Northwest now is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

For more than a decade now we've been telling this story about the big habitat and water quality challenges hindering salmon recovery in the Puget Sound basin and the rest of the Salish Sea.

In recent years, we've consistently experienced the warmest periods in recorded history.

In fact, climate scientists are talking about reaching a global tipping point where we may be on a path toward reliving the more extreme climate conditions that existed prior to the last ice age.

And that is very bad news for cold water fish species like salmon, steelhead and trout, and the more than 100 other species that rely upon them.

So this time, we're turning to look upslope into the watersheds and the hundreds of small creeks and large rivers that feed Puget Sound, essential to salmon reproduction and survival.

We're going to start at the highest elevations, whereas Philip Townsend shows us now there isn't much good news at all.

I.

Mount Rainier, our iconic volcano.

We all know and love.

It is a special place.

And it has, of course, a lot of glaciers on it.

And there are also quite a number of glaciers in the North Cascades.

And historically, they've actually played a very key role in summer because after most of the mountain snows have melted, they're still a source of snow and ice at higher elevations to keep those stream flows at least up, to a certain extent.

And so as our glaciers shrink, we're already seeing that happening, especially at lower elevation, that source of water in, the driest, hottest time of year is going to be dwindling.

And we rely on that snowpack that's generated during the winter, of course, to get us through our dry summers.

We have a mediterranean climate that's a lot wetter in the winter than it is in the summer, and that snowpack is an effective reservoir to get us through the dry season.

The health of the glaciers is in a bad state right now.

Continual year after year where we have average snowpack, but then warm, really, really hot periods of time.

It's not good.

You're talking about a negative balance.

Over the course of decades now.

We haven't had a positive year in a long time.

So the very first glaciers survey that was done in the park was in the 1840s.

And since then, we've lost about half of that ice and snow, and that has continued to this day.

I mean, we're continuously losing ice and snow because of bad snowfall years and warm summers, basically.

In my 20 years, I've seen all of our glaciers retreat.

The land that is being exposed, this land that at least human eyes have never seen before because it's always been covered by ice.

Every time I go up to Paradise and look at the the Moscow glacier, let's say it looks different.

It looks like I have never seen it before.

It continually is retreating uphill.

Its current rate of retreat is about one meter every ten days.

So three feet every ten days that that the terminus is moving up.

And obviously it's going to do it more in the summertime than the wintertime.

But on average that's what the rate is.

So I mean, every time you look at the mountain, it looks different.

We've lost glaciers in the park recently.

The Stevens Glacier just east of Paradise.

We've lost that, the last glacier survey.

We took it out of our survey.

We don't have it anymore.

There's two other glaciers that are probably no longer glaciers.

The Van Trump glaciers and the pyramid glaciers.

All on the south side are little fragments of what they used to be, and they aren't really exhibiting signs of movement.

You don't see crevasses.

You don't see movement on those glaciers.

So we're not really calling them glaciers anymore.

We have 29 glaciers.

We're down to 28 and probably down to 26 right now.

I think people, when they look at Mount Rainier with its abundant lakes, streams, wetlands, glaciers, the snowpack we have, you know, even the rainfall we have on an annual basis can't really imagine a water shortage that Mount Rainier.

I mean, even I have a hard time saying that.

But the reality is, it really depends on the timing of when the precipitation falls and the temperature when it does fall.

So we know that the glaciers provide an influx of cold water during the summer.

The question is how far does it go down stream?

What happens when the glaciers start to recede, or when the smaller glaciers actually disappear entirely?

That's going to have a profound impact on the water temperature downstream.

There will be impacts to fish habitat, both related to temperature and stream flow.

So quantity and quality of habitat.

But again, it's not just the glaciers, it's the snowpack as well.

It's what happens in the future related to our snowpack.

So it's all the frozen water of these areas.

Our primary threatened and endangered species in the park is the bull trout, which is actually a char species.

But it really relies on these cool waters that Mount Rainier provide Chinook steelhead.

The other salmon species downstream obviously are connected to this watershed.

We provide boundaries on our national parks, but what happens up at the headwaters of Mount Rainier directly impacts what's going down in the Puget Sound and other watersheds.

So the impacts to aquatic life are significant on years where the snowpack is low, where the temperatures are warm, where the stream flow is low annually.

We monitor spawning surveys for bull trout.

Those numbers are almost nonexistent on those really extreme years.

The threats to the aquatic species and Mount Rainier National Park really cover a range of things.

I've mentioned the direct impacts to habitat temperature and stream flow.

There's aggregation concerns.

So as glaciers recede and we get an influx of sediment, it actually increases the floodplain.

It actually comes at a time, often during the fall.

Heavy rainstorms can increase the sedimentation to our stream beds at a time when fish are spawning.

It has a direct impact on the success of the spawning of fish in.

