By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
When it comes to Tribal natural resources, the importance of fish can’t be understated. Whether it’s performing stream surveys, habitat restoration and development, artificial production and more, the Fisheries Department oversees it all to ensure a healthy environment for a population of growing fish.
For Enhancement Chief Blake Smith, helping salmon and engaging with Tribal Members every day for the last 34 years has brought him immense pride and fulfillment.
“It’s been a joy to come to work every day,” Smith said. “The Tribe is like a gigantic family, and I love working with them all. We have done some great things since I’ve been here, and it’s really been great to be a part of.”
Smith oversees most of the artificial production for the Tribe, which involves spawning, raising and releasing fish into the watershed. All of the spawning is done by hand as employees monitor hundreds of thousands of eggs as they progress through the growth cycle into fry. From there, they are transferred to acclimation ponds, where they are fed, marked and monitored further before being released into the Puyallup River. Smith explained it’s all-hands-on-deck from September to May as the department is working closely with the young fish.
“It’s fish seven days a week. They don’t care about holidays or weekends or anything,” Smith said. “They just want to grow. So, we definitely have our hands full there in that time frame.”
Another aspect of the department is research, which includes studying historical data collected over the years and going into the field to survey the rivers. This research is collected by employees like Field Biologist Julian Close, who take trips out into remote areas of the river to gather data.
“There’s a lot of hiking involved there,” Close said. “It’s checking the weather, checking the forecast to look at the height and flow of the river. When we have rain events, the river goes up, the clarity decreases, it gets turbid, and then it becomes dangerous to walk in river.”
While it’s hard work, Close stated it’s important for him to be able to help keep the culture and tradition alive while also finding fulfillment through his work.
“I asked myself, where was I the happiest? And that was fishing with my uncle and my grandfather,” Close said. “It sort of is the crossroads of my interests. … The culture in the sense of the Puyallup people, and fisheries in the sense of my personal interest.”
Maintaining a healthy supply of fish each year goes hand-in-hand with having an environmental focus, Hatchery Technician Taima Mitchell said. As a fellow fisherman himself, Mitchell said his work in the Fisheries Department is important to ensure the Tribe maintains this important resource while also taking care of the environment the fish live in.
“What I get to do is I get to go out and create a better fish for not only my fellow Tribal Members, but for myself,” Mitchell said. “The Tribe benefits as much as I do from the work that I do. It’s nice to see how we’re putting in this extra work to take care of these fish. Vacuuming more, feeding on the proper terms and putting out treatments when our fish need the treatments or when they’re sick.”
One accomplishment Mitchell is especially proud of is the department’s introduction of live hauling surplus fish to the upper watershed. This process involves bringing a number of overflow fish to higher regions in the river, where the fish can then distribute their carcasses in a wider area to enrich the forests.
“That’s been one of the biggest things that I’ve smiled about, and that’s made me hopeful and grateful that we’re moving into the right direction as a department,” Mitchell said.
If you’re interested in learning more about the work the Fisheries Department performs, you can visit its department page on the Tribal website, PuyallupTribe-nsn.gov.
