Tribe, Energy Company Release Coho In Puyallup Puget Sound Energy Will Help Fish Downstream And Back Up
The Puyallup Indian Tribe has forged a plan with Puget Sound Energy Inc. to release adult coho salmon in the upper Puyallup River for the first time in decades.
The ambitious 30-year agreement will try to utilize 30 miles of natural spawning habitat that has gone unused for salmon and steelhead production.
Tribal fishery biologists transported 1,400 to 2,000 fish from a Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery near Orting and released them above Puget Sound Energy’s Electron Dam. The dam has been an insurmountable barrier to migrating fish since its construction in 1903.
Tribal and company officials signed the agreement last April. It calls for the company to install a fish ladder at the dam for returning adult salmon and steelhead, to help move young out-migrating fish safely downstream past its power house in the spring, and to maintain certain minimum flows in the river below the dam year-round.
Company officials expect to complete the fish ladder in 2000. Tribal leaders say it will help the fish recolonize an area they once used extensively.
“It has always been something the tribe has wanted to see, passage restored,” said tribal attorney Martha Fox, adding that company officials were eager to discuss the idea.
When the tribe approached the company, each side believed it had some rights on the river, said Jerry Henry, director of major projects for Puget Sound Energy.
“They said one way is to take it through the court system,” he said. “The other way is to sit down and talk about it.”
The company expects to spend $1 million to $1.5 million in capital improvements, about $250,000 per year in loss of energy generation, and about $150,000 per year in contributions toward ongoing program expenses.
About half of the coho released this fall are female and are ready to spawn. Biologists inserted radio transmitters in 52 of the females and will monitor radio signals to follow the fish and determine whether they build spawning nests.
xxxx FISH PLANT Tribal fishery biologists released 1,400 to 2,000 hatchery-raised coho salmon above Puget Sound Energy’s Electron Dam. About half are females ready to spawn.