The 2023 Annual Report from Treaty Tribes in Western Washington summarizes the Tribes' natural resource management activities over the past year. It discusses efforts to manage salmon, shellfish, and marine fish harvests while also collaborating on habitat restoration, hatchery management, and other initiatives. It expresses disappointment that some legislation did not pass but celebrates other successes, such as restored water quality standards. The report emphasizes the Tribes' ongoing work to protect treaty rights and restore salmon populations for future generations.

1. 2023 Annual Report from the Treaty Tribes
in Western Washington
Tribal Natural Resources Management

2. 2 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Member Tribes of the
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Map: Ron McFarlane

3. 3
2023 Annual Report
Year in Review........4
Harvest Management..... 9
Salmon........6
Shellfish........7
Marine Fish........8
Hatchery Management........9
Habitat Management.......10
Wildlife Management.......11
Regional Collaboration.... ...
Puget Sound Recovery.. ...12
Ocean Resources.......12
Water Resources.......13
Forestry Management.......14
Activities.......15
Contents
Skokomish Tribe fisherman Jimmy Byrd unloads chum salmon
from a beach seine during a fishery at Hoodsport in Hood
Canal. Photo: Tiffany Royal
6730 Martin Way East
Olympia, WA 98516
(360) 438-1180
contact@nwifc.org
nwifc.org
nwtreatytribes.org
Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission

4. 4 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Tribes saw an unprecedented
amount of federal funding and
political will favoring salmon recovery
thanks to the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan
Infrastructure Bill. The Biden-Harris
Administration has shown a commit-
ment to restore salmon habitat and
improve climate resilience.
We are grateful to our congressional
delegation and our many partners who
worked tirelessly for historic access to
funding.
Still, the great Northwest salmon
resource continues to dwindle as
decades of hard work to protect and
restore its critical habitat have not
been able to keep up with destruction
caused by overdevelopment, deforesta-
tion and uncontrolled exploitation of
natural resources.
My longtime mentor Billy Frank Jr.
once said, “As the salmon disappear,
so do our tribal cultures and treaty
rights. We are at a crossroads, and we
are running out of time.”
Treaty Rights at Risk
We continue to urge President Biden
and his administration to take action
on our Treaty Rights at Risk initiative,
which in 2011 called on the federal
government to honor its obligations to
the treaties we signed in the 1850s.
We’ve asked for an executive order
that directs federal agencies to priori-
tize their legal obligations and develop
a strategic action plan to protect those
rights reserved in our treaties. These
obligations should include authori-
zation for agencies to modify federal
regulations, direct discretionary agen-
cy funding to meet salmon recovery
needs and recommend any necessary
legislative changes.
Riparian Habitat
We were disappointed that Gov. Jay
Inslee’s proposed Lorraine Loomis
Act failed to make it through the state
Legislature. Lorraine Loomis, our
former chairwoman who passed away
in 2021, understood that protecting
riparian habitat is essential to salmon
recovery. She wanted nothing more
than to ensure future generations of
Washingtonians could experience what
it means to have healthy salmon runs
and the joy of salmon fishing.
The Lorraine Loomis Act was a
starting point that sought to protect
and grow trees in the riparian zones
along salmon and steelhead streams.
It also would have provided financial
assistance to help landowners comply
with the law. It would have included
a regulatory backstop for those
unwilling to comply.
Recovering America’s Wildlife
We also were disappointed by the
U.S. Senate’s failure to bring the
Recovering America’s Wildlife Act
(RAWA) to a vote. The time was right,
because the U.S. House of Representa-
tives passed the bill in June with rare
bipartisan support.
The federal government has a trust
and fiduciary responsibility to protect
our fish and wildlife for future genera-
tions and to make sure that tribes have
the capacity to manage all aspects of
our wildlife programs. And yet, in
spite of our treaty-protected rights,
previous legislation left tribes out of
the equation, directing funding only to
states.
RAWA would have provided long-
term and dedicated resources to both
tribal and state law enforcement, fish
and wildlife programs, habitat man-
agement and other conservation and
recovery efforts. When tribes are at
the table, everyone benefits. We are the
original caretakers of the land.
We also have a treaty-protected
right to manage the wildlife we hunt
and the plants we gather for spiritual
and traditional purposes. Right now,
there are more programs for invasive,
endangered and nongame species than
there are for tribes to manage animals
we harvest for cultural and subsistence
use. RAWA could have helped fill that
funding gap.
Invasive European Green Crab
Efforts ramped up in 2022 to control
the explosion of invasive European
green crab in western Washington.
More than 169,000 were caught on the
coast and 78,000 were captured at the
Lummi Bay tidelands and hatchery sea
pond.
They’ve traveled as far south in the
Salish Sea as Hood Canal, where a
male European green crab was found
in May 2022.
At this point, we are unlikely to
eradicate them, so we must do every-
thing possible to prevent them from
destroying our shellfish industry.
In January 2022, Gov. Inslee ordered
state agencies to implement emergency
measures to try to control the spread.
The state Legislature made $8.6 mil-
lion available in the 2022 supplemental
budget signed in March. Lummi and
Makah were given highest priority
and received some of that emergency
funding this year, and we’re working
with the state to direct more resources
to control the population on the coast.
Culvert Repair
In October, U.S. Transportation Sec-
retary Pete Buttigieg visited our state
to announce the $1 billion National
Culvert Removal, Replacement and
Restoration Program to restore pas-
sage in places where fish can’t access
spawning grounds.
“That can have a devastating effect,
for example, around here, on salmon
populations,” Buttigieg said. “And
that’s important not just for envi-
ronmental reasons, but for economic
reasons, whether we’re talking about
tribal nations or other communities
that depend on access to thriving
fisheries.”
Treaty tribes have been calling for
culvert repair for decades. We filed
a lawsuit in 2001 to get the state of
Washington to repair its fish-killing
culverts. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme
Court affirmed a Ninth Circuit Court
ruling that the state’s failing culverts
Year in Review
Chairman Ed Johnstone

