It’s a good day to talk about chum salmon, what with recent rains causing these amazing fish to sniff out our local streams. We packed a lot of local salmon news into today’s Kitsap Sun:

One of 12 sections for a new culvert for Barker Creek under Tracyton Boulevard. (Click to enlarge. One reader noticed “ancestors’ faces” next to the ladder.)// Kitsap Sun photo

• An update on the stream restoration of Chico Creek, the most productive chum stream on the Kitsap Peninsula. This is the first of three phases at Kitsap Golf and Country Club. Sue Donahue, who is managing the project for Kitsap County, provided a description for the video of salmon working their way upstream.
• An update of the culvert work where Barker Creek passes under Tracyton Boulevard. The new 34-wide culvert will allow debris to pass downstream during floods and will improve access for salmon coming into the stream. A video shows sections of the culvert being moved into place. (By the way, one reader noticed “ancestors’ faces” in the photo at right.)
• With salmon beginning to move, it was time to bring out the interactive salmon map, which intern Angela Hiatt and I put together last year to show the best salmon-viewing streams in the Kitsap and North Mason areas. By clicking on the map. you’ll see how to get to the streams, and you can watch a video with descriptions of each one.
• In terms of news, I learned that somebody had pulled out a board on the dam at Kitsap Lake, presumably to lower the lake level. That action caused a surge of water that stimulated several hundred fish to swim upstream toward Kitsap Lake. When the flow declined, the fish were stranded and 200 to 300 died before spawning, according to Jon Oleyar, a biologist with the Suquamish Tribe.
• And here’s something for family fun: A self-guided salmon tour will be offered on Nov. 22, when salmon experts will provide information and answer questions at Fish Park in Poulsbo, Chico Creek near Chico and Jarstad Park near Gorst. Participants should plan to be at one or more of the locations at these times: 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m.

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| Jon Oleyar