Tonight’s Adopt A Stream Foundation and Water Tenders Bear Creek Watershed Forum at the Redmond Regional Library, at 15990 NE 85th St. has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. on March 15.
Attendees will learn about the good and bad news about the watershed and a lot of steps that everyone can take to tackle the bad news. The Bear Creek watershed encompasses more than 30 square miles, with much of its headwaters in southeast Snohomish County in and around Snohomish County’s Paradise Valley Conservation Area (PCVA). The main stem of Bear Creek flows from the PVCA into Paradise Lake and downstream through unincorporated King County, through downtown Redmond where it is joined by Evans Creek from east of Redmond before flowing into the Sammamish River.
“The combined Bear-Evans watersheds have some of the most productive salmon spawning and rearing areas in the Sammamish River system,” said Adopt A Stream Foundation director Tom Murdoch. “Chinook, silver, and sockeye salmon, steelhead, resident and sea-run cutthroat trout still call these streams home. In addition, landlocked Kokanee salmon spawn in these streams, which also provide habitat for bull trout.”
As the human population grows in these watersheds, forests are replaced with rooftops, parking lots, roads and driveways fundamentally change the streams’ flow characteristics. As a consequence, there are higher stream flows during rainy periods, and lower flows during dry periods. Murdoch said the changes in the physical characteristics of the watershed combined with varieties of pollutants from residential and commercial developments have reduced the once abundant fish runs.
Additionally, the Washington State Department of Ecology and King County Conservation District are sponsoring the Adopt A Stream Foundation to conduct stream surveys for property owners next to Bear or Evans Creek.
“After landowners provide us with permission to survey their property next to the creek, we will conduct a physical survey and identify opportunities to improve fish and wildlife habitat, and to reduce obvious sources of pollution,” said Adopt A Stream Foundation ecologist Loren Brokaw. “The survey will (provide) each landowner with prescriptions on how to improve fish and wildlife habitat or to reduce pollution…if they like our recommendations, we will establish a formal partnership with the landowner and find the resources necessary to carry out prescribed actions.”
Dick Shaetzel, president of Water Tenders — a nonprofit formed by Bear Creek watershed residents — said his organization will team up with the Adopt A Stream Foundation to “get things done.”
“Over the course of the next few months we plan to convert a lot of stream side lawns into native plant landscapes, install log fish habitat structures, and remove a few man-made barriers to fish migration,” he said. “We are looking forward to meeting a lot more people with interest in Bear Creek at the forum…together, we can bring back the fish runs.”
The forum at Redmond Library is open to the public. For more information, call (425) 316-8592 or visit www.streamkeeper.org. To learn more about Water Tenders, visit www.watertenders.org.