5. 5
2023 Annual Report
violated our treaty rights because they
deprived us of our right to harvest
salmon.
The court ordered the state to fix its
worst offenders by 2030, but work is be-
hind schedule. There are also many cul-
verts under local government jurisdiction
that aren’t covered by the injunction, but
still need to be fixed to protect our salm-
on. Funding from the National Culvert
Removal, Replacement and Restoration
Program could speed all this work along.
Protecting Water Quality
In November, the federal Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) finally
reinstated the water quality standards that
tribes spent decades fighting for, only
to have them rolled back during the last
administration.
We thought we had won the battle in
2016 when EPA finalized the most protec-
tive standards in the country, regulating
the toxic chemicals allowed to enter our
water and pollute the fish and shellfish we
eat.
Tribes, state agencies and others
throughout the region had worked togeth-
er to implement these regulations. We
prevailed over opposition from industrial
polluters who said it was impossible or
too expensive to keep our water clean.
Those industries successfully peti-
tioned the EPA to roll back the standards,
meaning that our water and seafood
would contain higher levels of toxic
chemicals and carcinogens. Our hard-
won protections were rolled back in April
2020.
However, in November 2022 under
President Biden, EPA Administrator Mi-
chael Regan reinstated the rule to protect
the health of everyone who eats fish and
shellfish caught in the state.
This is cause for celebration, but it’s
just one step in our journey. Next, we
must improve the aquatic life criteria,
the standard that determines how much
of a chemical can be present in surface
water before it is likely to harm plant and
animal life.
Let’s build upon the strong partnership
the tribes have now with the EPA and the
state. We need committed leadership and
clarity of action to make it happen. We’re
headed in the right direction, but we still
have work to do.
The Makah Tribe captured more than 24,000 European green crab between April and October just
off the tribe’s reservation in 2022. Photo: Tiffany Royal
“As the salmon
disappear, so
do our tribal
cultures and
treaty rights.
We are at a
crossroads, and
we are running
out of time.”
– Billy Frank Jr.

6. 6 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Harvest Management: Salmon
Treaty Indian tribes and the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife co-
manage salmon fisheries in Puget Sound,
the Strait of Juan de Fuca and nearshore
coastal waters.
• For decades, state and tribal co-
managers have reduced harvest in
response to declining salmon runs.
Tribes have reduced their chinook
salmon harvest by 60-95% since the
1980s.
• Under U.S. v. Washington (the Boldt
decision), harvest occurs only after
sufficient fish are available to sustain
the resource.
• The tribes monitor their harvest using
the Treaty Indian Catch Monitoring
Program to provide accurate, same-
day catch statistics for treaty tribal
fisheries. The program enables close
monitoring of tribal harvest levels and
allows for in-season adjustments.
• Tribal and state co-managers work co-
operatively through the Pacific Fishery
Management Council and the North
of Falcon process to develop fishing
seasons.
• The co-managers are part of the inter-
national cooperative fishery manage-
ment process known as the Pacific
Salmon Treaty. Tribes participate in the
Pacific Salmon Commission, the deci-
sion-making body for Pacific salmon
management between the U.S. and
Canadian governments.
Test fisheries collect data
for Elwha River fishing
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
has been testing selective fishing
methods on the Elwha River with the
hope of reopening the river to fishing.
Tribal and nontribal fishing has
been prohibited since 2011—when
removal began of two fish-blocking
dams that operated on the river for
100 years—to protect the species
during habitat restoration efforts. The
moratorium is still in place and is
evaluated annually.
The river historically was
known for its chinook and steelhead
populations, both of which the tribe
and Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife (WDFW) have worked to
boost since before dam removal.
Those populations, as well as other
fish species, were important fisheries
for the tribal community but suffered
significant declines while the dams
were in the river, said Ray Moses, the
tribe’s project biologist overseeing the
study. The dams also contributed to
the listing of chinook and steelhead
as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act.
The chosen fishing method will
help tribal fishers catch surplus
hatchery fish while releasing natural
origin fish as the Elwha River
watershed continues to recover, Moses
said.
The study also will help figure
out which methods result in the
fewest mortalities for targeted fish
while also reducing bycatch such
as bull trout, said Roger Peters,
a supervisory research fisheries
biologist for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, a partner on the
project.
The tribal and federal staff ran a
test fishery for chinook weekly from
July-August 2022, fishing at two
locations on the river, drifting a 6-inch
mesh gillnet for five minutes at a time
during a six-hour period. The team ran
a similar test fishery for coho salmon
from September-November 2022,
and will conduct one for steelhead in
spring 2023.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff process fish caught during a test
fishery in the Elwha River. Photo: Tiffany Royal

