary conditions, or ocean conditions.

We look forward to welcoming back greater numbers next year.

Be sure to check our website in the coming week or so for photos from our wildlife camera.  We positioned this camera at the trail about halfway through the month to capture wildlife in the act of eating dead and dying salmon.  We’ll just have to see what the camera card may hold…

This weekend brought unusual and much welcomed sunshine to the Kennedy Creek Trail. We enjoyed nearly 500 inquisitive and excited visitors on Saturday alone.  We even had the pleasure of welcoming visitors from the Seattle area, who read about the trail in this recent Seattle Times article.

The latest update from the Squaxin Island Tribe revealed that as of last week 12,000 chum were estimated to have traveled into Kennedy Creek since the beginning of the month. This year, the target number for escapement is 14, 050.

For a good overview on the importance of escapement numbers, click here.  Here is information about how escapement is determined locally, as well as actual escapement numbers, from the WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife.

Onward to the trail!….

Since two weeks ago, when I last blogged, Fiscus Creek has come alive with chum.  It became the focal point of the weekend since flows turbid from recent rain events made viewing difficult in Kennedy Creek.

Instead of freshly fallen leaves there were dead salmon strewn about the creek bed.  At this point, in Fiscus Creek, live fish outnumbered the dead (which could be due in part to the high flow events of the past week).  I expect that the carcasses will far outnumber the live fish by the end of the month.

Though not much spawning activity seemed to be going on overall, there was one pair that kept at it all day long.  I have video footage of their spawning behavior, which it appears is too large to upload to the site, I’ll have to see if that can’t be changed.

Station 3, though certainly not as exciting as Fiscus Creek, was a different place from the beginning of the month when flows did not reach bankfull width, and the water was clear enough to see salmon in the main channel.

Now high flows have engulfed the stream bed and created turbidity, making viewing difficult.  However, these high flows have activated off channel habitat, crucial for the survival of the juvenile and adult life stages of salmon.  The photo below shows an activated side pool, where the chum took refuge to conserve energy.

Stations 8/9 were also different from the beginning of the season.

While this photo was taken from a slightly different vantage point it is possible to see that the gravel bar, covered with leaves and other material, is completely engulfed by the water.

The freshet, or flood, produced by last week’s rain events seems to have cleared out carcasses, and there did not seem to be as many salmon present in general.

Spring and fall freshets are a factor that heavily influences the start of salmon migration, whether it is for juvenile salmon to head out to the estuary in the spring, or in this case, for adults to begin the migration upstream. It is likely that this fall freshet will induce another wave of migration up the creek.

Another thing of note was the smell of rotting carcasses.  While the smell was not all-pervasive, it had changed from the clean, fresh air of the beginning of the season.  On a personal note, it can be really hard to watch all of this death happening before your eyes (my eyes), and it can be sad at times.  But it is worth taking the time to consider that these fish live to die.  The fact that they even make it back to their natal ground is amazing, and when they spawn and die they have fulfilled their life’s meaning.

For more details about the sights and sounds of this weekend, please see my photo journal.

Well, that concludes this week’s news.  There are still two weeks to catch the salmon at the trail, I hope to see you out there!

Bridge over Fiscus Creek

Our opening weekend brought us nearly 300 visitors and several dozen chum, and on Saturday, we were given a day of rain that left as we arrived, and came back as we closed up the trail.

Regardless of the weather, I always find Kennedy Creek magical.  Greeting these amazing creatures who have travelled thousands of miles in a dance they and their ancestors have carried on for millenia is, to me, an experience and a privilege not to be missed.

The connections sparked in conversations between myself and visitors, the docents and visitors, make for meaningful conversation that is just, quite frankly, hard to find these days.  We stand together in awe of salmon, and from the connection of the salmon we take off on foot paths that lead us to make meaningful connections to our lives and to each other, if only for a short time.

What better way to express my gratitude in the month of Thanksgiving than to express it to the salmon and the people that make this experience what it is.

Turning to the Creek itself………

Fiscus Creek was not yet high enough to bring salmon into it.  A blanket of maple leaves, which dominated much of the trail, was the most striking feature of Fiscus Creek, whose water was flowing slightly higher and faster.

