Annual Report from the Treaty Indian Tribes in Western Washington 2022

1. Annual Report from the Treaty Indian Tribes
in Western Washington
2022
Tribal Natural Resources Management

2. 2 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Member Tribes of the
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

3. 3
2022 Annual Report
Year in Review........4
Harvest Management..... 9
Salmon........6
Shellfish........7
Marine Fish........8
Hatchery Management........9
Habitat Management.......10
Wildlife Management.......11
Regional Collaboration.... ...
Puget Sound Recovery.. ...12
Water Resources.......13
Ocean Resources.......14
Forestry Management ......14
NWIFC Activities.......15
Contents
Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission
6730 Martin Way East
Olympia, WA 98516
(360) 438-1180
contact@nwifc.org
nwifc.org
nwtreatytribes.org
Above: Jason Fernando of the Upper Skagit
Tribe lowers a crab pot in Skagit Bay.
Photo: Richard Walker
Map, opposite page: Ron McFarlane

4. 4 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Northwest Indian Fisheries Com-
mission lost an irreplaceable leader in
August when our chairperson, Lorraine
Loomis, walked on.
Lorraine’s contributions to protecting
treaty rights can’t be overstated. Before
she was elected NWIFC chairperson, she
served as a commissioner for more than
40 years, many of those sitting beside
Billy Frank Jr. as vice chair.
We know that no one person can step in
to do everything that Lorraine did for us,
but together we’re committed to carrying
on the work that she and Billy started to
protect our treaty resources.
At the December meeting, NWIFC
commissioners elected Ed Johnstone
of the Quinault Indian Nation to fill the
remainder of Lorraine’s term through
May 2022.
Billy Frank Jr. to Stand
at the U.S. Capitol
Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation
in April to place a statue of longtime
NWIFC Chair Billy Frank Jr. in the Na-
tional Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, D.C.
“He stood up for the law of the United
States and represented the best of Wash-
ington state,” Inslee said. “When Billy
spoke, people listened. His presence in
the National Statuary Hall will keep more
people listening for generations to come.”
State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, (D-Bow),
sponsored the legislation designating
Billy Frank Jr. as one of two statues
from Washington to stand in Statuary
Hall, retiring a statue of pioneer Marcus
Whitman that has represented the state
since 1953.
“Billy was a dedicated advocate for
equality, justice and environmental
protections, and his statue will serve to
honor his legacy and as a call to action
for all who see it,” Lekanoff said.
To contribute to the creation of the Bil-
ly Frank Jr. statue, visit salmondefense.
org/donate-statue.
Treaty Rights at Risk
In January 2021, President Joe Biden
issued a Memorandum on Tribal Consul-
tation and Strengthening Nation-to-Na-
tion Relationships. However, tribal treaty
rights continue to be diminished by poli-
cies implemented without consultation.
In April 2021, NWIFC tribes urged
Biden to issue an executive order to cre-
ate legal obligations for federal agencies
to develop and implement a strategic
action plan to protect our treaty rights.
These obligations should include autho-
rization to direct modifications of federal
regulations, direct discretionary agency
funding, and recommend legislative
changes and appropriations of necessary
funds.
Habitat Recovery in Fisheries
Management Planning
Every year, it gets more and more
challenging for tribal and state fisher-
ies co-managers to plan salmon fishing
seasons. Salmon populations continue
to decline because of the ongoing loss of
freshwater salmon habitat combined with
increased temperatures in oceans and
rivers from climate change.
One of Lorraine Loomis’ legacies
was bringing habitat recovery into the
fisheries management process. She
worked with the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife to create a co-man-
agers’ habitat work plan for the North of
Falcon season setting process. The plan
requires that wherever salmon fisheries
are constrained by weak stocks, we must
improve the habitat. The work began in
2020, with a pilot project in the Stillagua-
mish watershed.
The Lorraine Loomis Act
In December 2021, Gov. Jay Inslee
proposed the Lorraine Loomis Act,
following the recommendations of a
state-tribal workgroup formed after the
2019 Centennial Accord meeting, when
Inslee directed state agencies to develop
a uniform, science-based management
approach to make sure salmon have the
cool, clean water they need to survive.
It is the first proposed legislation that
would require landowners to protect
riparian habitat. It is groundbreaking be-
cause it included incentives for landown-
ers to create and maintain riparian zones,
as well as regulatory backstops when
compliance isn’t voluntary.
The Lorraine Loomis Act was a start-
ing point that sought to protect and grow
trees in the riparian zones along salmon
and steelhead streams.
Tribes have been pushing for legisla-
Year in Review
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee holds up the signed
bill that authorizes a statue of Billy Frank Jr. to be
installed as one of two statues that represent the
state in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building.
From left, then-Nisqually Chairman Ken Choke,
Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Rep. Debra Lekanoff, who
sponsored the bill, and Willie Frank III, son of Billy
Frank Jr. and Nisqually tribal councilman at the
time. The signing was held at Wa He Lut Indian
School at Frank’s Landing, where Billy Frank
Jr. spent many years with his parents and was
arrested many times during the Fish Wars. Photo:
Debbie Preston