7. 7
2023 Annual Report
After years of planning, the
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
laid the foundation in 2022 for the
first known modern clam garden in the
United States.
Over two days in August,
community members passed rocks
from hand to hand to build a 2-foot-
high, 200-foot-long rock wall on the
shore of Kukutali Preserve.
“The rock wall will form a terrace
for our sea garden,” said Swinomish
tribal member Joe Williams, the
tribe’s shellfish community liaison.
“As sediment builds up behind the
wall and we tend to our garden, it will
increase the abundance of all different
sorts of sea life, such as shellfish,
sea cucumbers, urchins, kelp and
seaweed.”
This traditional shellfish
cultivation method dates back
thousands of years.
By naturally leveling off the slope
of the beach and increasing intertidal
biodiversity, the area eventually
should support harvestable numbers of
clams and oysters, but not for years or
even a generation.
Over recent years, the tribe’s
Fisheries and Community
Environmental Health programs
visited clam gardens that First Nations
restored in British Columbia to learn
about clam garden construction and
management. Tribal staff also worked
with the tribal community to select
the best site on Kukutali Preserve to
provide both ecological and socio-
cultural benefits to current and future
generations.
The tribe owns and manages
the Kukutali Preserve with the
Washington State Parks and
Recreation Commission. Preserve
lands were acquired in 2010 after
many decades of nontribal private
ownership. The tidelands surrounding
Kukutali Preserve are owned by the
United States in trust for the tribe.
“We have a closer tie to our first
foods than just for sustenance,”
said Larry Campbell, Swinomish
community environmental health
specialist. “It’s a spiritual connection.
We’re building a community
garden here to help build a better
environment for our relatives.”
Building a modern clam garden
Treaty tribes harvest native littleneck,
manila, razor and geoduck clams, Pa-
cific oysters, Dungeness crab, shrimp
and other shellfish throughout Puget
Sound and the coast.
• Tribal shellfish programs manage
harvests with other tribes and the
state through resource-sharing
agreements.
• Tribes are exploring ways to
improve management of other
species, including sea cucumbers,
Olympia oysters and sea urchins.
• Tribal shellfish enhancement results
in larger and more consistent
harvests that benefit both tribal and
nontribal diggers.
• Shellfish harvested in ceremoni-
al and subsistence fisheries are a
necessary part of tribal culture and
traditional diet.
• Shellfish harvested in commer-
cial fisheries are sold to licensed
buyers. For the protection of public
health, shellfish are harvested
and processed according to strict
co-manager and national health
standards.
• Tribes continue to work with prop-
erty owners to manage harvest on
nontribal tidelands.
• In 2021 (the most recent year for
which data is available), treaty
tribes in western Washington com-
mercially harvested more than 1.3
million pounds of manila and little-
neck clams, 2.4 million pounds of
geoduck clams, 6 million pounds
of oysters, 4.1 million pounds of
crab, 123,000 pounds of sea cu-
cumbers, 310,000 pounds of green
and red sea urchins, and 407,000
pounds of shrimp.
Harvest Management: Shellfish
Swinomish community member Kason Williams, 11, hands a rock to Joe Williams, the tribe’s
shellfish community liaison, to help form the foundation for the tribe’s clam garden on the
tidelands of Kukutali Preserve. Photo: Kari Neumeyer

8. 8 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Port Gamble S’Klallam and
Nisqually tribes are studying herring
spawning in Puget Sound, with hopes of
eventually rejuvenating the population.
Herring are a crucial food source
for other species, including juvenile
and adult salmon. Herring are high in
fat, which juvenile chinook salmon
need when migrating to the ocean, said
Hans Daubenberger, the Port Gamble
S’Klallam Tribe’s senior research
scientist. Juvenile salmon often feed
on herring larvae in Port Gamble Bay
during spawning season.
The tribe supplemented herring
habitat in the bay in 2022 by dropping
tree branches into the water and
experimenting with traditional methods
of harvesting herring eggs, he said.
Tribal members used to hang branches
off floats or logs in Port Gamble Bay.
Herring spawned on the branches, which
were then pulled out by tribal members
for egg harvest.
The Nisqually Tribe launched two
efforts in 2021 to study herring: sinking
trees to attract spawning, and rake
surveys to search for eggs in beds of
eelgrass or other materials known to be
popular spawning locations for herring.
The work is meant to supplement
the state’s larger-scale studies, said
Jed Moore, Nisqually Tribe’s salmon
recovery biologist.
“The Nisqually Tribe and Long Live
the Kings, our research collaborators,
are trying to find more localized trends,”
Moore said. “Can we find smaller
spawning events in areas that have flown
under the radar of the state’s studies,
which are examining larger trends?”
In 2022, the Nisqually Tribe added
a third effort, by catching herring with
a technique called jigging, where lured
hooks are lowered trailing off a lead
weight. A grant from the nonprofit
SeaDoc Society will fund genetic
analysis of about 200 samples at the
University of Washington.
The goal is to learn more about the
herring’s spawning timing, which is
driven by genetics, Moore said.
The treaty tribes are co-managers of
marine fish and work closely with state
and federal agencies and international
forums to develop and implement
conservation plans for all marine fish
stocks in Puget Sound and along the
Pacific Coast.
• The tribes actively manage marine
fisheries including midwater
fisheries, bottom trawl fisheries,
fixed gear fisheries and purse-seine
harvest of sardines and anchovy.
Important species to the tribes
include Pacific halibut, sablefish,
petrale sole, Pacific hake and
lingcod.
• The treaty tribes have been
active through the Pacific Fishery
Management Council (PFMC) on
issues related to the management
of all groundfish stocks including
sablefish, Pacific cod, lingcod,
petrale sole and yelloweye
rockfish. Tribal representatives
serve on the Coastal Pelagic
Species Management Team,
Endangered Species Working
Group, Ecosystem Workgroup and
Groundfish Management Team.
• Under PFMC’s management,
most groundfish and coastal
pelagic stocks are healthy with the
exception of yelloweye rockfish
and sardines. A sardine stock
rebuilding plan was initiated in
September 2020 and yelloweye
rockfish is scheduled to be rebuilt
by 2027.
• The tribes have been increasingly
involved with the International
Pacific Halibut Commission
process. The tribes, with the
states of Washington, Oregon and
California, reached an agreement
in 2019 for a 1.65 million pound
quota, of which the tribes were
allocated 35% through 2022. The
tribes are currently in the process
for setting the quota for the 2023
fishing season, with a final decision
to be made in January 2023.
Studying herring spawning
Harvest Management: Marine Fish
Hans Daubenberger, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe senior
research scientist, removes an evergreen branch from Port
Gamble Bay. Photo: Tiffany Royal

