Stillaguamish Tribe Chinook Recovery Program

Project Overview

The Stillaguamish River Chinook population is among the most critically depressed in the Puget Sound ESA-listed evolutionary significant unit. Annual escapement estimates have frequently fallen below 500 natural spawners — a fraction of the recovery target established in NOAA's 2007 Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan.

The Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians has been the primary driver of recovery efforts in this watershed for decades. The Tribe operates the Portage Creek Acclimation Pond, which holds adult Chinook broodstock collected from the river and raises juvenile Chinook for release as part of a conservation hatchery supplementation program. The goal is to produce fish that are genetically adapted to the Stillaguamish while maintaining a population large enough to avoid extinction during the long timescale required for habitat restoration to produce results.

In parallel, the Tribe works with NOAA Fisheries, WDFW, and local landowners to restore floodplain connectivity, remove bank armoring, plant native riparian vegetation, and reduce sediment inputs in the North Fork and South Fork subbasins — the primary remaining spawning areas. Annual spawner surveys are conducted cooperatively with WDFW using both ground-based redd counts and aerial surveys. Despite the severity of the population's decline, the Tribe's integrated approach has prevented the extinction of the run and created the habitat conditions that a recovering population will need.