Motley Moose – Archive

                            Squalicum Creek spawning grounds in December

I previously documented Bellingham’€™s creek habitat restoration efforts with the example of Padden Creek which is one of three salmon spawning streams that flow through the city of Bellingham and empty into Bellingham Bay and the Salish Sea. In this diary, I document the ongoing restoration of a second creek.  

Squalicum Creek drains 22 square miles of multi-use land, starting in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. On its 9.7 mile journey before emptying into Bellingham Bay, it runs through forest, farms, light industrial areas ,residential areas, by shopping malls and their parking lots, and along and under highways. It currently supports Pink (humpy), Chum (Keta) and Coho (silver) salmon along with a population of resident and sea-run cutthroat trout. Chinook (king) and Sockeye (red) salmon, and the occasional steelhead trout are found in the creek as well.

The state of this creek as a viable salmon habitat is a harbinger of our area’€™s environmental future. As goes the health of Squalicum Creek (and hundreds of similar streams), so goes the health of 62 different species that inhabit the creek’s watershed including 36 types of birds, 6 fish, 3 amphibian, and 2 reptile species. And of course homo sapiens, who, although an invasive species have become part of this ecosystem as well. The habitat is clearly worth saving for all concerned.

Like Padden Creek, Squalicum Creek has suffered numerous indignities such as having lost two thirds of its original 32 miles of salmon habitat through erection of barriers such as concrete flumes and culverts under roads and train tracks that block or make salmon passage difficult. Further, the stream has been rechanneled through two shallow man-made lakes (Bug Lake and Sunset Pond) along the freeway that were dug for fill dirt in the 1960s when Interstate 5 was being built.



     Bug Lake €-  notice the truck on the freeway in the background under which the creek runs.

 Culverts drain Bug Lake into the newly constructed downstream channel. This      conglomerate of metal culverts, cement slabs, and brackish water does not make

for a very inviting spawning grounds.

Below this eyesore and along the road, a hillside is shored up with concrete and railroad ties to prevent erosion and literally to keep houses from falling into the Creek. No self-respecting salmon would spawn in a concrete stream.

                Note the railroad ties and the houses at the top right and center.

These accommodations to modernity result in less stream access for the salmon as well as attendant bacterial contamination, excessive channel erosion and siltation, oil and scum, and turbidity during storms. For many years a dead end road ran along the creek and served as a illegal garbage dump site. Many tons of trash were removed during early habitat restoration.

A few years ago, attention was called to the health of Squalicum Creek as significantly declining salmon returns became apparent. Further, the creek was found not to meet state standards for water quality and was listed as “Impaired€” by The Department of Ecology. This was particularly distressing since Squalicum Creek had been assessed to have the highest potential for productive fish habitat within the city limits.

Subsequently, major restoration efforts were launched involving multiple entities and agencies that include: The Port of Bellingham, the Department of Ecology, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the City of Bellingham. These agencies, working in concert with many volunteer groups (see below) have been working on the creek’s restoration since 2001 and continues to this day with more major work scheduled into the coming years.

Like Padden, Squalicum Creek’s restoration has been an arduous process, both in terms of the work itself and in the pursuit of funding from numerous agencies. The really good news is that although tight, funding is available, particularly when agencies work together on a common cause.

Among the grants received, the City of Bellingham was awarded Centennial Clean Water Fund Grants by the Department of Ecology in 2004 and 2005 to improve riparian areas along urban streams, including the Lower Squalicum Creek Restoration Project. In 2005, the City completed an extensive project to protect Squalicum from erosion, while improving fish habitat and restoring native vegetation.

Riparian replanting: In each of the blue cylinders is a seedling tree, of cedar, alder, or fir.

The overall project (all phases) involves rerouting large sections of Squalicum Creek around two man-made ponds, through a new channel, reactivating remnant channels and reconnecting the stream with its floodplain. The project also will eliminate an existing fish passage blockage under I-5  and thereby open up and additional over 22 miles of upstream salmon habitat. The stream re-route projects will be designed with a thorough understanding of the hydrology, climate patterns, geology, and ecology of the watershed.

