South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group
Protecting and restoring salmon populations and aquatic habitat with an emphasis on ecosystem function through scientifically informed projects, community education, and volunteer involvement.
Poor downstream passage over the dam crest and face results in injury and reduced survival of juvenile salmon and trout leaving Chambers Creek.
The dam impedes tidal flow, sediment transport, tidal marsh habitat, and food-web production for fish.
Restoration of Chambers Bay and removal of the dam is of local importance for survival and production of Chambers Creek salmon and also regionally important to provide critical rearing habitat for all Puget Sound salmon and trout populations along a section of shoreline between the Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers where feeding and rearing opportunities are limited.
SPSSEG is one of many on a team of project partners working together to design and permit actions to remove the Chambers Creek Dam and restore estuarine habitat throughout Chambers Bay.
The project partner team includes SPSSEG, Forterra Northwest, Pierce County Planning and Public Works, WDFW, and the Medicine Creek Treaty Tribes, namely the Puyallup, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island Tribes.
SPSSEG has been a project sponsor for the Family Forest Fish Passage Program since its inception. Assisting private forestland owners in removing culverts and other barriers to fish.
Crescent Creek flows into Gig Harbor and supports both coho and chum salmon, as well as a robust population of coastal cutthroat.
SPSSEG worked with a landowner on Crescent Creek to remove a barrier culvert that had failed twice in the past 5-years, leaving the landowners stranded.
Removing this barrier restored access to nearly a mile of upstream salmon habitat.
Along with the installation of a 50’ full spanning bridge, a series of 4 log jams were constructed and 200-feet of channel reconfiguration took place to reduce erosion and encourage sinuosity of the channel.
If you are a landowner who may be interested in finding out if you qualify for full assistance through the FFFPP program please visit:
Kennedy Creek is located in the South Puget Sound draining into the Totten Inlet.
SPSSEG coordinates the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, an educational gem that is used to showcase the salmon life cycle in Puget Sound.
Most years there is an average between 14,000 to 30,000 chum salmon spawning in Kennedy Creek. However, some years have boasted over 80,000 chum salmon on the spawning grounds!
Each year about 2,500 students visit the trail during classroom field trips, and an additional 3,000 people from the community visit. Many visitors return each fall to watch the salmon spawn.
As the trail ages it is starting to show wear and tear from the harsh rainforest climate, and needs occasional maintenance and repairs to ensure the public can safely view the salmon spawning.
Click HERE to check out more on the history of the trail, from restoration to education.
Through the Salmon in the Schools program, SPSSEG brings salmon into the classroom so kids can watch and care for their own schools salmon eggs as they develop into small fish.
Partnering with high-poverty elementary schools in Mason and Thurston counties, each school receives 100-200 chum salmon eggs to raise.
Students watch them hatch into alevin, then release them as fry in their local rivers.
The kids love to name their fish as they wish them well on their journeys.
We currently work with 8 schools, reaching about 700 students with hands-on lessons covering the salmon life cycle, salmon species, water quality, salmon habitat/ecosystems, and how people can help salmon.
SPSSEG provides all aquariums, supplies, instruction, a fall field trip to see spawning chum salmon at Kennedy Creek, and a spring salmon fry release event.
Click HERE to learn more about the Salmon in the Schools program at SPSSEG.
“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.”
(Baba Dioum, 1968.)