5. 5
2022 Annual Report
tion like this for years, but this isn’t an
“Indian bill.” Numerous environmental
groups as well as recreational and com-
mercial fishing organizations support it
because they understand that we’re all in
this together.
Holding Developers
Accountable
Land-use regulations make it impossi-
ble to gain ground on habitat restoration.
The only way for salmon to come out
ahead is if we can protect against the
loss of their habitat before development
occurs.
Unfortunately, current regulations
favor development over habitat. Develop-
ers are permitted to build now and make
some attempt to repay the environmental
costs later.
Tribes are hopeful that a study funded
in the 2021 state legislative session will
better define the concept of “net ecologi-
cal gain” and recommend how to apply it
to state environmental and land-use laws.
This must be a sharp departure from
the approach used in the Shoreline
Management Act and Growth Manage-
ment Act. At best, these laws attempt to
balance development with conservation
by trading environmental impacts in one
place with improvements elsewhere, not
necessarily in the same watershed.
Impacts of Recreation
on Treaty Resources
An increase of recreational activities
on public lands has degraded treaty-pro-
tected resources in recent years. This es-
calated during the coronavirus pandemic
when tribal fishermen were displaced by
sport fishermen and recreational boaters,
beaches and forests were littered with
human waste and drug paraphernalia,
and the biodiversity of trails and forests
was threatened by human overuse. Tribes
have been meeting with state and fed-
eral agencies to ensure that meaningful
government-to-government engagement
involves tribes in recreation policy, plan-
ning, funding, assessment and project
implementation.
Top: Tulalip Tribes
hunter Amanda
Shelton had to find a
new place to elk hunt
after her traditional
places were overrun
by hikers, bikers and
mushroom pickers.
Photo: Amanda
Shelton. Left: Port
Gamble S’Klallam
tribal fishermen
Matthew Tom
and Matthew Ives
exercise their treaty
rights in Quilcene
Bay, harvesting coho
salmon. Photo: Tiffany
Royal

6. 6 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
State and treaty tribal salmon co-man-
agers worked through another challenging
season-setting process in 2021.
“Salmon survival rates are declining
because of the ongoing loss of freshwater
salmon habitat combined with ocean heat
waves from climate change,” said NWIFC
Chairperson Lorraine Loomis at the time.
Higher marine water temperatures,
changing currents, a disrupted ocean
food chain, and increased predation from
marine mammals are the main causes of
reduced ocean survival. Salmon that return
are often smaller than normal and females
carry fewer eggs.
Every year, the co-managers meet
through the North of Falcon process to
make tough decisions with the goal of pro-
viding limited harvest for fishermen and
fishing communities while still protecting
weak salmon stocks.
The three stocks driving conservation
concerns were Queets and Snohomish
river coho and Stillaguamish River chi-
nook. The two coho stocks have failed to
respond to rebuilding efforts that began in
2017. Stillaguamish chinook continue to
decline mostly because of poor freshwater
habitat conditions. All three needed even
more protection in 2021 than they did the
year before when fishing seasons already
were highly restricted.
Coastal treaty troll tribes took the
drastic step of proposing a zero option for
ocean harvest of Queets River coho. Poor
returns spurred the tribes to propose a zero
option for all ocean coho fisheries for the
first time in 2016.
Tulalip Tribes fisheries managers struc-
tured fisheries for chinook, coho and pink
salmon in Tulalip Bay to reduce impacts
on both coho and chinook.
After harvesting only 21 of 30 ceremo-
nial chinook allocated in 2020, the Still-
aguamish Tribe again reduced its ceremo-
nial harvest to take just one fish in 2021.
“Despite harvest cuts of 80-90 percent
over the past four decades and careful use
of hatcheries, salmon populations have
continued to decline,” Loomis said.
“The tribal and state salmon co-man-
agers can’t fix the habitat problem by
ourselves,” she said. “We need additional
state and federal agencies, local govern-
ments, environmental groups, agriculture,
industry and others to join us. That’s
because fishery managers can’t make more
fish. Only good habitat, hatcheries and
working together can do that.”
Harvest Management: Salmon
Treaty Indian tribes and the Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife co-manage salmon fisheries in Puget Sound,
the Strait of Juan de Fuca and nearshore coastal waters.
• For decades, state and tribal salmon co-managers have
reduced harvest in response to declining salmon runs.
Tribes have cut harvest by 80 to 90 percent since 1985.
• Under U.S. v. Washington (the Boldt decision), harvest
occurs only after sufficient fish are available to sustain
the resource.
• The tribes monitor their harvest using the Treaty Indian
Catch Monitoring Program to provide accurate, same-
day catch statistics for treaty tribal fisheries. The program
enables close monitoring of tribal harvest levels and
allows for in-season adjustments.
• Tribal and state managers work cooperatively through
the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the North
of Falcon process to develop fishing seasons. The
co-managers also cooperate with Canadian and Alas-
kan fisheries managers through the U.S./Canada Pacific
Salmon Treaty.
Salmon Season Proves Difficult for 2021
Stillaguamish fisheries biologist Anya Voloshin passes a chinook salmon to fisheries enhancement
biologist Kip Killebrew during broodstock collection for the tribe’s North Fork Stillaguamish hatchery
program. Photo: Kari Neumeyer

7. 7
2022 Annual Report
Harvest Management: Shellfish
Treaty tribes harvest native littleneck, manila, razor and
geoduck clams, Pacific oysters, Dungeness crab, shrimp
and other shellfish throughout the coast and Puget
Sound.
• Tribal shellfish programs manage harvests with other
tribes and the state through resource-sharing agree-
ments. The tribes are exploring ways to improve
management of other species, including sea cucum-
bers, Olympia oysters and sea urchins.
• Tribal shellfish enhancement results in larger and
more consistent harvests that benefit both tribal and
nontribal diggers.
• Shellfish harvested in ceremonial and subsistence
fisheries are a necessary part of tribal culture and
traditional diet.
• Shellfish harvested in commercial fisheries are sold
to licensed buyers. For the protection of public
health, shellfish are harvested and processed accord-
ing to strict co-manager and national standards.
• Tribes continue to work with property owners to
manage harvest on nontribal tidelands.
• In 2020 (the most recent year for which data is
available), treaty tribes in western Washington com-
mercially harvested more than 800,000 pounds of
manila and littleneck clams, 1.8 million pounds of
geoduck clams, 450,000 oysters, 4.7 million pounds
of crab, 150,000 pounds of sea cucumbers, 300,000
pounds of green and red sea urchins, and 250,000
pounds of shrimp.
After months of toxin-induced closures,
Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) diggers got
a chance to harvest razor clams during
brief openers in April, May and June
2021.
Domoic acid, a naturally occurring tox-
in in shellfish that doesn’t harm the clam
but can sicken or kill humans, had been
present in amounts too high for digging
since fall 2020.
“It’s great to see the community out
here again, enjoying each other’s compa-
ny and connecting with the culture,” said
Sonny Davis, Quinault Pride Seafoods
manager.
Tribes have a reserved treaty right to
50 percent of the razor clam harvest on
the beaches north of Grays Harbor. QIN
members talk about being “clam hun-
gry” when razor clams are unavailable
to harvest for ceremonies and to freeze.
During a late May commercial dig, some
tribal members were there to make extra
money while others taught youth how to
dig clams.
“It’s slow teaching them, but they are
old enough now and you just have to be
patient,” said Lloyd Saunders. He and his
wife took four children out on a tempes-
tuous day with high winds and occasional
showers.
“It’s just nice to get out here and exer-
cise our treaty right,” Saunders said.
Quinault Pride Seafood has one of
the only commercial packing plants for
razor clams on the West Coast, outside of
Alaska.
Commercial fishermen buy the clams
for crab bait, while the highest graded
meat is vacuum-packed and sold in mar-
kets. There also is a live market demand
in Asia, said Shane Underwood, plant
manager.
In nice weather, when tribal member
participation is high, the seafood plant em-
ployees put in about 12 hours to process
the clams.
The temperature of the clams is taken
frequently, as required by state health
guidelines, to ensure the product remains
at or below the safe maximum tempera-
ture.
Employees cut away the shell, grading
the steaks for either high-end public sale
or crab bait. Clams also are smoked and
canned in a separate room.
The tribe has a store next to the plant
stocked with all manner of seafood plus
items fishermen and diggers might need
such as dry bags, mud boots and shovels.
A new store in Amanda Park opened in
early June to better serve the tourist mar-
ket on the Olympic Peninsula. Quinault
Pride Seafood products also can be found
at quinaultpride.online.
Razor Clam Harvest Opens on the Coast
Quinault Pride Seafood employees grade, trim
and pack razor clams. Photo: Debbie Preston

8. 8 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Nisqually Tribe is testing whether
sinking cedar boughs and evergreen trees
near the mouth of the Nisqually River will
attract spawning herring.
The traditional practice could be a way
to improve herring numbers in South
Puget Sound.
“My mother loved the herring eggs,”
said Don McCloud, Nisqually tribal
member. “But by 30 years ago, we had to
rely on our friends in British Columbia to
bring her eggs because we just didn’t see
the herring around here anymore.”
Herring are small, oily fish important
to the entire marine food chain, including
salmon, seals, sea lions and orcas. They
also give marine animals an alternative to
eating salmon and steelhead, which would
help protect threatened species.
“While we were finding herring in our
research of the Nisqually River estuary
and bays around it, we don’t know if they
are a distinct population or ‘strays’ from
one of the two known stocks of herring in
South Puget Sound,” said Chris Ellings,
the tribe’s salmon recovery manager. “We
also know that there have been large-scale
changes to the habitat that herring use to
spawn, primarily eelgrass and bull kelp.
For example, many of the bull kelp beds
that were noted on old maritime charts are
no longer there.”
The tribe decided to inventory the
eelgrass beds in their traditional areas and
any herring spawn they found. Addition-
ally, as a pilot project, cedar boughs and
evergreen trees were sunk in areas where
elders used to do the same and harvest the
bounty.
“Herring spawn well into the spring, so
while we aren’t finding herring eggs on ei-
ther the eelgrass or sunken boughs yet, it’s
still early,” Ellings said. “Other creatures
are laying their eggs in both eelgrass and
the sunken boughs, however.”
The surveys take place about once
every 15 days in late winter, then every
10 days as the weather warms and herring
spawn more quickly.
The Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife (WDFW) surveys herring
spawning throughout Puget Sound, but
not the area around the Nisqually delta.
“While they haven’t been surveying
Nisqually, we found a partner in (the non-
profit organization) Long Live the Kings
to help us do the rake survey method
that WDFW uses to survey eelgrass and
herring spawn,” Ellings said.
“We know there has been a decline
in eelgrass and kelp that parallels the
armoring of the bank for the railroad with
lots of rock,” Ellings said. “That loss of
sediment input means there isn’t a lot of
healthy bottom for those plants to tether to
in those areas.”
The surveys find healthier popula-
tions of eelgrass near areas that are not
armored. The tribe hopes the traditional
knowledge and the surveys might help
jumpstart the herring population in South
Sound.
“Elders have been talking about that
history to me for 30 years and really want
there to be healthy stocks of herring to
bring that food back to their table,” said
David Troutt, the tribe’s natural resources
director. “They would love to see it.”
Harvest Management: Marine Fish
The treaty tribes are co-managers of the marine fish
resource and work closely with state and federal agencies
and international forums to develop and implement
conservation plans for all marine fish stocks in Puget Sound
and along the Pacific Coast.
• The tribes actively manage marine fisheries including
purse-seining for sardines and anchovy, midwater
fisheries, bottom trawl fisheries and fixed gear fisheries.
Important species to the tribes include Pacific halibut,
sablefish, petrale sole, Pacific hake and lingcod.
• The treaty tribes have been active through the Pacific
Fishery Management Council on issues that relate to the
management of all groundfish stocks including sablefish,
Pacific cod, lingcod, petrale sole and yelloweye
rockfish. Tribal representatives serve on the Coastal
Pelagic Species Management Team, Endangered Species
Working Group, Ecosystem Workgroup and Groundfish
Management Team.
• Under the council’s management, most groundfish and
coastal pelagic stocks are healthy with the exception
of yelloweye rockfish and sardines. A sardine stock
rebuilding plan was initiated in September 2020 and
yelloweye rockfish is scheduled to be rebuilt in 2027.
• The tribes have been increasingly involved with the
International Pacific Halibut Commission process.
The tribes, with the states of Washington, Oregon and
California, reached an agreement in 2019 for a 1.65
million pound quota, of which the tribes are allocated 35
percent through 2022. The tribes hope to extend that as a
minimum harvest level for the foreseeable future.
Can Evergreens Improve Herring Habitat?
Emiliano “Nano” Perez, Nisqually tribal fisheries
technician, prepares to sink evergreen trees and
cedar boughs in the hope herring will spawn on
them in South Sound. Photo: Jack McDermott,
Long Live The Kings