For example the city Public Works Department regularly measures a number of variables to monitor the health of the stream. They collect data on:

– Fecal coliform bacteria

– Temperature: These fish and particularly their eggs need cooler temperatures to survive.

– Dissolved oxygen: warmer water does not hold as much dissolved oxygen as cooler water.

– pH: Salmon eggs and fry are very sensitive to pH levels and begin to die if it is

   below 6.5.  

– Turbidity: suspended materials in water due to erosion can clog gills, smother living    things, and cover spawning beds,

– Conductivity: Conductance of electric current is directly related to the total dissolved ions in the water and is an overall indication of water quality. Higher conductivities may be a sign of contamination in the water.

The first phases of the restoration were completed in 2005 and involved clean up of trash and garbage by the truck full, riparian restoration of native vegetation, and elimination of invasive vegetation along the lower portion of the stream just before it entered the bay.  

Not only will this project reopen more spawning stream beds throughout the watershed, rerouting around the two ponds will significantly lower the stream temperatures. Cooling the water will in turn help restore oxygenation of the water.  

Something seems to be working here already as the next sets of photos show. First, birds are hanging out here. See the little American Dipper on a rock in the center of the stream.

                      American Dipper (see center of photo), ready to dip into the water.

                           Juvenile Red Tail Hawk perching above the creek

Although this project continues to improve the stream’s habitat and its health, nothing is perfect. But maybe perfection, although desirable is not necessary. On December 4th, I observed the ancient spawning rituals of numerous Chum salmon in this creek within 15 feet of the highway and within sight of houses uphill. Several female Chum were busily digging redds by rapidly churning the creek bottom with their tails. Eagerly awaiting to contribute their DNA to the cause were a couple of males who were helping out with the digging as well. In the photos below you can see salmon constructing three different redds within a few feet of one another. It appears to be a communal affair and they really get into splashing their tails about to smooth out the stream bed. Happy Spawning.

On December 6th, I went back to the creek, only to see an unknown source of foam floating in the stream. I have no clue of its source. I only hope that it does not harm the development of the newly deposited and fertilized eggs.

                                  Unknown foam floating down creek.

learly, with the exception of this possible pollution, the stream is coming back to life. Although not teeming with spawning salmon as it once was, the creek continues to enable these marvelous creatures to do what they were bred to do. As is emblazoned on a bestselling t-shirt by Ray Troll at our local saltwater outfitting store:  Spawn Until You Die

The final phase of this restoration project is to restore the viability of the estuary.

It is the first phase of a $4.1 million multiyear project that eventually will restore the estuary and eliminate a fish passage barrier to the Squalicum Creek watershed.  The second phase of the project will replace the Roeder Avenue Bridge, modify the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe concrete box culvert rail bridge, replace existing sewer lines, remove a 350-foot long concrete channel bottom between the two bridges and re-establish a natural stream bed. Continuing projects will include removal of derelict bulkheads, pilings and other debris and new shallow areas will be created for salmon to reproduce, feed, rest, and hide from predators.

Since 2007 the Department of Natural Resources has removed 1,700 tons of creosote pilings from the estuary, remnants of long past industrial sites. More industrial detritis  is slated to come out.

The photo below was taken from an overpass above Squalicum Way and the creek, looking across the railroad trestle and culverts under the road that are to be removed. The creek is seen in the bottom left as it runs under the trestle and into concrete flumes that carry it to the industrial waterfront that is its estuary. You can see that the estuary is bounded between various industrial buildings and a breakwater along with trucks and containers.

                           The estuary surrounded by waterfront industry

The salmon enter from the bay and estuary into Squalium Creek through this concrete bunker. It is amazing that any fish make it into the more natural part of the creek and spawn. They are amazing and truly intrepid critters.

The sign below illustrates the Port’s plans for completion of the estuary clean up.

