Hundreds of returning spawning salmon are lost each year in the Smokey Point area as they end up in roadside or shallow drainage ditches. The spawning fish follow a heavy rain or storm event when water is flowing in many of these small ditches. After several days without rain, the ditches are dry again and the fish become stranded and die.
My farm, Sno-Valley Farms, is in the vicinity of Hayho Creek in north Marysville. About fifteen years ago, it was late November and there had been heavy rainfall followed by a freeze and about six inches of snow. Chum salmon in Hayho creek entered a small drainage ditch that was through the middle of a hay field. What I saw when walking the field was very disturbing. The water may have been a foot deep when the fish entered the ditch, but when the rains stopped and the weather turned cold, a sheet of ice formed on the water surface before the water disappeared and the fish swam up the ditch banks in the snow seeking water. I counted a couple of hundred dead chum lying in the field within thirty feet of the ditch.
This could have been prevented. Few realize that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife allows the installation of screens and barriers to restrict fish from roadside and small drainage ditches. A few thousand dollars invested in restricting fish from entering these shallow ditches will contribute more toward fish recovery than some of the multimillion-dollar fish enhancement projects.
Dan Bartelheimer
President
Snohomish County Farm Bureau
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