9. 9
2023 Annual Report
Hatchery Management
Construction at the Tulalip Tribes’
Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery in
2022 will provide more abundant
water resources to the facility, as well
as more space for salmon maturing
from hatchlings to release-ready fish.
The upgrades include expanded
raceways and a new water reuse
system that will quadruple the amount
of water available throughout the year
for hatching and rearing chinook,
coho and chum salmon.
The hatchery draws its water from
the east and west forks of Tulalip
Creek and five wells. The water
reuse system will recirculate water to
raceways and ponds after filtering it to
remove suspended solids, treating it
with UV and adding oxygen.
Mike Crewson, the tribes’ salmon
enhancement scientist, said the reuse
system will increase the amount of
water available from approximately
3,000 to 12,000 gallons per minute.
“More water means the hatchery
will be able to increase the number of
chinook it hatches and rears, from 2.4
to 4.4 million fish,” Crewson said.
The hatchery also expanded 12 of
its 20 raceways. The channels, which
are used for rearing fish, are deeper
and wider and are connected to the
water reuse system.
Tribal hatcheries provide harvest
opportunities for tribal and nontribal
fishermen. They also augment natural
runs in river systems where salmon
populations have declined because of
habitat loss.
Like the Tulalip hatchery,
which was built in 1983, many
tribal facilities are aging and in
need of modernization and repair,
including new construction, building
improvements and upgraded water
systems.
Hatcheries expand to boost
salmon populations
Holly Reed, assistant manager of the Tulalip Tribes’ Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery, closes the
lid of a new water reuse system. Photo: Kimberly Cauvel
Hatcheries must remain a central part of
salmon management in western Washing-
ton as long as lost and degraded habitat
prevent watersheds from naturally pro-
ducing abundant, self-sustaining salmon
runs of sufficient size to meet tribal treaty
fishing rights.
• Treaty tribes operate 24 hatcheries, 15
rearing ponds, five marine net pens and
two remote site incubation facilities.
• The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act
directed $235 million to improve tribal
climate resilience, which included fish
hatchery operations and maintenance.
However, this will not be enough to
fully modernize aging tribal facilities
that were built 40 years ago or more.
• Treaty tribes released more than 32.7
million salmon and steelhead in 2021
(the most recent year for which data is
available), including 13.3 million chi-
nook, 10 million chum and 8.3 million
coho, as well as more than 388,000
sockeye and more than 625,000 steel-
head.
• Most tribal hatcheries produce salmon
for harvest by both tribal and nontribal
fishermen. Other tribal hatcheries are
operated to rebuild wild stocks. These
serve as salmon nurseries that im-
prove the survival of juvenile fish and
increase returns of depressed salmon
stocks that will spawn naturally in our
watersheds.
• Tribes conduct an extensive mass mark-
ing and coded wire tag program. Young
fish are marked with clipped adipose
fins to identify them as hatchery fish
before release. Tiny coded wire tags
also are inserted into the noses of some
juvenile salmon. The tags are recovered
in fisheries and at hatcheries, providing
important information about marine
survival, migration, harvest rates and
hatchery effectiveness.

10. 10 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Habitat Management
Habitat protection and restoration are
essential for recovering salmon in western
Washington in each watershed. Tribes are
taking action and have restored thousands of
miles of habitat.
• Work began in 2020 to make habitat
restoration part of the North of Falcon
season setting process. A pilot project is
ongoing in the Stillaguamish watershed.
The state and tribal co-managers’ habitat
work plan derived from the treaty
tribes’ 2018 habitat strategy, called
gw∂dzadad (pronounced gwa-zah-did)
in the Lushootseed language. The name
translates to “Teaching of our Ancestors.”
gw∂dzadad, along with a story map, can
be found at nwtt.co/habitatstrategy.
• The NWIFC Salmon and Steelhead
Habitat Inventory and Assessment
Program (SSHIAP) provides data
management and analysis assistance to
member tribes. SSHIAP maintains the
State of Our Watersheds Report, assessing
habitat conditions and progress toward
salmon and ecosystem recovery. The
report is available at nwifc.org/sow.
• Tribes continue to collaborate with
the state of Washington to fix the fish-
blocking culverts that were the subject of
a U.S. Supreme Court case. The Supreme
Court affirmed a ruling in 2018 that state
blockages of salmon habitat violate tribal
treaty rights. The state was ordered to
remove barriers to fish passage.
• Tribes conduct extensive water quality
monitoring for pollution and to ensure
factors such as dissolved oxygen and
temperature levels are adequate for
salmon and other fish. To make limited
federal funding work to its fullest, tribes
partner with state agencies, industries and
property owners through collaborative
habitat protection, restoration and
enhancement efforts.
• In western Washington, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Pacific Coastal Salmon
Recovery Fund and EPA’s Geographic
Program funding have supported projects
that have restored and protected fish
access to more than 1 million acres
of spawning and rearing habitat, and
removed hundreds of fish passage
barriers.
With the efforts of the Quileute
Tribe and partners, a number of
wooden, roughly star-shaped
structures sprung up around the
lower Quillayute River in summer
2022.
The 53 engineered logjams
are intended to reduce flood risk
in the village of La Push and
improve valuable salmon habitat,
encouraging streamflow away from
sensitive banks that need protection
and toward underused floodplains.
Deteriorating fish habitat
conditions throughout this
watershed and others in the
Northwest are the result of historic
logging and road building, which
increased sediment loads in the
water and removed the wood that
would naturally settle into streams.
These impacts have resulted in
fewer pools that provide deep water
refuge and other benefits for fish.
“The river wants to heal itself
after years of wood being removed
and habitat being altered,” said
Quileute water quality biologist
Nicole Rasmussen.
The health of the Quillayute is
crucial to the people living nearby
and the 23 distinct salmon runs that
live, feed and spawn there.
The logjam structures vary in
size but have two purposes: deflect
the flow of the Quillayute River
away from eroding banks and into
floodplains where it can provide
fish-friendly habitat.
For fish, wood provides
protective structures to hide in,
encourages development of deep
pools to rest in, and attracts insects
to snack on.
“Wood is a natural part of a
healthy river system,” said Quileute
habitat restoration biologist Caroline
Walls. “We’re working with the
river and healing the river.”
This was one of many logjam
projects completed in 2022 to
restore salmon habitat throughout
the region while also providing
bank stabilization and possible flood
reduction for nearby communities.
Logjams help salmon, communities
Quileute Tribe water quality biologist Nicole Rasmussen takes a closer look at the water
within the tribe’s Reach 3 restoration project in 2022. Photo: Trevor Pyle

11. 11
2023 Annual Report
Wildlife Management
The treaty Indian tribes are co-man-
agers of wildlife resources in western
Washington.
• Tribal wildlife programs work
with state agencies and citizen
groups on wildlife forage and
habitat enhancement projects,
and regularly conduct wildlife
population studies using GPS
collars to track migration pat-
terns.
• Tribes implement occasional
hunting moratoriums in response
to declining populations because
of degraded and disconnected
habitat, invasive species and
disease.
• Western Washington treaty tribal
hunters account for a small por-
tion of the total combined deer
and elk harvest in the state. In
the 2021 season (the last year for
which data is available), treaty
tribal hunters harvested a report-
ed 358 elk and 498 deer, while
nontribal hunters harvested a
reported 5,127 elk and 24,318
deer.
• Tribal hunters hunt for suste-
nance and most do not hunt only
for themselves. Tribal culture in
western Washington is based on
extended family relationships,
with hunters sharing game with
several families. Some tribes
designate hunters to harvest wild-
life for tribal elders and others
unable to hunt for themselves, as
well as for ceremonial purposes.
• As a sovereign government, each
treaty tribe develops its own
hunting regulations and ordi-
nances for tribal members. Tribal
hunters are licensed by their
tribes and must obtain tags for
animals they wish to hunt.
• Many tribes conduct hunter
education programs aimed at
teaching tribal youth safe hunting
practices.
Testing imitation beaver dams to
repopulate colonies, wetlands
The missing link of healthy beaver
populations in the Northwest has long
meant less wetland habitat to support fish
and wildlife. Research in recent years has
shown that since the species was nearly
eradicated, just a fraction of the number
of beavers that once inhabited the region
remains, and those animals occupy small
portions of their historical range.
In response, the Stillaguamish Tribe
of Indians has begun building imitation
beaver dams to try to entice the critters to
populate more of the landscape.
“The Stillaguamish Tribe recognizes
the value of wetlands and the species sup-
ported by this type of habitat,” said Kadi
Bizyayeva, the tribe’s fisheries manager
and a Stillaguamish tribal council mem-
ber. “Restoring and enhancing wetlands is
an integral part of decolonizing the land-
scape and protecting our treaty rights.”
On tribe-owned property along the
North Fork Stillaguamish, northeast of
Everett, a team from the tribe’s wildlife
and habitat programs built three replica
beaver dams along a stream. They used a
hydraulic pounder in place of a beaver tail
to drive posts into the streambed. They
then wove branches from area trees and
shrubs between the posts and stabilized
the structures with mounds of sediment
and stones.
The stream was selected for the pilot
project because it carries enough water to
support pond development, is surrounded
by plants needed for construction and is
likely to hold the dams steady through
flooding.
“The stream we’re working in is
scoured out and so strong that the bea-
vers can’t maintain dams themselves,”
said Jennifer Sevigny, the tribe’s wildlife
program manager.
A beaver colony resides about a half-
mile upstream, increasing the odds that
young beavers breaking away from family
units may tend to the human-made dams
in the future.
“If beavers come, we hope they will
stay and maintain it,” Sevigny said.
If this imitation dam system is success-
ful in recruiting beavers to new habitat,
the method could be replicated elsewhere
to expand the population, and the wet-
lands that beavers create.
A beaver finds its way to new habitat in the Skykomish watershed, where it was relocated in the hopes
that its dam-building activity would increase the watershed’s resilience to climate change. Photo: Kari
Neumeyer

12. 12 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
The Quinault Indian Nation and Hoh, Makah and Quileute
tribes work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration, state agencies and other partners to integrate
policy, management and research goals to better understand
changing ocean conditions and establish better management
of these resources.
• Coastal tribes have identified climate change, ocean
warming, ocean acidification, hypoxia, harmful algal
blooms and invasive species as top priorities. Because
of their unique vulnerability and place-based rights,
coastal tribes are leaders in adaptation and mitigation in
response to events driven by climate change.
• To better manage and protect their resources, tribes also
have prioritized monitoring changes to ocean conditions
due to climate change, natural cycles such as the Pacific
decadal oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation,
disruptions due to marine heat waves, harmful algal
blooms and seasonal upwelling. Tribes are working with
Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing
Systems (NANOOS) and other state and federal partners
to improve monitoring marine conditions and access to
data necessary for effective decision-making.
• In recognition of the challenges facing the Olympic coast
ecosystem, the tribes and state of Washington established
the Intergovernmental Policy Council (IPC) to share in-
formation and guide management of the Olympic Coast
National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS). The IPC supported
the designation of the OCNMS, and the Washington out-
er coast as a whole, as an Ocean Acidification Sentinel
Site, and are actively supporting the OCNMS in prepar-
ing for their upcoming management strategy review.
• The tribes continue to work with state and federal
partners to respond to the findings and enact the recom-
mendations of the state’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean
Acidification. Several tribes are members of the Interna-
tional Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification, includ-
ing serving on its Executive Council. Tribes also are
working with the state Department of Natural Resources
to monitor ocean acidification conditions in nearshore
waters as part of the Acidification Nearshore Monitoring
Network (ANeMoNe) program, although this program
has not been extended to the outer coast yet. The tribes
are working closely with the state and other partners to
monitor for harmful algal blooms and to ensure shellfish
are safe for consumption.
• The tribes and the federal government are working to
map marine resources on Washington’s outer coast using
the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Stan-
dard (CMECS) as part of the Habitat Framework project.
CMECS uses habitat data to provide a more compre-
hensive understanding of habitats and their ecosystem
functions. The habitat maps produced in this process will
help improve management by providing a closer look at
the relationship between habitat and species. Learn more
at nwtt.co/oceanmaps.
Ocean Resources
Regional Collaboration:
Puget Sound is the second largest estuary in the
United States. Its resources have been overallocated
to industrial and recreational uses for decades,
leading to a steady decline in the health of the
estuary.
• In 1988, Congress designated Puget Sound as an
Estuary of National Significance, further acknowl-
edging the critical contributions Puget Sound
provides to the environmental and economic
well-being of the nation. Through the National
Estuary Program, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) works with tribal, state and local
partners to aid in the protection and restoration of
this ecologically important place.
• In 2007, the state of Washington created the
Puget Sound Partnership, dedicated to working
with tribal, state, federal and local governments
and stakeholders to clean up and restore the
environmental health of Puget Sound by the
year 2020. While this did not happen, the work
continues. The group is working toward a coor-
dinated and cooperative recovery effort through
the Partnership’s Action Agenda, which is focused
on decreasing polluted stormwater runoff and
protecting and restoring fish and shellfish habitat,
along with many other environmental concerns.
• The Tribal Management Conference was created
in 2016 through EPA’s model for the National
Estuary Program for Puget Sound. It increases
the ability of tribes to provide direct input into
the program’s decisional framework both at the
federal and state level. The Tribal Management
Conference is working to implement a list of bold
actions that can turn around salmon recovery in
Puget Sound. The bold actions fall under several
categories: Protect remaining salmon habitat, cre-
ate a transparent and open accountability system
for habitat, stop all water uses that limit salmon
recovery, reduce predation on salmon, improve
monitoring and increase funding for habitat resto-
ration.
• In 2022, the treaty tribes in western Washington
participated in Puget Sound Day on the Sound, a
one-day advocacy effort, where tribes discussed
issues with federal leaders and was hosted by the
Nisqually Tribe.
Puget Sound Recovery

