Island creeks see returning salmon

Published 11:10 am Tuesday, November 25, 2025

One of the most exciting markers of the change of seasons is the anticipation of the first autumn rains, and with them, the returning salmon to our island creeks.

You may have noticed there’s been a lot of fish talk from your friends at the Land Trust — for good reason. The health of our forests and streams depends on nutrients derived from the sea. When salmon return to our creeks, the spawned-out adults are carried into the forest by river otters, eagles and coyotes. Their remains act as fertilizer for the surrounding trees and ferns as they decompose. If you’ve ever used fish fertilizer in your garden, you know what a powerful punch these nutrients can grant to growing plants.

While we have seen a general uptick in salmon returns over the past 10 years, thanks in part to restoration efforts in our creeks, the story of Puget Sound salmon is one of overall decline. What can be done here on Vashon to return these runs to their historic numbers? What could an increased salmon population mean for the health of the Salish Sea and the forests that depend on them?

Thankfully, there are local organizations not only asking these questions but working on solutions based on the most up-to-date scientific research. This month we were thrilled to welcome Dr. Jacques White, CEO of Long Live the Kings, to speak during our First Friday Speaker Series. Long Live the Kings is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring wild salmon and steelhead runs in the Pacific Northwest.

Salmon in the Salish Sea, Jacques explained, used to be larger, more plentiful and more genetically diverse. Now, thanks in part to climate change, disease, predation, overharvest and the obstruction of natal streams and rivers, populations of Puget Sound salmon are severely threatened — with some even in danger of extinction.

We heard anecdotes from island fishermen who have seen firsthand the trend toward smaller and less plentiful fish, but this decline affects much more than our dinner tables. The lush woods so synonymous with the Pacific Northwest depend on the annual influx of nutrients — especially nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus — from the returning salmon. These trees and shrubs in turn provide habitat, food and, crucially here on Vashon, trap water in our single-source aquifer.

Just offshore of the island, the average adult salmon is now about 18 pounds, down from over 30. Our southern resident orcas must expend much more energy chasing down smaller and scarcer fish, leading to heartbreaking losses due to lack of food.

So what can be done? With the experience and knowledge from our partners at Long Live the Kings, the Puyallup Tribe and the Vashon Nature Center, the Land Trust will begin the first step in a multi-pronged strategy to increase salmon returns to our island creeks. Our creeks are enticing enough for some salmon to make the journey upstream to spawn, but historically there were much larger salmon runs here on the island.

Maybe the answer lies in a simple, trash can-shaped device. Remote site incubators (RSIs) may look simple, and that’s part of their beauty. Chum eggs, sourced from Puyallup Tribal Fisheries, will be deposited in the RSI, where the waters of Judd Creek will circulate. When the fish hatch, they can grow safely until their yolk sacs are consumed, then swim out into the creek and make their way to Quartermaster Harbor. In three years, we hope to see this first batch of chum return to spawn, having imprinted on the waters of Judd Creek when their eggs incubated inside the RSI.

The Vashon Nature Center has an incredible team of Salmon Watcher volunteers who take fin clippings of spawned salmon found in our creeks. These clippings can be tested to determine the parentage of returning salmon. With luck, some of these chum will have been the little babies reared in our creeks, completing their lifecycle by spawning.

While we’ll have to wait three years to see the results of this experiment, the Land Trust will not be idle. There is plenty of restoration work to be done in the creek while we await our wayward fishy youth. For the past 20 years, we’ve made a lot of progress in improving the spawning habitat for both chum and coho salmon, but there is much more work to do.

If you would like to aid the Land Trust in this work, please consider making a donation or joining our volunteer team by visiting vashonlandtrust.org.

Jenny Stamper is the operations manager at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust.