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Program Descriptions
Assessment Programs
The Nooksack Natural Resources
Department engages 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.
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 instream, 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.
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 opportu-
nities 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.
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