Fiscus Creek bed

Station 3 provided some of the best salmon viewing on Saturday.  Several females vyed for space and began to ‘dig’ their redds here.  The creek flows still appeared to be relatively low, much as they were last week.  The water itself was relatively clear, the substrate still pretty dark.

Station 3

The real treat of the day was Station 8/9, where we all got a close up view of a beautifully striped female, who appeared to have constructed her first ‘redd,’ where most of her eggs will be deposited.  A dominant male kept several satellites at bay, one of whom, I believe, prematurely released some milt. We also saw, for our purposes, the first carcass of the season nearby.

Station 8/9

We crowded around the redd for what seemed like an eternity, held captive by the thought that the next moment may just be the moment they spawn.

Likely the product of wishful thinking, I thought I saw her crouching into her redd, one of the signs that a spawn is imminent.  Had this been a true spawn, the female would have crouched and gaped her mouth wide open, the dominant male joining her, releasing his milt as she released her eggs.  The satellite males rushing in, adding their gametes to the mix.

I found myself amused by antics I imagine the fish would find very serious.  At one point all was quiet and peaceful in this redd.  Then a fish passed several feet away and suddenly attacked what seemed like nothing.  This set off a chain reaction in the chum occupying the redd, and suddenly the water was alive with the thrashing, snapping gyrations of the salmon.

Well, that ends my weekly reflections on my day at the Trail.  I look forward to hearing yours

All enjoyed a fascinating talk on salmon biology Steve Schroder, a WDFW salmon research biologist, a salmon dissection by Bruce Stewart, fish pathologist from the NWIFC, and a guided walk through the trail by long-time, expert docent Ken Guza.

I think it is safe to say we all left energized and excited for the opening weekend (Nov. 1) of the Trail.

In other news…

One of the aims of this blog is to track the progression and change in the creek throughout the month of November.  To follow this transformation, I will provide weekly descriptions of the creek from Station 3, the bridge overlooking Fiscus Creek, and Stations 8/9.

During the Saturday (Oct. 25) training, temperatures rose to around 60 degrees F as the sun emerged.  The vine maples were aflame with the color yellow, as they underwent their winter senescence.  As I walked the trail I welcomed the scents of the fresh autumn air, the decomposing leaves, and the earth itself.  Clear water peacefully flowed through Kennedy Creek and it’s tributary, Fiscus Creek.

The water that flowed by Station 3 barely reached the level of the side channel that runs directly in front of the mesh netting viewing area.  Leaves and assorted detritus covered the side channel gravel.

The benthic zone, or bottom of the stream, was composed of substrate that ranged from fine sediment to medium sized gravel.  I expect that once salmon are actively spawning in the stream channel, the fine sediment will be displaced from the suction created by the female as she ‘digs’ her nest, or redd, a word that has Scottish roots meaning “to clear or tidy.” Females will indeed ‘clean’ and ’sort’ the gravel in their redds and thereby displace the organic matter that now darkens the gravel in the stream.

The Fiscus Creek bridge overlooked what amounted to a trickle of water, certainly not high enough to accomodate the large-bodied chum.  The water flowed its low, well-worn pathways, and detritus blanketed the stream banks.

At Stations 8/9, the water was high enough to be approximately 4 to 5 feet from the mesh netting at the viewing station.  It was here that a single, diligent male chum was seen making his way up the creek.

This one salmon was a contrast from the 10 or so males I saw that navigated their way up the creek almost two weeks ago.  Here the stream bed also appeared dark with organic material, and very sandy.  It would seem that this sandy bottom would be an unsuitable substrate for the chum, who require medium sized gravel for their redds.

As the season progresses, we can all expect these conditions to change dramatically.  Please check back next week for continuing updates, including current photos.  Of course, don’t forget to visit the trail and experience the magic for yourself!

After some rain, it turned out to be a crisp, sunny fall day.  We were accompanied by the splashing of male chum salmon, who are already making their way up the creek to spawn.

Male salmon typically begin to arrive before females at the spawning site, a phenomenon which is called protandry (more typically associated with flowering plants).

Though the reasons for protandry are poorly understood, it is thought that it may be part of the males’ strategy to maximize mating opportunities and may facilitate mate choice by females (Morbey, 2000).

Be sure to keep checking our Kennedy Creek Blog for the latest news and updates from the trail, as well as video footage of spawning salmon.