9. 9
2022 Annual Report
Hatchery Management
Northwest tribes are supporting south-
ern resident orcas by releasing more fish
from their hatcheries so the whales have
more prey to feed upon.
A lack of salmon, especially chinook,
is a primary reason for the decline of the
whales, and chinook stocks from Puget
Sound have been identified as priority
stocks for their diet.
The state Legislature has provided
funding to tribal and state hatcheries to
increase production for the orcas, said
Ron Olson, hatchery programs manag-
er for the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission. Initially, the funding was
just for chinook, but it has been expanded
to include coho and chum salmon, which
orcas also eat.
The goal of the funding was to identify
facilities with unused rearing capacity to
raise more fish, Olson said, and if needed,
make minor infrastructure improvements
to help support expanded capacity, such as
installing new net pens or rearing con-
tainers. Nine tribes and 12 hatcheries are
involved.
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe
received more coho yearlings this year
through the implementation of Gov. Jay
Inslee’s Southern Resident Orca Task
Force recommendations. The Port Gamble
Bay coho net pen program releases an av-
erage of 380,000 smolts annually but was
able to release 486,000 in 2021.
For 2022, the Port Gamble S’Klal-
lam Tribe anticipates receiving 550,000
yearlings from the state’s George Adams
Hatchery near Shelton for its net pen pro-
gram. The fish are reared in the saltwater
net pens for three to four months prior to
their release so they can acclimatize to
increase survival.
The Skokomish Tribe benefited from
the program by being able to improve the
infrastructure at its Enatai Hatchery while
increasing the capacity to raise fish.
The tribe removed old concrete race-
ways and 50-year-old fiberglass tanks, and
upgraded to circular ponds. New incuba-
tion boxes were installed, as was a chiller
system to help regulate the growth of fish.
The Skokomish Tribe currently raises
3,000,000 juvenile chum at its hatchery
and plans to increase that to 5,000,000.
The upgrades also would allow the tribe
to add new fish stocks, such as coho salm-
on, said Jonathon Wolf, the tribe’s natural
resources deputy director.
The Tulalip Tribes also received
funding that contributed to long overdue
hatchery upgrades to the Bernie “Kai-
Kai” Gobin Hatchery, including new wells
and raceways, and increasing the water
supply by four times to support increased
chinook production and improve water
quality.
The success of the effort will depend
on monitoring hatchery releases as they
out-migrate from the rivers and when
they return as adults, said Mike Crewson,
Tulalip Tribes fisheries enhancement
biologist.
“The best, most robust way to increase
hatchery production to support the orcas
is to assess chinook growth as they move
through the estuary and nearshore to the
deeper offshore marine environment,
and compare that to the returning adults’
growth and survival, so we can refine
rearing and release strategies if warrant-
ed,” he said.
Monitoring will help assess the con-
tribution to the whales’ diet and address
concerns regarding how hatchery fish
affect the survival of natural-origin chi-
nook.
“The bottom line is that we’re trying
to increase the contribution to southern
resident killer whales’ diets with the least
impact on wild fish,” he said.
Tribes Increase Hatchery Fish Production for Orcas
Tulalip lab manager Adam Vela measures a juve-
nile chinook salmon as part of monitoring efforts
to learn more about the survival and growth of
hatchery fish. Photo: Kari Neumeyer
Hatcheries must remain a central part of salmon
management in western Washington as long as lost and
degraded habitat prevent watersheds from naturally
producing abundant, self-sustaining salmon runs of
sufficient size to meet tribal treaty fishing rights.
• Treaty Indian tribes released more than 35 million
salmon and steelhead in 2020 (the most recent year for
which data is available), including 16.7 million chinook,
9.3 million chum and 7.9 million coho, as well as more
than 100,000 sockeye and more than 590,000 steelhead.
• Most tribal hatcheries produce salmon for harvest by
both tribal and nontribal fishermen. Several serve as wild
salmon nurseries that improve the survival of juvenile
fish and increase returns of depressed salmon stocks that
spawn naturally in our watersheds.
• Tribes conduct an extensive mass marking and coded-
wire tag program. Young fish are marked by having their
adipose fin clipped before release. Tiny coded-wire
tags are inserted into the noses of juvenile salmon.
The tags from marked fish are recovered in fisheries,
providing important information about indicator stocks,
marine survival, migration, harvest rates and hatchery
effectiveness.