So, the clean up remains an ongoing effort with much restoration completed and more yet to be done on all of our creeks. The desecration of our once pristine environment that has been ongoing for the past 200 years is unlikely to be totally reversed for some time. Although today there is significant regulatory oversight of urban and industrial pollution, it remains a struggle to keep on top of those who would undo our progress for their immediate capital gain.

The map in this link shows the various sites of restorative efforts to rehabilitate the three spawning streams in Bellingham. A good deal of professional work has occurred, progress has been accomplished, but there is more to come.

Wish us luck in our pursuit of clean water, healthy fish, and a healthy planet.

At the risk of boring the good folks at the Moose, I have one more salmon stream story to tell. This one involves Whatcom Creek, the third spawning stream that runs through downtown Bellingham. However, it has a somewhat different story in that Whatcom Creek has a salmon hatchery on it that I will highlight. The hatchery serves as a conservation resource as well as an educational training center for salmon restoration and fisheries studies through our local technical college.

For non-football fans the Heisman Trophy is given each year to the “best college football player” although it usually goes to a quarterback or a running back so that title isn’t completely accurate.  Also winning the trophy usually dooms your NFL career (see Tebow, Tim and Griffin, Archie [the only player to win it twice]).

The Heisman is being presented Saturday night to one of six finalists including last year’s winner, Johnny Manziel.  Another finalist, and front-runner, is Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston.

(Full disclosure requires me to stop here and say that I hate Florida State ~ have for years so I may have some slight bias in this case although I have nothing particularly against Jameis Winston minus the fact that he may have gotten away with rape.)

We’ll never know what happened between Winston and his accuser; Winston’s camp claims the sex was consensual while his accuser obviously disagrees.

The issue largely is, as it always is, the initial investigation and how it appears that the police screwed it up from the get-go:

… experts familiar with the case say Tallahassee police botched critical aspects of the investigation from the start.

If police had conducted the inquiry better, they said, prosecutors might have closed the case months ago – and without so many unanswered questions. http://www.tampabay.com/news/p…  

One expert wonders if the Tallahassee police actions were “incompetent or willful.”

College football in Florida is huge as it is in most of the South.  Jameis Winston is a freshman star who has helped lead a resurgence of the once-great Florida State program.  Was that a factor in the lack of a thorough police investigation?

Did the fact that the woman had been drinking in a bar and admits getting into a taxi with men she did not know mean she was asking for it and therefore got what she deserved?  The Tallahassee Police aren’t talking.

They did talk to the accuser early on but they did not talk to “Chris” who she named as someone she met at the bar and who walked in, and videotaped, the attack.  The police knew from the beginning that there was video evidence and didn’t bother to look for it.  But, come on you might say, how many young men named Chris are there in Tallahassee.  In this case finding Chris was easy:

Back then, police also didn’t look for the freshman football player named Chris. A simple review of the Seminoles’ 2012 roster shows Chris Casher was the only true freshman on the team with that first name. Investigators later learned that Casher was Winston’s roommate and had walked in on the sexual activity – in part to record it on his cellphone.

Police also didn’t take the bar’s video surveillance tapes which were eventually overwritten.  They did not actively look for the taxi driver who took the accuser and, presumably, Winston from the bar.

We could also suggest the woman wanted to cause trouble for Winston for some reason except:

Winston was not identified as a suspect until Jan. 10, when the woman recognized him in a class and called the detective.

I don’t live in Tallahassee so I don’t know how much exposure Winston got from the local media or how well known he was in the local area as the FSU quarterback but I do know the season hadn’t started yet so he certainly wasn’t the national name he’s become in the college football-following circles; that came maybe midway through the season when he was playing really well and had FSU undefeated.

The case was eventually deactivated in February and was reactivated only after media outlets reported the incident.  Of course, the timing of that has brought up the question of motivation of “going after” Winston since the story came out when his name was being included in Heisman talk.  I was a bit skeptical myself until I read more about the timing of the alleged assault.

Then there was the behavior of State Attorney Willie Meggs during his announcement that no charges would be filed which led to:

The Seminole alum-turned-prosecutor decided, then, to turn it into his own amateur hour at the Improv.