13. 13
2023 Annual Report
Tribe, partners test biofiltration
The Coordinated Tribal Water Quality
Program was created by the tribes in
Washington and the federal Environmen-
tal Protection Agency (EPA) to address
water quality issues threatening tribal
rights and resources.
• EPA’s General Assistance Program
(GAP) was established in 1992 to
improve capacity for environmental
protection programs for all tribes in
the country. The treaty tribes in west-
ern Washington have been advanc-
ing Beyond GAP concepts to build
on these investments and create the
implementation programs necessary to
meet national environmental protec-
tion objectives.
• Tribal programs are essential to
combat threats to treaty resources
such as declining water quality and
quantity. In western Washington, cli-
mate change and urban development
negatively affect water resources and
aquatic ecosystems and will get worse
with the state’s continued explosive
growth.
• Tribal water resources program goals
include establishing instream flows
to sustain harvestable populations of
salmon, identifying limiting factors for
salmon recovery, protecting existing
groundwater and surface water sup-
plies, and participating in multi-agen-
cy planning processes for water
quantity and quality management.
• Amidst growing concerns of toxics
in our waters and foods, tribes are
continuing work to implement more
protective Human Health Criteria for
keeping toxic chemicals out of our
water and first foods, revising the
state’s aquatic life criteria, reducing
the impacts of stormwater runoff
including finding a solution to the
6PPD chemical in tire debris that kills
salmon, and protecting and restor-
ing functioning riparian conditions
that protect aquatic ecosystems and
instream resources.
Regional Collaboration: Water Resources
A pilot project by the Nisqually
Tribe and partners may eventually
make streams safer for fish and other
aquatic creatures.
The tribe partnered with Long Live
the Kings, Cedar Grove Composting
and others to test a mobile biofiltra-
tion unit meant to filter harmful ma-
terials from stormwater. The unit was
operational the first half of 2022 and
filtered water from several rain events
near Highway 7 west of Eatonville.
“Our interest is trying to find ways
to ensure stormwater road runoff is
as clean as possible,” said Nisqually
salmon recovery program manager
Chris Ellings. “We’ve known for a
long time that stormwater is bad.
There are so many different chem-
icals and heavy metals: copper is
dangerous for fish and other aquatic
organisms; brake pads have asbestos
and other chemicals. It’s been on our
radar for a long time.”
He said concern over stormwa-
ter was sharpened with the recent
discovery of the dangers of 6PPD, a
chemical used to prevent tires from
breaking down too quickly. A team
of Pacific Northwest–based scientists
discovered that the chemical is deadly
to coho when stormwater runoff
reaches urban streams.
“It’s incredible to find a silver
bullet that’s causing direct mortality,”
Ellings said. “It’s definitely been a
driver to find interim solutions until
the tire industry can develop alterna-
tive chemicals.”
The biofiltration system was in-
stalled on land purchased by the Nis-
qually Land Trust near Ohop Creek.
It’s a crucial area for the tribe, which
has worked with partners for years to
rejuvenate the once-thriving rearing
and spawning habitat for several spe-
cies of salmon, including coho.
“We’re partners in the ownership,
it’s in a salmon recovery priority area,
so we can isolate it,” Ellings said. “It’s
a great spot to pilot it.”
A pair of large boxes collected
samples and filtered stormwater from
three locations during three rain
events. Samples will be tested to see
how effective the unit performed at
leaching out harmful materials such
as metals like copper and zinc and
chemicals including 6PPD.
Ellings said the unit’s eventual use
will be determined by its effective-
ness but he is excited about this effort.
“Stormwater’s nasty stuff, and any
time we can clean the water in ways
like this, we should,” he said.
Long Live the Kings project manager Ashley Bagley gives a tour of a biofiltration pilot project
that resulted from a partnership with the Nisqually Tribe and others. Photo: Trevor Pyle

14. 14 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Regional Collaboration: Forestry Management
Two processes—the Timber/Fish/Wildlife
(TFW) Agreement and the Forests
and Fish Report (FFR)—provide the
framework for adaptive management by
bringing together tribes, state and federal
agencies, environmental groups, counties
and private forestland owners to protect
water quality and the habitat of salmon,
wildlife and other species, as well as
provide for the economic health of the
timber industry.
• Treaty tribes in western Washington
manage their forestlands to benefit
people, fish, wildlife and water.
• Reforestation for future needs is part
of managing healthy forests, which are
key to maintaining vibrant streams for
salmon and enabling wildlife to thrive.
• Forestlands are a source of treaty-
protected foods, medicine and
cultural items.
• A tribal representative serves on the
state’s Forest Practices Board, which
sets standards for activities such as
timber harvest, road construction and
forest chemical applications.
Partnerships protect forests for fish
Tribes partnered with environmen-
tal groups and government agencies
to steward forestlands to improve
habitat and support healthier stream-
flow for salmon.
In the Nooksack River watershed,
the Nooksack Indian Tribe is among
partners establishing a Stewart Moun-
tain Community Forest.
The partners, including the What-
com Land Trust, Whatcom County
and Western Washington University,
aim to acquire 5,500 acres of Stewart
Mountain.
In November, the first 550 acres
were purchased for the communi-
ty forest. The state Department of
Ecology also awarded $5.5 million
to grow the community forest for
streamflow restoration purposes.
Salmon need cold, clean water to
thrive in rivers like the Nooksack.
Research has shown that streams
that drain from healthy forests into
salmon-bearing rivers are cooler and
cleaner thanks to the shade and rain-
water filtration that mature trees offer.
The goal of the public commu-
nity forest is to balance ecological,
economic and community benefits
such as watershed health, sustainable
forestry, and fish and wildlife habitat,
while offsetting impacts of climate
change.
In January, the Nisqually Tribe and
partners earned an honor for a similar
project in the Mashel River, the larg-
est tributary to the Nisqually River.
The Nisqually Community Forest
was one of five projects nationwide to
be recognized as exceptional by the
Environmental Protection Agency’s
George F. Ames Performance and In-
novation in the State Revolving Fund
Creating Environmental Success
Award.
Partners in the Nisqually Com-
munity Forest include the Nisqually
River Council and Nisqually Land
Trust, in coordination with the state
Department of Ecology. So far, they
have acquired about 4,000 acres.
“We have to do whatever we can to
protect our watershed and we can’t do
it alone,” said Nisqually Tribe Chair-
man Willie Frank III. “Projects like
these show what can be done when we
work together.”
Drone photo of the Nisqually Community Forest. Photo: Nisqually Tribe