10. 10 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Habitat Management
Habitat protection and restoration are essential for recov-
ering wild salmon in western Washington. Tribes are taking
action to recover salmon in each watershed, and have
restored thousands of miles of habitat.
• Work began in 2020 to make habitat restoration part of
the North of Falcon season setting process. A pilot proj-
ect is ongoing in the Stillaguamish watershed. The state
and tribal co-managers’ habitat work plan derived from
the treaty tribes’ 2018 habitat strategy, called gw
∂dz
adad
(pronounced gwa-zah-did) in the Lushootseed language.
The name translates to “Teaching of our Ancestors.”
gw
∂dz
adad, along with a story map, can be found at nwtt.
co/habitatstrategy.
• The NWIFC Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and
Assessment Program (SSHIAP) provides data manage-
ment and analysis assistance to member tribes. SSHIAP
maintains the State of Our Watersheds Report, which is
updated every 4 years, assessing habitat conditions and
gauging progress toward salmon and ecosystem recov-
ery. This report is available at nwifc.org/sow.
• Tribes continue to collaborate with the state of Washing-
ton to fix the fish-blocking culverts that were the subject
of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court
affirmed a ruling that state blockages of salmon habi-
tat violate tribal treaty rights. The state was ordered to
remove barriers to fish passage.
• Tribes conduct extensive water quality monitoring for
pollution and to ensure factors such as dissolved oxygen
and temperature levels are adequate for salmon and
other fish. To make limited federal funding work to its
fullest, tribes partner with state agencies, industries and
property owners through collaborative habitat protec-
tion, restoration and enhancement efforts.
• In western Washington, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Coastal Salmon
Recovery Fund has supported projects that have restored
and protected fish access to more than 1 million acres of
spawning and rearing habitat, and removed hundreds of
fish-passage barriers.
After last summer’s record high tem-
peratures and low water flow, Lummi
Natural Resources staff discovered about
2,500 dead adult chinook in the South
Fork Nooksack River.
The tribal and state natural resourc-
es staff that sampled the water and fish
carcasses determined that the die-off was
the result of severely degraded habitat
quantity and function.
All of the fish tested positive for three
pathogens well known to kill salmon when
water temperatures rise above acceptable
levels: Flexibacter columnaris, Ichthyoph-
thirius multifiliis and freshwater diatoms.
Even without extreme weather events,
South Fork Nooksack chinook have been
exposed to lethal conditions for the past
40 years.
The mass mortality in September co-
incided with a record number of chinook
returning to the tribe’s Skookum Creek
Hatchery. The work to bring the popula-
tion back from extinction was undermined
by an overall failure to protect and restore
riparian habitat.
“Sadly there is no political or public will
to fix the problems, and very few options
exist to prevent this catastrophic event
from happening again,” said Lummi Indi-
an Business Council member Lisa Wilson.
“A major change is needed to restore and
protect salmon habitat, especially with
Washington state’s booming population
growth.”
Federal and state permitting regulations
make it easier for new housing devel-
opments to destroy habitat than it is to
restore habitat. Among these regulations
is the Federal Emergency Management
Agency’s “no-rise” policy that prevents
Lummi from conducting in-river resto-
ration work that could prevent another fish
die-off from happening.
In the South Fork Nooksack, water tem-
peratures consistently exceed the estab-
lished lethal threshold for adult chinook.
The river is designated under the Clean
Water Act as temperature impaired. The
habitat also suffers from legacy impacts
and ongoing destruction from land conver-
sion like logging, agricultural and popula-
tion growth.
“We are using our Lummi-owned
hatcheries and working with our region-
al co-managers here in the Nooksack
watershed to solve a problem we didn’t
create, so we can recover this traditional
food source and live our Schelangen (way
of life),” Wilson said. “We need private,
local, state, and federal partners to step up
and do their part.”
Degraded Habitat Cause of Major Chinook Die-Off
Devin Flawd, left, and Tim Taylor, both with Lummi Natural Resources’ Stock Assessment Division, sur-
vey the chinook mortalities in Skookum Creek following last summer’s heat dome event. Photo: Donald
Kruse, Lummi Natural Resources

11. 11
2022 Annual Report
Wildlife Management
The treaty Indian tribes are co-managers of wildlife
resources in western Washington.
• Tribal wildlife programs work with state agencies
and citizen groups on wildlife forage and habitat
enhancement projects, regularly conducting wildlife
population studies using GPS collars to track migra-
tion patterns.
• Tribes implement occasional hunting moratoriums
in response to declining populations because of
degraded and disconnected habitat, invasive species
and disease.
• Western Washington treaty tribal hunters account for
a small portion of the total combined deer and elk
harvest in the state. In the 2020 season, treaty tribal
hunters harvested a reported 404 elk and 571 deer,
while nontribal hunters harvested a reported 5,228
elk and 29,435 deer.
• Tribal hunters hunt for sustenance and most do not
hunt only for themselves. Tribal culture in western
Washington is based on extended family rela-
tionships, with hunters sharing game with several
families. Some tribes have designated hunters who
harvest wildlife for tribal elders and others unable
to hunt for themselves, as well as for ceremonial
purposes.
• As a sovereign government, each treaty tribe devel-
ops its own hunting regulations and ordinances for
tribal members. Tribal hunters are licensed by their
tribes and must obtain tags for animals they wish to
hunt.
• Many tribes conduct hunter education programs
aimed at teaching tribal youth safe hunting practices.
Treaty tribes on the Olympic Peninsula
will be placing more than 300 trail camer-
as on the peninsula to keep an eye on the
wildlife.
From 2021-2023, the Jamestown S’Klal-
lam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Makah, Port
Gamble S’Klallam and Skokomish tribes,
and Point No Point Treaty Council, will
place the cameras across the northern and
eastern portion of the peninsula. They
will target cougars, black bears, bobcats,
coyotes, deer and elk with a goal of devel-
oping a multi-tribe approach to collective-
ly monitor wildlife and how the different
species use the peninsula.
In partnership with Olympic National
Park and U.S. Geological Survey, 30 addi-
tional cameras also will be placed within
the Elwha River watershed, monitoring
the wildlife that use restored sites where
two fish-blocking dams prevented fish
from swimming upstream for nearly 100
years until 2014.
“Our ultimate goal is to develop long-
term monitoring and research strategies
for wildlife in our wider historic hunting
area, as well as within the Elwha River
restoration area,” said Kim Sager-Fradkin,
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s wildlife
program manager.
The goal of the work is three-fold: Cre-
ate baseline population estimates for the
six species and develop long-term moni-
toring plans, gather data about the species
that use the Elwha watershed and how
they are responding to the restoration,
and develop a camera system model that
can be used by other tribes and agencies
within their areas.
In addition to using the trail-camera
network, the tribal collaborative plans to
radio-collar 60 cougars over a three-year
period with a goal of understanding the
important wildlife corridors that con-
nect the different habitat wildlife need to
survive.
“Each of the tribes has been pursuing
their own wildlife studies and monitor-
ing program, and everyone has the same
goal,” Sager-Fradkin said. “As we work
collaboratively to meet our goals and
objectives, each tribe will benefit from the
results of the work through better under-
standing of our shared wildlife resources.”
The camera images will be stored in
a comprehensive photo database, from
which the tribes will determine baseline
populations of the six species and get a
picture of where and how the animals use
the Olympic Peninsula.
“By collaring cougars, we see them as
an umbrella species that helps us docu-
ment existing wildlife travel corridors and
habitats across the Olympic Peninsula
that should be protected and preserved,”
Sager-Fradkin said.
Funding for these projects came from
a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tribal
Wildlife Grant and an Administration For
Native Americans Environmental Regula-
tory Enhancement Grant.
Point No Point Treaty Council biologist Dylan
Bergman sets up a wildlife game camera on the
Olympic Peninsula to estimate wildlife populations.
Photo:Tiffany Royal
Tribes Collaborate on Wildlife Monitoring