That he had a willing audience of journalists laughing along with him-and, inexplicably, a former state senator (now lobbyist) named Al Lawson prompting the guffaws-is equally, if not more, offensive. Twitter certainly took notice of the lighthearted approach to a rape case, with observers from Samantha Ponder to Luther Campbell taking umbrage at the jokes. We’d like you to focus on one part, though: at the 18-second mark, one perturbed female journalist utters a loud “COME ON.” If only someone else had spoken up, or asked Meggs why a rape investigation is ever a laughing matter. [ESPNU] http://deadspin.com/pols-press…

Remarkably, at a later press conference with Winston’s attorney, a reporter asked if he knew of any affiliation the accuser might have with the University of Alabama (one of the teams at the time vying with FSU for #1 in the rankings).

And we wonder why more women don’t come forward.  We wonder why celebrities feel like they can get away with anything.

I don’t claim to know what happened on December 7, 2012 between the woman and Jameis Winston.  Frankly, it smacks of Kobe Bryant to me with maybe some Ben Roethlisberger tossed in.  Winston may not have been the Heisman frontrunner, and by all accounts shoo-in or the QB of the undefeated top-ranked team in the country (FSU was preseason 11-12 depending on the poll) but again football is huge in Florida.  That area is filled with FSU alum looking for a return of the glory days.

But it isn’t just Florida or college; Steubenville OH is still dealing with the fall-out of a case where the behavior of the adults in the community are as much in question as the actions of the rapists with allegations of a cover-up.  Just yesterday,

Four adults in Steubenville, Ohio, including the school’s superintendent, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges stemming from the handling of the investigation into the rape of a teenage girl in August 2012.

The rape case drew national attention to Steubenville, a town about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, after a photo and video that appeared to document the assault of the 16-year-old girl were posted online. http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-sch…

Steubenville, as is much of Ohio, is also a huge football town.  It is also not a thriving community, to be kind, so there is much enthusiasm and likely a sense of escape and pride in the team.  Is that enough to overlook or cover-up a crime?  Apparently some folks think so.

Then there is the notion that a drunk woman is fair game; somehow she asked for it or deserved it.  Blaming the victim is easier than confronting the behavior of the attacker.  And quite frankly how disgusting does one have to be to want to engage in a sex act with someone unresponsive or so stinking drunk she won’t remember?  In the case of the Steubenville teenager a witness testified that one of the attackers tried to get her to perform oral sex on him but she was too damned drunk to do so.  I realize these guys were 16 and most likely spend most of their time not on the football field thinking with that head south-of-the-border but that doesn’t excuse taking advantage of someone too drunk to defend herself.  

That certainly doesn’t excuse the adults who were willing to look the other way in order to presumably protect the players.  The doesn’t excuse the media who are often too quick to assume the player’s celebrity automatically means the accuser is in it for money or celebrity of her own.  Or for lumping every accuser into the “she’s making it up” category when in 2010 Violence Against Women published a ten-year study that found the percentage of false allegations was … 5.9.

We’ve come a long way, baby, but we are still too often see as sluts, whores, asking for it while men are too often forgiven for being men or misunderstood or too important as a sports or entertainment celebrity.  We change this partly by education and consequences.  We change this by recognizing that we need to effectively protect ourselves from being victims before an assault and afterward as well.

Jameis Winston may or may not be a rapist; we’ll likely never know.  That he’ll win the Heisman Trophy tonight like nothing happened while his accuser will know that those who might have kept her from being a victim a second time by doing a competent investigation is a travesty to me.  Jameis Winston says he knew he’d be “vindicated.”  Not by me; he’ll always have an asterisk by his name ~ Jameis Winston *rapist?

That’s the term used by a defense psychologist to explain how a 16-year-old did not deserve jail time for a drunk-driving crash that killed four people.

