1. Nooksack: Climate Change; Past Problems, Future Solutions
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South Fork Entry
Upstream Migration/ Holding
Spawning
Intragravel Development
Age-0 rearing
Age-0 outmigration
Age-1+ rearing
Age-1+ outmigration
Nooksack: Climate Change; Past
Problems, Future Solutions
Impacts from previous land-use, defined as legacy impacts,
surrounding the Nooksack River in Washington State have
degraded salmon spawning habitat. Sections of the Nooksack
River are listed on the Clean Water Act’s 303(d) list for
exceeding water temperature, fine sediment, and turbidity
standards, all of which are the results of legacy impacts. With
funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
the Water Resources Program of the Nooksack Indian Tribe
developed a pilot research project that supports the Total
Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that addresses excessive water
temperatures in the South Fork Nooksack River. The project
was a collaborative effort between the tribe, EPA’s Office
of Research and Development, EPA’s Region 10 Office of
Water and Watersheds, Washington Department of Ecology,
the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (UW
CIG), and Tetra Tech. The pilot TMDL included a quantitative
assessment of likely altered temperatures with continued
climate change and a qualitative assessment that addresses
climate change impacts to salmon and salmon habitat, and
how to design and implement salmon habitat restoration
that is effective in the face of climate change and updates the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) salmon recovery plan.
Nooksack: Always Bracken Fern Roots
The Nooksack Tribe is headquartered 15 miles east of
Bellingham in the town of Deming, Washington. With 2,000
members and 1,000 acres of trust land, the Nooksack Tribe
places great significance on the usual and accustomed lands
of the 720,000 acres of the Nooksack and Samish River
watersheds. The Nooksack River watershed extends north
into British Columbia, headwaters on Mt Baker and the North
Cascades, and flows west into Bellingham Bay. As with many
Pacific Northwest tribes, salmon are of central importance to
Nooksack identity.
Legacy Impacts Altered
the Nooksack River
There are nine species and distinct populations of Pacific
salmon in the Nooksack River, three of which are listed on
the ESA list. Spring chinook salmon are of particular interest
to the Tribe. The current spring Chinook salmon population in
the Nooksack River is only 8% of its 1895 population. Status as
an ESA species reduced both the harvest levels and hatchery
production as a means to protect wild stock. Despite these
restrictions, the salmon populations continue to be in a state
of decline due primarily to habitat disruption.
Old growth Douglas fir trees that reached 280 feet defined
the natural conditions of the Nooksack River. These towering
trees shaded the river’s channel and created natural log jams
that provided habitat, shade, and protection from predators
for salmon fry. Past land-use practices that induced legacy
impacts include forestry, agriculture (by clearing forested
floodplains), removal of large woody debris (logs and log
Figure 1. Spring Chinook Life Stage Periodicity in the South Fork and Vulnerability to Climate Change Impacts.
█ – Increased Winter Peak Flows █ – Loss of Spring Snowmelt Reducing Discharge
█ – Increased Summer Temperatures █ – Decreased Summer Low Flows and Increased Temperatures
█ – Respective Life Stage Periodicities

2. Nooksack: Climate Change; Past Problems, Future Solutions
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jams), and flood control (bank armament and dikes). Legacy
impacts severely hindered, and continue to hinder, the
natural salmon spawning ground habitat along the Nooksack
River. The Nooksack River is now shallower, wider, and less-
shaded. River water is now warmer and also turbid from
fine sediment that continues to be deposited from exposed
hillsides and forest roads.
Projected Climate Change Impacts
will Exacerbate Legacy Impacts
As part of the pilot TMDL, climate change projections were
provided by UW CIG. Three climate change impact scenarios
(low, medium, and high impact) were used through the time
frames of the 2020’s, 2040’s, and 2080’s. Climate change will
negatively affect all salmon life stages as shown in Figure 1.
Generally, across all impact scenarios, climate change will
result in:
• Higher peak winter flow with less snow-pack
• Higher water temperatures during the critical
low flow period (August through September)
• Lower summer flow and increased
plant evapotranspiration
• Possible higher incidence and magnitude of floods
• Further loss of cool water refugia that salmon
require during the critical low flow period
• Higher incidence of wildfire in the watershed
• Increased warm-weather disease among
fish: lethal bacteria Columnaris
• Reduced dissolved oxygen, reduced
solubility and higher metabolic rates
Through the present, smaller glaciers at the headwaters
of the South Fork Nooksack River (SFNR) have melted and
ablated due to recent climate change. As the SFNR glacier
ablates the cool temperature modulating effect of the melt
water will diminish and the melting ice will expose silt
deposits that have been protected by glacial ice for thousands
of years. The exposed silt will wash off the mountain and
into the tributaries, adding even more sediment to the
river channel. Increased turbidity will further harm eggs,
fry, benthic invertebrates, cause gill trauma, and interfere
with juvenile salmonid’s feeding habits. Higher winter peak
flow will further exacerbate sediment transportation along
the Nooksack River and will increase redd scour and reduce
egg-fry survival. Continued loss of glacial melt water as the
glaciers further ablate will further diminish the important
late summer season flows so critical to salmon in the river.
Actions to Adapt to the
Changing Climate
The Nooksack Tribe understands the importance of creating
and restoring salmon habitat that is more effective at
facilitating ecosystem resilience and salmon survival in the
face of climate change. Nooksack’s Habitat Program has
identified several actions to ameliorate climate change
impacts on the SFNR, see table below. One example of
an already completed action is the installation of 142
engineered log jam structures that will act as a bridge for
salmon habitat while other restoration projects are prepared
and implemented in the near future.
The Nooksack Tribe will also recommend several actions
that need to be added to the existing plans for the Water
Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 1 salmon recovery plans.
WRIA 1 is a collaboration of the Nooksack and Lummi
tribes, City of Bellingham, Whatcom County, PUD #1, local
municipalities, and NGO’s. Further collaboration between
private landowners, forest industry and agricultural land
users, and state and federal regulatory bodies will be needed
to implement actions across various land and resource
management areas.
Lessons Learned
The Nooksack Tribe has learned several lessons from this
project including the importance of collaboration among
agencies and stakeholders, leadership through outreach and
sharing information, and the long term effort that is needed
to solve long term problems such as climate change.
Category Techniques or Actions Climate Change Effect (ameliorated) Status
Longitudinal
Connectivity
Remove/improve barriers and culverts Improves salmon resilience by allowing salmon
access to tributaries
Conduct feasibility of natural barrier
removal
Restore Riparian
Vegetation
Planting, removal of non-native plants Restoration of vegetation along the river has
the potential of dampening the climate change
water temperature increase by 2°C.
Continuing, In progress
Floodplain
Reconnection: Lateral
Levee/revetment removal and setback Temperature increase, peak flow increase,
sediment increase, improves salmon resilience
Requires landowner stewardship,
partial
Floodplain
Reconnection: Vertical
Log jams to promote aggradation and
cool water refugia in scour pools
Temperature increase, base flow decrease,
peak flow increase, sediment increase
Continue to construct more log jams
where scour pools intersect to receive
cool groundwater inflow
Stream Flow Regimes Reduce water withdrawals Temperature increase, base flow decrease Update WRIA 1
Instream Rehabilitation Engineered Log Jams Temperature increase, sediment increase
(context dependent)
Continuing
Reduce Erosion &
Sediment Delivery
Address chronic stream-adjacent
sediment sources
Sediment increase Continuing monitoring of forest
practice and forest road abandonment
and restoration