12. 12 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Regional Collaboration: Puget Sound Recovery
The Port Gamble S’Klallam
Tribe has been trying to figure
out why juvenile steelhead
are not getting past the Hood
Canal Bridge.
Turns out, the problem is
mostly the bridge itself.
The bridge’s floating pon-
toons, which span 80 percent
of the width of the canal and
extend about 13 feet under-
water, appear to be impeding
steelhead, chinook and chum
out-migration, said Hans
Daubenberger, the tribe’s
senior research scientist.
Predators, such as seals, are
feasting on the fish blocked by
the bridge.
“The driving issue is that
the bridge acts like a dam,”
Daubenberger said. “Fish
within the several hundred
meters of the bridge weren’t
surviving.”
From 2017-2019, the tribe
and partners in the Hood Ca-
nal Bridge Ecosystem Assess-
ment Project studied how and
why juvenile steelhead and
other species were not migrat-
ing past the bridge.
Partners include National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s (NOAA)
Northwest Fisheries Science
Center, Long Live The Kings,
Pacific Northwest Nation-
al Laboratory, Hood Canal
Coordinating Council, and the
state departments of Fish and
Wildlife, Transportation, and
Ecology.
Fish coming out of Hood
Canal were tagged with tiny
acoustic transmitters, includ-
ing smolts from Big Beef
Creek and the Skokomish
River. When they reached the
bridge, acoustic tag receivers
on the pontoons picked up
the swimming patterns of the
individual steelhead, noting
if the fish had made it past the
bridge or not.
Scientists from NOAA
discovered there was up to 50
percent mortality of juvenile
steelhead at the bridge, pri-
marily by predation, Dauben-
berger said.
Fish in the top 6 feet of the
water column are the most af-
fected by the bridge, Dauben-
berger said.
Steelhead seemed to follow
the currents and visual cues
along the bridge’s pontoons as
if they were a dam, rather than
diving under the pontoons
to pass it, he said. Fish were
observed feeding on plankton
in the pontoons’ corners where
eddies form, creating easy
access for predators.
Juvenile chinook and chum
also were observed being
preyed upon by seals and sea-
birds at heavy rates.
The next steps are to design
and implement structural
changes to the bridge that
would guide the fish around
the pontoons. The only long-
term solution is to replace the
bridge, Daubenberger said.
Why Steelhead Aren’t Getting Past The Hood Canal Bridge
The southern side of the Hood Canal Bridge is making it hard for juvenile
salmon to continue their journey to the ocean. Photo: Port Gamble S’Klallam
Tribe
Puget Sound is the second largest estuary in the United
States and is the heart of the Salish Sea. Its resources have
been overallocated to industrial and recreational uses for
decades, leading to a steady decline in the health of the
estuary.
• In 1988, Congress designated Puget Sound as an Estu-
ary of National Significance, further acknowledging the
critical contributions that Puget Sound provides to the
environmental and economic well-being of the nation.
Through the National Estuary Program, the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) works with tribal, state
and local partners to aid in the protection and restoration
of this iconic and ecologically important place.
• In 2007, the state of Washington created the Puget
Sound Partnership (PSP), dedicated to working with
tribal, state, federal and local governments and stake-
holders to clean up and restore the environmental health
of Puget Sound by the year 2020. While this did not
happen, the work continues. This group continues to
work toward a coordinated and cooperative recovery
effort through the Partnership’s Action Agenda, which is
focused on decreasing polluted stormwater runoff and
protecting and restoring fish and shellfish habitat, along
with many other environmental concerns.
• The Tribal Management Conference was created in 2016
through EPA’s model for the National Estuary Program for
Puget Sound. It increases the ability of tribes to provide
direct input into the program’s decisional framework
both at the federal and state level. The Tribal Manage-
ment Conference is working to implement a list of bold
actions that can turn around salmon recovery in Puget
Sound. The bold actions fall under several broad catego-
ries: Protect remaining salmon habitat, create a transpar-
ent and open accountability system for habitat, stop all
water uses that limit salmon recovery, reduce predation
on salmon, improve monitoring and increase funding for
habitat restoration.
• Treaty tribes in western Washington participate in Puget
Sound Day on the Hill, a two-day advocacy effort each
spring in Washington, D.C., where tribes discuss issues
with federal, state and local leaders. In 2020 and 2021,
the event was held virtually.