Dr. G. Dick Miller, testified that Couch’s life could be salvaged with one to two years’ treatment and no contact with his parents.

snip

Miller said Couch’s parents gave him “freedoms no young person should have.” He called Couch a product of “affluenza,” where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences.

My right eye twitches when I read that last paragraph because there are just so many things wrong with this whole story.  But let’s back up a bit.

… on June 15th, 2013, Ethan Couch stole beer from a local Walmart, and retired to his parents’ home, where he drank enough to post a blood alcohol level of .24, roughly three times the legal limit.

http://www.heavy.com/news/2013…

He then got in a Ford F-350 pick-up with six friends to go joy-riding.  Unfortunately, Breanna Mitchell’s SUV broke down and her friends Hollie and Shelby Boyles came out to help her while Brian Jennings stopped to help.  All four would be killed when Couch plowed into them doing around 70 in a 40 mph zone.

Couch’s friends didn’t all walk away: Sergio Molina has been in a vegetative state since the accident.

On Tuesday 16-year-old Ethan Couch was sentenced to ten years’ probation.

State District Judge Jean Boyd ordered the 16-year-old to receive therapy at a long-term, in-patient facility. He will stay in Tarrant County juvenile detention until the juvenile probation department prepares a report about possible treatment programs.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2…

Apparently Ethan was both spoiled terribly by his parents from early age and used by his mother to control his father while the father couldn’t be much bothered with Ethan other than to throw money around to cover Ethan’s legal troubles.

So we’re supposed to think that putting this guy into a posh California one-on-one rehab center at an alleged $450,000 per year is going to teach this kid right from wrong and personal responsibility.  We’re supposed to hope that he’ll violate probation (probably will) and then do time.  Kind of like OJ spending time in jail for something that smells fishy because the prosecution couldn’t get him on the crime most (?) people think he did do.

I’ve had some mixed feelings about this until I decided that to excuse this kid because his wealthy parents might have helped screw him up is crap.  Poor kids, the few middle-class kids that still exist, have parents who have screwed them up, too, but how many of them would walk away with probation?  What if Ethan Couch was a wealthy 16-year-old person of color?  Would he have walked away with probation?

Dr. Suniya Luther, a psychologist at Columbia University, who researches the costs of affluence in suburban communities, argued that the Couch sentence reflects a dangerous double standard: “What is the likelihood if this was an African-American, inner-city kid that grew up in a violent neighborhood to a single mother who is addicted to crack and he was caught two or three times … what is the likelihood that the judge would excuse his behavior and let him off because of how he was raised?” http://www.heavy.com/news/2013…

Whether or not he violates that probation is to me beside the point.  And don’t tell me that a 16-year-old doesn’t know that stealing beer, even from Walmart, is illegal.  Or that doing 70 in a 40 is illegal.  No, he’s been taught that money buys him special privileges and this verdict did nothing to change the lesson that apparently began early on.

The notion of “affluenza” (I really do hate that term) as a defense is repugnant to me (and a lot of the internet) but

The idea behind the “affluenza defense”, that extreme wealth and privilege can be psychologically damaging, resonates with a growing body of sociological research that shows a negative correlation between social status and empathy. Other studies have demonstrated that upper class individuals have greater difficulty recognizing the emotions of others.

Berkley psychologist Paul Pliff hypothesizes that the cause of this discrepancy lies in the wealthy’s sense of freedom and independence from others, telling Scientific American that the less we rely on others, the less we tend to care about their feelings.

Read more at: http://www.heavy.com/news/2013…

Our justice system is skewed toward the wealthy.  Is that to be expected?  Accepted?  Are we supposed to hope that Ethan Couch does violate probation so that he can do jail time for something?  Or do we hope that therapy is successful and he emerges in a year or two a compassionate, healthy young man who will contribute positively to society?  And what of his parents?  Have they learned anything?  They have not spoken publicly although that may change since the parents of Sergio Molina have filed suit against Ethan, his parents and the father’s metal works company seeking $20,000,000 in damages.  I’m not a lawyer but I’d have to think that Ethan’s admissions in his guilty plea will not help with the civil suit.