I miss Carleek having once lived nearby but now live in a much drier climate. I’m currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass - she speaks much of reciprocity and giving thanks. Both weave through your essay, perfect for this particular day. Thanks for sharing.
Though I catch your meaning, if only they could be as useful as a junk drawer. If they could only be half as useful as the people who came together over many years and with concerted effort to bring the salmon back to Pipers Creek, in Carkeek Park! So love knowing of this success and your telling of what you saw along the trail!
Yes. Good point. I didn't mean to dismean junk drawers, which, as you note, are generally filled with useful items. If only these nominees could be as selfless and community-oriented as the Carkeek people.
I live in hope that they will be the examples of what we never want to be again. Hopefully sooner than later. Meanwhile, I truly did enjoy this post! :)
Nice essay David. Alas I didn't make it out to Carkeek for the fun, but it's been a great year on Lake Sammamish tribs. Slim pickins at UWB this year, but we had a great run last fall, including a bunch working their way past a big beaver dam on campus. After years of chafing at the attention given to crows on campus, I convinced folks to put a salmon on campus web page - there are some kokanee/beaver vids there (https://www.uwb.edu/about/salmon). I have a bunch of others is you care to use them.
Jeff, glad to hear that the kokanee and other salmon runs out of Lake Samm were so good. It was great to go out there a few years ago and see the work you and others have been doing to restore those runs. David
Yay, salmon and beavers and all of nature’s cycle of life and death.
In what I am taking as a positive sign (politically) are a number of cordial exchanges with our polite Canadian neighbors, on Threads, where a number have suggested that they are taking our dire situation as a red flag warning of what their own conservative whackadoodles might get up to if not resisted strongly enough. Serving as a horrible warning is not enough but it’s something, if others can be saved.
i make annual treks to pipers creek as well and this year the fish run has been stupendous. last year was a bit of a disappointment. the graphs clearly show the difference. i did a year during covid times where i tried to visit carkeek weekly so i could see the whole cycle of nature and so i did. now i’m a bit more picky, avoiding mud season, wind season and so on, but on Hot days, it is a respite, except the last bit of the walk back up can be a sweat inducer. i’m a big find-it-fix-it reporter for carkeek and it’s certainly improved in regards to illegal camping in the last year or so. ❤️ find-it-fix-it app
one of my favorite routes is D bus to Mary Ave then walk north on Mary to trail, down to shoreline and then up the mainline creek trail to exit and back to the D bus or the 40 depending on next destination, home or a good wander.
two things i’ve wondered about the salmon story: 1) would the indigenous folk back in the day have said to hell with you damn beavers and removed them in favor of nurturing the salmon? i mentioned this to the biologist last year, got a shrug and it wasn’t long afterwards that the bypass was installed. 2) the salmon never go past the culvert yet there is so much good creek up there. is there not a movement to remove the culvert. i’d think there would be signs and protestors with bullhorns but i never detect any such movement. maybe it’s been decided it’s not a good idea and what the hell does an electrical engineer know about salmon anyway. that’s
ps: there are seven bridges. i’ve counted them countless times. sometimes there are only five though. two seem to be able to hide.
All good points and questions. I have wondered the same about why that blockage still exists. Is there something else going on? No clue about Indigenous people and beaver dams. I suspect that every possible permutation occurred. Some people removed beaver dams to allow salmon upstream, some didn't, and some rejiggered the dams to allow some access. Or at least that's what seems logical to my 21st century way of thinking.
We were just there today with visiting family, and there was our old friend Elaine standing in the cold creek in waders dissecting dead fish to determine their successfulness at spawning. She said "do you know a welder? because there is a grate in the culvert that blocks the salmon and the salmon get there and say, hey I am trying to spawn and I am blocked and also I'm dying". Like, skip the protesting and just crawl in there and cut out the grate. Sounds good to me.
So wonderful to see the great returns- over here in Kitsap County, we are having a banner return of chum as well, Last week I counted 50 along a stretch of beach on South Bainbridge Island. Its stinky but also great.
I make sure I visit a salmon stream each year during the spawning time. It's always sobering, and all the death and decay is not pretty, but what a metaphor for the cycle of all life. We are all salmon.
I miss Carleek having once lived nearby but now live in a much drier climate. I’m currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass - she speaks much of reciprocity and giving thanks. Both weave through your essay, perfect for this particular day. Thanks for sharing.
Though I catch your meaning, if only they could be as useful as a junk drawer. If they could only be half as useful as the people who came together over many years and with concerted effort to bring the salmon back to Pipers Creek, in Carkeek Park! So love knowing of this success and your telling of what you saw along the trail!
Yes. Good point. I didn't mean to dismean junk drawers, which, as you note, are generally filled with useful items. If only these nominees could be as selfless and community-oriented as the Carkeek people.
I live in hope that they will be the examples of what we never want to be again. Hopefully sooner than later. Meanwhile, I truly did enjoy this post! :)
Nice essay David. Alas I didn't make it out to Carkeek for the fun, but it's been a great year on Lake Sammamish tribs. Slim pickins at UWB this year, but we had a great run last fall, including a bunch working their way past a big beaver dam on campus. After years of chafing at the attention given to crows on campus, I convinced folks to put a salmon on campus web page - there are some kokanee/beaver vids there (https://www.uwb.edu/about/salmon). I have a bunch of others is you care to use them.
Jeff, glad to hear that the kokanee and other salmon runs out of Lake Samm were so good. It was great to go out there a few years ago and see the work you and others have been doing to restore those runs. David
My preferred Thanksgiving meal is salmon
I've recently discovered how much I love reading about beavers. Nice story!
Thanks for this about salmon in Carkeek park! I will take a look at spots on North Creek out here in Bothell, maybe see some as well.
Yay, salmon and beavers and all of nature’s cycle of life and death.
In what I am taking as a positive sign (politically) are a number of cordial exchanges with our polite Canadian neighbors, on Threads, where a number have suggested that they are taking our dire situation as a red flag warning of what their own conservative whackadoodles might get up to if not resisted strongly enough. Serving as a horrible warning is not enough but it’s something, if others can be saved.
What a great story you've woven here, David. I learned so much. Thank you.
i make annual treks to pipers creek as well and this year the fish run has been stupendous. last year was a bit of a disappointment. the graphs clearly show the difference. i did a year during covid times where i tried to visit carkeek weekly so i could see the whole cycle of nature and so i did. now i’m a bit more picky, avoiding mud season, wind season and so on, but on Hot days, it is a respite, except the last bit of the walk back up can be a sweat inducer. i’m a big find-it-fix-it reporter for carkeek and it’s certainly improved in regards to illegal camping in the last year or so. ❤️ find-it-fix-it app
one of my favorite routes is D bus to Mary Ave then walk north on Mary to trail, down to shoreline and then up the mainline creek trail to exit and back to the D bus or the 40 depending on next destination, home or a good wander.
two things i’ve wondered about the salmon story: 1) would the indigenous folk back in the day have said to hell with you damn beavers and removed them in favor of nurturing the salmon? i mentioned this to the biologist last year, got a shrug and it wasn’t long afterwards that the bypass was installed. 2) the salmon never go past the culvert yet there is so much good creek up there. is there not a movement to remove the culvert. i’d think there would be signs and protestors with bullhorns but i never detect any such movement. maybe it’s been decided it’s not a good idea and what the hell does an electrical engineer know about salmon anyway. that’s
ps: there are seven bridges. i’ve counted them countless times. sometimes there are only five though. two seem to be able to hide.
All good points and questions. I have wondered the same about why that blockage still exists. Is there something else going on? No clue about Indigenous people and beaver dams. I suspect that every possible permutation occurred. Some people removed beaver dams to allow salmon upstream, some didn't, and some rejiggered the dams to allow some access. Or at least that's what seems logical to my 21st century way of thinking.
We were just there today with visiting family, and there was our old friend Elaine standing in the cold creek in waders dissecting dead fish to determine their successfulness at spawning. She said "do you know a welder? because there is a grate in the culvert that blocks the salmon and the salmon get there and say, hey I am trying to spawn and I am blocked and also I'm dying". Like, skip the protesting and just crawl in there and cut out the grate. Sounds good to me.
So wonderful to see the great returns- over here in Kitsap County, we are having a banner return of chum as well, Last week I counted 50 along a stretch of beach on South Bainbridge Island. Its stinky but also great.
I make sure I visit a salmon stream each year during the spawning time. It's always sobering, and all the death and decay is not pretty, but what a metaphor for the cycle of all life. We are all salmon.