13. 13
2022 Annual Report
Regional Collaboration: Water Resources
Long-simmering conflicts over water
use in the Nooksack River basin could be
resolved through a legal process known as
adjudication.
The Washington state 2022-23 budget
allocates $1 million for the state Depart-
ment of Ecology to adjudicate water rights
in the Nooksack River, along with Lake
Roosevelt near Spokane.
The Lummi Nation and Nooksack
Indian Tribe have pushed for decades for
a legally binding determination of water
rights. Ecology estimates the process will
take 10 to 20 years to complete.
Water in the Nooksack basin is a limit-
ed resource threatened by the increasing
demands of a growing human population
and the impacts of climate change.
From the tribes’ point of view, water
does not belong to any one person.
“Everything belongs to future gen-
erations,” said George Swanaset Jr.,
Nooksack natural and cultural resources
director. “We are only the caretakers.”
State law agrees: water belongs to the
public.
“We don’t own water just because we
bought land, just because we can drill a
well or install a pump to a stream that
might go next to or even through our
land,” said Robin McPherson, Ecology’s
water resources adjudications assessment
manager. “It is a public resource.”
Legally, the right to use water is first-
come, first-served, but there’s never been
a court ruling that inventoried how much
water there is in the Nooksack basin, and
who is using how much, which is the only
means to achieve certainty.
“Without adjudication, we can’t simply
decide that a senior water user that’s been
there for a long time is being impaired by
a junior water user,” McPherson said.
Nobody disputes that the tribes hold the
senior water rights.
Key among tribal treaty-protected
rights is the continued right to harvest
salmon, which need plenty of cold, clear
water to survive. Unfortunately, Nook-
sack River salmon populations have
declined because of degraded habitat,
poor water quality and insufficient stream
flow.
The tribes and state are working to
restore salmon habitat, but without water
adjudication, it is impossible to protect
the water.
Adjudication will not take away any-
one’s legal right to water. The court will
look at historic water use to find how
much water everyone should be using.
“Adjudicating water rights allows us
to live here sustainably,” said Katherine
Romero, Nooksack general manager. “We
have listened to farmers, and they have
said they need a water bank, or exchange,
to move water rights where they are need-
ed. Adjudication is how that happens.”
Legal Process Can Resolve Water Rights Conflicts
An aerial view of the Nooksack River, where a
long-awaited adjudication process has begun in
hopes of resolving water rights conflicts. Photo:
Kari Neumeyer
The Coordinated Tribal Water Quality Program was created
by the tribes in Washington state and the federal Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) to address water quality
issues threatening tribal rights and resources.
• EPA’s General Assistance Program (GAP) was established
in 1992 to improve capacity for environmental protec-
tion programs for all tribes in the country. The treaty
tribes in western Washington have been advancing the
“Beyond GAP” project to build on these investments and
creating the environmental implementation programs
necessary to meet national environmental protection
objectives.
• Tribal programs are essential to combat threats to treaty
resources such as declining water quality and quantity. In
western Washington, climate change and urban devel-
opment negatively affect water resources and aquatic
ecosystems and will get worse with the state’s continued
explosive growth. The population is expected to increase
by more than 1 million to 8.8 million people by 2035.
• Tribal water resources program goals include establish-
ing instream flows to sustain harvestable populations of
salmon, identifying limiting factors for salmon recovery,
protecting existing groundwater and surface water sup-
plies, and participating in multi-agency planning pro-
cesses for water quantity and quality management.
• Ongoing concerns include toxics in our waters and foods.
Tribes are continuing work to finalize and implement
more protective Human Health Criteria for keeping toxic
chemicals out of our water and first foods, revising the
state’s aquatic life criteria, finding a solution to the 6PPD
chemical in tire debris that kills salmon, and reducing the
impacts of stormwater runoff.

14. 14 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Regional Collaboration: Forestry Management
The state of Washington, the Hoh, Makah and Quileute
tribes, and the Quinault Indian Nation work with the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other
partners to integrate common policy, management and
research goals to better understand changing ocean condi-
tions and create the building blocks for better management
of these resources.
• In recognition of the challenges facing the Olympic
coast ecosystem, the tribes and state of Washington
established the Intergovernmental Policy Council (IPC)
to share information and guide management of Olympic
Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS). Many of the
research and planning goals established by tribes and
the state support U.S. Ocean Policy. In 2019, the tribes
worked with their partners to reauthorize the IPC through
2022, and are actively supporting the OCNMS in drafting
their upcoming condition report and in preparing for
their upcoming management strategy review.
• The tribes also are active members of the OCNMS
Advisory Council, the Ocean Acidification Sentinel Site
steering committee, the Northwest Association of Net-
worked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) Govern-
ing Council, regional Marine Resource Committees, the
Washington Coastal Marine Advisory Council, the West
Coast Ocean Alliance and the Pacific Fishery Manage-
ment Council.
• Climate change, ocean warming, ocean acidification,
hypoxia, harmful algal blooms and invasive species are
top priorities. Because of their unique vulnerability and
place-based rights, coastal Indigenous cultures are lead-
ers in adaptation and mitigation in response to events
driven by climate change. It is important to monitor
changes to ocean conditions due to climate change,
natural cycles such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and
El Niño-Southern Oscillation, disruptions due to marine
heat waves, harmful algal blooms and seasonal upwell-
ing. Tribes are working with NANOOS and other state
and federal partners to improve monitoring of marine
conditions and access to data products necessary for
effective decision-making.
• The tribes continue to work with the state of Washington
and federal partners to respond to the findings of and en-
act the recommendations of the state’s Blue Ribbon Panel
on Ocean Acidification. Several tribes are members of
the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidifica-
tion, including serving on its Executive Council. Tribes
also are working with the state Department of Natural
Resources to monitor ocean acidification conditions in
nearshore waters as part of the Acidification Nearshore
Monitoring Network (ANeMoNe) program, although this
program has not been extended to the outer coast yet.
The tribes are working closely with the state and other
partners to monitor for harmful algal blooms and to en-
sure that shellfish are safe for consumption.
• The tribes and the federal government are working to
map marine resources on Washington’s outer coast using
the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Stan-
dard (CMECS) as part of the Habitat Framework project.
CMECS uses habitat data to provide a more compre-
hensive understanding of habitats and their ecosystem
function. The habitat maps produced in this process will
be used to improve management by looking closer at the
relationship between habitat and species. Learn more at
nwtt.co/oceanmaps.
Two processes – the Timber/Fish/Wildlife (TFW) Agreement and the Forests and
Fish Report (FFR) – provide the framework for adaptive management by bringing
together tribes, state and federal agencies, environmental groups, counties and
private forestland owners to protect water quality and the habitat of salmon,
wildlife and other species, and provide for the economic health of the timber
industry.
• Treaty tribes in western Washington manage their forestlands to benefit
people, fish, wildlife and water.
• Reforestation for future needs is part of maintaining healthy forests, which are
key to maintaining vibrant streams for salmon and enabling wildlife to thrive.
• Forestlands are a source of treaty-protected foods, medicine and cultural
items.
• A tribal representative serves on the state’s Forest Practices Board, which sets
standards for activities such as timber harvest, road construction and forest
chemical applications.
Suquamish tribal member Denita Holmes and Dena’ina tribal member Joey Holmes harvest cedar bark
for use in traditional clothing, baskets, masks and other items. The inner bark is carefully removed so not
to damage the tree, cleaned on site and taken home to dry and prepare for use. Photo: Tiffany Royal
Regional Collaboration: Ocean Resources

