Fisheries Management

For thousands of years, Nooksack tribal members have harvested fish in a sustainable manner to support their families and community members.  The Nooksack Natural Resource Department (NNR) is striving to make sure that continues forever.  As one of the tribal co-managers of the fisheries resource in the State of Washington, the Nooksack Tribe is a voice for sound harvest management.  The tribe is also one of the participants in Pacific Salmon Treaty negotiations, which brings Nooksack Natural Resources into the international arena of fisheries.

The tribe has also expanded its management efforts to emerging fisheries like sea cucumber and sea urchin, in addition to mainstays such as salmon, crab and shrimp.  NNR carefully manages each of these, keeping an eye on those long term goals of sustainable, biologically-sound tribal fisheries for years to come.

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Treaty Resource Protection

The Constitution of the United States recognizes that treaties with Indian tribes are the "supreme law of the land," sacred pacts which ensure treaty rights in perpetuity.  The Nooksack Natural Resources Department works to protect those treaty-ensured rights, which include the rights to harvest fish and shellfish as tribal members have done since time immemorial. Essential to the right to harvest those resources are implementation of land management strategies which restore healthy habitat, supporting sustainable harvestfor tribal members and other citizens, and the utilization of Federal reserved water rights to enhance those tribal resources.  NNR works in various ways - in cooperation with other jurisdiction, federal, state and local to promote responsible resource management. NNR reviews permitting activities, such as forest practices applications, road maintenance plans, Total Maximum Daily Load allocations, hydro power and flood control proposals.  Through providing technical input, the department helps educate others on habitat requirements for the various treaty resources, and how their actions can help  promote recovery.  NNR also encourages regulatory changes which support  habitat recovery.

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Assessment Program

The Nooksack Natural Resources Department in a myriad of assessment efforts. These efforts are designed to ensure that he protection, restoration and management of treaty-protected resources are guided by the best available science. Assessment projects fall into three major categories:

(1)   population assessments, which focus on population status and life histories of
       salmonid species in the watersheds;

(2)  watershed assessments, which study historic and current watershed conditions
       and the human induced changes to them; and
 
(3)  habitat assessments, which study the distribution, quality and quantity of
      habitat.

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Watershed Restoration

Working in local watersheds to restore degraded habitat, Nooksack Natural Resources tailors its restoration plans to maximize benefits to the ecosystem.  The department's goal is to restore and maintain the habitat forming processes that create habitats to which wild salmonid stocks are adapted.  At the top of the priority list are dwindling stocks of Nooksack North Fork and South Fork native Chinook.  Preserving these unique populations requires a focus on important habitat refuge areas for different life history stages of the two stocks.  Assessment data is key to development and refinement of the department's restoration strategy.

Symptoms of watershed degradation are treated as part of a comprehensive strategy to recover ecosystem health in the short term - all the while planning for and moving toward the long term objective of addressing the causes.  NNR distributes salmon carcasses in the Nooksack River to replace key marine-derived nutrients that have been lost due to declining salmon runs.  Replacing the nutrients in the interim helps preserve environmental health until salmon stocks can recover sufficiently for the nutrient supply cycle to occur naturally.

Other types of interim projects such as placement of log jams in-stream, are planned for the future.  Large woody debris creates habitat complexity and channel stability, through creating deep pools with cover and buttressing spawning gravel during peak flows.  Watershed restoration is key to long-term recovery of those salmon stocks.

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Supporting the Community

While Nooksack Natural Resources strives to protect and restore treaty resources of great culture and economic importance to the Nooksack Tribe, the department also seeks to provide opportunities for community based employment, training, and stewardship.  The department employs multiple tribal members, training former fishermen in exciting new job opportunities.

These programs show the interconnection of natural resources activity undertaken by the Nooksack Tribe: people who made their living harvesting fish are trained to created the conditions for the fish to return.