15. 15
2023 Annual Report
Harvest Management
• Plan long-range salmon recovery efforts and federal
Endangered Species Act implementation.
• Develop pre-season agreements, pre-season run size
forecasts, in-season monitoring and post-season fishery
analysis and reporting.
• Participate in regionwide fisheries management processes
with entities such as the Pacific Fishery Management Council
and International Pacific Halibut Commission.
• Plan marine fish and shellfish management.
• Facilitate tribal participation in the U.S./Canada Pacific
Salmon Treaty including organizing intertribal and
interagency meetings, developing issue papers and
negotiation options for tribes, serving on technical
committees, and coordinating tribal research associated with
implementing the treaty.
• Administer and coordinate the Treaty Indian Catch
Monitoring Program.
• Provide statistical consulting services.
• Conduct data analysis of fisheries studies and develop study
designs.
• Update and evaluate fishery management statistical models
and databases.
Environmental Protection
• Protect and restore the productive capacity of freshwater,
marine and land-based fish, wildlife and plant communities.
• Support tribal habitat protection and restoration priorities
and objectives.
• Provide policy and technical expertise, coordination and
analysis regarding fresh and marine water resources, forest
and agricultural practices, growth management and climate
change.
• Engage science and technical support to maintain a
comprehensive inventory, assessment and analysis of
watershed conditions.
• Develop policies to strengthen and align federal, state and
local authorities to protect tribal treaty resources.
Hatchery Management
• Assist tribes with production and release of an average of 36
million salmon and steelhead each year.
• Coordinate coded wire tagging of more than 6 million fish at
tribal hatcheries to provide information critical to fisheries
management.
• Analyze coded wire tag data.
• Provide genetic, ecological and statistical consulting for tribal
hatchery programs.
• Provide fish health services to tribal hatcheries for juvenile
fish health monitoring, disease diagnosis, adult health
inspection and vaccine production.
Information and Education
• Provide internal and external communication services to
member tribes and NWIFC.
• Develop and distribute communication products such as
news releases, newsletters, videos, photos, social media and
web-based content.
• Respond to public requests for information about the tribes,
their treaty rights, natural resources management activities
and environmental issues.
• Work with federal and state agencies, environmental
organizations and others in cooperative communication
efforts.
• Respond to state and federal legislation.
Wildlife Management
• Manage and maintain the intertribal wildlife harvest database
and the collection of tribal hunting regulations.
• Provide assistance to tribes on wildlife issues.
• Respond to and facilitate tribal discussions on key
management, litigation and legislative issues.
• Provide technical assistance, including statistical review
and data analysis, and/or direct involvement in wildlife and
habitat management projects.
(Boldt decision)
Endangered
Species Act
Pacific Salmon
Treaty
Fish, Shellfish and
Wildlife Harvest
Management
Harvest Monitoring/Data
Collection
Salmon and Watershed
Recovery
Policy Development and
Intergovernmental
Relations
Fisherman and Vessel
Identification
Climate Response and
Adaptation
Habitat Restoration
Ocean and Watershed
Management
Enhancement/Hatcheries
U. S. Constitution
Magnuson –
Stevens Act
Indian Self-Determination
Education Assistance Act
Shoreline
Management
Act
Clean Water Act
Marine
Mammal
Protection
Act
Stevens
Treaties
Core Programs
Core Programs
NWIFC Activities
Our core programs, which protect treaty rights and resources, are
guided by state, federal and international treaties and laws.
The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) was
created in 1974 by the treaty Indian tribes in western Washington
that were parties to U.S. v. Washington. The litigation affirmed
their treaty-reserved salmon harvest rights and established the
tribes as natural resources co-managers with the state.
The NWIFC is an intertribal organiza­
tion that assists the
20 member tribes with their natural resources co-management
respon­
sibilities. Member tribes select commis­
sioners who develop
policy and provide direction for the organization.
The NWIFC employs 80 full-­
time employees and is
headquartered in Olympia with regional offices in Forks, Poulsbo
and Burlington.
It provides broad policy coordination as well as high-quality
technical and support services. The NWIFC also acts as a forum
for tribes to address issues of shared concern, and enables the
tribes to speak with a unified voice.

16. Northwest
Indian
Fisheries
Commission