10/19 Shaggy mane, Elwha salmon, Leque Is, Hood Canal Bridge, Pressentin Park, TM protest, SnoCo climate warriors, giant hornets

 

Shaggy mane [Jerzy Opiota/Creative Commons]

Shaggy mane Coprinus comatus
Found in the fall after a rain in the open along roadsides, near garbage dumps or decaying sawdust along old logging roads. A well-known edible mushroom of good flavor and consistency when young. (The New Savory Wild Mushroom)

The Elwha dams are gone and chinook are surging back, but why are so few reaching the upper river?
They were the king of kings in Puget Sound, the biggest chinook of them all, strong enough to muscle up the falls at the Goblin Gates and power on all the way through nearly 4 miles of chutes and falls in the Grand Canyon of the Elwha....Scientists have been tracking nature’s response. Some of what they are finding is surprising, even to them. Summer steelhead, nearly extinct in the Elwha, have come booming back to the river, all on their own. Once locked up behind the dams, rainbow trout are re-expressing their ability to go to sea as steelhead. Adult chinook returns to the river since dam removal are the highest since the late 1980s, with more than 7,600 estimated in the 2019 count. While that’s still a modest number, the Elwha represents one of the only watersheds in Puget Sound with such an uptick in population, said Sam Brenkman, chief fisheries biologist for the Olympic National Park, in an email. Colonization of the lower and middle river has been steady. But fewer chinook are reaching the deliciously cold, uppermost reaches of the watershed. Why? It’s a puzzle scientists are working on. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Healing a habitat: Leque Island estuary comes a long way in year since dikes removed
A year after breaching its dikes, Leque Island’s mudflats are now tinged with green hues. Native grasses are returning, many more bird species are visiting and new channels are being formed, helping to unlock more fish habitat. Converting former farmland on Leque Island between Stanwood and Camano Island into salt marsh finished about a year ago. The project, 15 years in the making, restored about 250 acres of tidal marsh to the Stillaguamish River watershed — one of several area habitat restoration projects. (Stanwood-Camano News)

Minor bridge modifications could help young steelhead escape from Hood Canal
Help could be on the way for migrating steelhead and salmon in Hood Canal, where many young fish are killed each year by seals and other predators that lie in wait at the Hood Canal floating bridge. As many as 50 percent of the steelhead migrants perish as they arrive at the bridge, where predators pick them off one by one. The bridge is supported by floating concrete pontoons, forming a nearly solid barrier across the waterway. Young steelhead generally swim near the surface, making them especially vulnerable to predation, although some fish will dive under the bridge to get to the other side. Engineers are currently designing minor modifications to a few bridge pontoons to help the fish find their way through existing gaps in the structure. Chris Dunagan reports. (Puget Sound Institute)

Small step taken in Pressentin Park project
At Skagit County’s little-known Pressentin Park in Marblemount the landscape is awash in fall colors and the fast-moving Skagit River has turned a rain-fed brown to match. The real star of this scene, though, is less obvious. It’s the fish moving from the river to a slower-paced side channel called Marblemount Slough. A patient observer might see their underwater silhouettes and the occasional splash of a tail leaving ripples in its wake. This time of year those glimpses may be of coho salmon returning to the slough to spawn. The slough is also visited during winter by spawning chum salmon and at other times of the year serves as a resting place for young coho, chinook salmon and steelhead trout. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

5 arrested after standing in way of Trans Mountain pipeline construction in B.C. Interior
Five people including a Secwepemc hereditary chief and his daughter have been arrested after standing against construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project on Secwepemc territory in Kamloops, B.C. A statement from the Sacred Woman's Fire Council said the group was arrested near a work site on Mission Flats Road on Thursday as pipeline crews prepared to drill underneath the Thompson River. Those arrested include Hereditary Chief Segwses, Loralie Dick, April Thomas, Billie Pierre and Romilly Cavanaugh, the latter of whom is a former engineer for the Trans Mountain pipeline. (CBC)

From worriers to warriors, they’re fighting climate change
Local environmental groups are forming, growing and attracting new members, young and old. Julie Titone reports. (Everett Herald)

Asian giant hornet could spread quickly in B.C., says study
A new study says a large invasive hornet could spread throughout western North America unless coordinated mitigation efforts are implemented...The new study was published last month in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. It said the insect "could rapidly expand its invasive range throughout western North America absent coordinated mitigation efforts." Paul van Westendorp, B.C.'s provincial apiculturist, is skeptical of the study's assumptions. He said the methodology of the study relied in part on the distribution of another invasive species of hornet in Europe, Vespa velutina. Frédérik-Xavier Duhamel reports. (CBC)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  219 AM PDT Mon Oct 19 2020   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 7 ft  at 9 seconds. A slight chance of rain. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming NW after midnight. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 7 ft at 9 seconds.

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