15. 15
2022 Annual Report
Harvest Management
• Long-range planning, salmon recovery efforts and federal
Endangered Species Act implementation.
• Develop pre-season agreements, pre­
-season and in-season
run size forecast monitoring, and post-season fishery analysis
and reporting.
• Participate in regionwide fisheries management processes
with entities such as the International Pacific Halibut
Commission and Pacific Fishery Management Council.
• Marine fish and shellfish management planning.
• Facilitate tribal participation in the U.S./Canada Pacific
Salmon Treaty including organizing intertribal and
interagency meetings, developing issue papers and
negotiation options for tribes, serving on technical
committees and coordinating tribal research associated with
implementing the treaty.
• Administer and coordinate the Treaty Indian Catch
Monitoring Program.
• Provide statistical consulting services.
• Conduct data analysis of fisheries studies and develop study
designs.
• Update and evaluate fishery management statistical models
and databases.
Environmental Protection
• Protect and restore the productive capacity of freshwater,
marine and land-based fish, wildlife and plant communities.
• Support tribal habitat protection and restoration priorities
and objectives. The tribal habitat strategy, gw
∂dz
adad, can be
found at nwtt.co/habitatstrategy.
• Provide policy and technical expertise, coordination and
analysis regarding fresh and marine water resources, forest
and agricultural practices, growth management and climate
change.
• Engage science and technical support to maintain a
comprehensive inventory, assessment and analysis of
watershed conditions.
• Develop policies to strengthen and align federal, state and
local authorities to protect tribal treaty resources.
Hatchery Management
• Assist tribes with production and release of an average of 36
million salmon and steelhead each year.
• Coordinate coded-wire tagging of more than 4 million fish
at tribal hatcheries to provide information critical to fisheries
management.
• Analyze coded-wire tag data.
• Provide genetic, ecological and statistical consulting for tribal
hatchery programs.
• Provide fish health services to tribal hatcheries for juvenile
fish health monitoring, disease diagnosis, adult health
inspection and vaccine production.
Information and Education
• Provide internal and external communication services to
member tribes and NWIFC.
• Develop and distribute communication products such as
news releases, newsletters, videos, photos, social media and
web-based content.
• Respond to public requests for information about the tribes,
their treaty rights, natural resources management activities
and environmental issues.
• Work with federal and state agencies, environmental
organizations and others in cooperative communication
efforts.
• Respond to state and federal legislation.
Wildlife Management
• Manage and maintain the intertribal wildlife harvest database
and the collection of tribal hunting regulations.
• Provide assistance to tribes on wildlife issues.
• Respond to and facilitate tribal discussions on key
management, litigation and legislation issues.
• Provide technical assistance, including statistical review
and data analysis, and/or direct involvement in wildlife and
habitat management projects.
(Boldt decision)
Endangered
Species Act
Pacific Salmon
Treaty
Fish, Shellfish and
Wildlife Harvest
Management
Harvest Monitoring/Data
Collection
Salmon and Watershed
Recovery
Policy Development and
Intergovernmental
Relations
Fisherman and Vessel
Identification
Climate Response and
Adaptation
Habitat Restoration
Ocean and Watershed
Management
Enhancement/Hatcheries
U. S. Constitution
Magnuson –
Stevens Act
Indian Self-Determination
Education Assistance Act
Shoreline
Management
Act
Clean Water Act
Marine
Mammal
Protection
Act
Stevens
Treaties
Core Programs
Core Programs
NWIFC Activities
Our core programs, which protect treaty rights and resources, are
guided by state, federal and international treaties and laws.
The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC)
was created in 1974 by the 20 treaty Indian tribes in western
Washington that were parties to U.S. v. Washington. The litigation
affirmed their treaty-reserved salmon harvest rights and
established the tribes as natural resources co-managers with the
state.
The NWIFC is an intertribal organiza­
tion that assists member
tribes with their natural resources co-management respon­
sibilities. Member tribes select commis­
sioners who develop policy
and provide direction for the organization.
The NWIFC employs 80 full-­
time employees and is
headquartered in Olympia with regional offices in Forks, Poulsbo
and Burlington.
It provides broad policy coordination as well as high-quality
technical and support services. The NWIFC also acts as a forum
for tribes to address issues of shared concern, and enables the
tribes to speak with a unified voice.

16. Northwest
Indian
Fisheries
Commission