Things are going to accelerate.

We're going to see increasing recession in the next ten, 15 years, probably.

And in our children's generation, they're going to see a mount Rainier that looks a lot different than what we see right now.

One of the reasons why it shows up so well in Seattle Tacoma is because it's white.

It has all this ice and snow on it, and as we lose that, it's going to become less reflective.

So it's not going to show up as brightly or as vividly on the skyline.

The normal that we used to see over the last 50 years is not going to be normal over the next 50 years.

The loss of glaciers in Olympic National Park and North Cascades National Park, and even the smaller glaciers here at Mount Rainier National Park will have a huge implication, particularly for the summer months.

I mean, those are the months that we all know are pretty dry, in the Pacific Northwest.

And that's where the glacier contribution really kicks in.

It's the melting of the glaciers.

It keeps the temperatures low, it keeps the flow up.

And if we lose that, it's going to have profound impacts on streamflow throughout the entire Pacific Northwest.

I think if we can solve the water problem, then we're a long ways to solving the climate problem.

It's not like this place is going to be uninhabitable, but it's going to be a different place in the future.

And we have to recognize that.

And we have and we can take steps to help kind of preserve what we love about the Pacific Northwest.

How can we best deal with these changes that are occurring and will continue, while still making this a wonderful place to live?

In addition to lighter snow packs, climate change here in western Washington also includes shorter, more intense rain events, which tend to wash juvenile salmon out of the river systems too fast, further reducing their survival.

We're going to move down into the mid elevations now where effective forest management by dozens of government agencies, private companies and nonprofits is crucial to making the ecosystem more resilient.

The U.S. Forest Service, for instance, is partnering with several groups, including Trout Unlimited and the White and Green River basins to implement a huge project called Snow Kwara to replace 50 in-stream barriers, reconnect 1500 acres of floodplain and remediate 175 miles of roadway that degrade water quality.

It's at the mid elevations where we're seeing the loss of native tree species, more wildfire and more erosion, as Steve Kiggins tells us.

Major strides have been made in understanding the kinds of fish focused forest practices that impact downstream habitats and fish survival.

Salmon recovery looks and sounds a lot like heavy machinery digging into the South Fork of the turtle River in Cowlitz County.

This is the lower brown well reach the summer.

The Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group hopes to jumpstart natural recovery, placing logs and boulders into the river, creating spawning and rearing habitat for endangered salmon.

Salmon recovery can also be seen at Eco Park Resort along the North Fork to deliver their catching little newts all around, so your story goes a little further than that.

When she was about five six, she thought it was Jurassic Park.

When we went down there, it was Dinosaur Creek.

When they go look for agates, her sister would scare about that.

Don't run off because, you know, Mark W Smith owns the resort.

His daughter, Cheyenne Smith, grew up with Eagle Park in her backyard.

Pulling Creek is where Cheyenne hunted for those rocks.

It flows through the resort in the two those North Fork.

But a culvert on the property failed.

The clog flooded a road, cutting off fish to spawning habitat.

It was a total barrier to fish.

Literally plugged this six foot culvert and flowing across the road, dumping in sediment and gravel and having adult, coho and steelhead being observed swimming across that gravel road.

State law requires private landowners to replace culverts blocking migrating salmon, and replacement gets expensive fast.

And of course, my first question is always like, what's it going to cost me?

You know, I mean, how are we going to get this done?

Lawmakers devised a state cost sharing grant program to help landowners just like Smith.

It's called the Family Forest Fish Passage Program.

So he applied.

And then July crews ripped out the culvert.

And now a 54ft concrete bridge crosses Portland Creek.

The family forest fish Passage program is managed by three state agencies the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.

Reviewed and ranked the crossing in Eagle Park was on a property and determined through multiple regulatory requirements, that the state would cover all the costs to remove and replace the barrier, but very seldom, as a taxpayer and landowner in the state, do you get a rebate?

And I look at this as kind of a rebate, not only to me, but to everybody who wants to fish and, you know, wants to see fish flourish, because this project will give us a direct value.

Coming back to the North Fork Tool River since 2003, the state Department of Natural Resources says the program has eliminated 460 barriers and adding more than 1300 miles of fish habitat statewide.

Though the Columbia Fish Enhancement Group also sponsored the Eco Park Resort project, this new crossing restores more than two and a half miles of salmon habitat that will be here for for generations, because it actually is fit to to match the the system projects like this and and the changes just bring you a lot more hope.

The sound of rumbling logging trucks can also play a role saving salmon.

Forests aren't just a piggy bank that you can break open when it's 40 years old.

They have a whole lot of other jobs to do.

Responsibly managed private forests not only sustain livable wages, the watersheds bookend the lifecycle of iconic and threatened species.

For us, the sky community, for us really is a salmon recovery project.

We know that load.

Washington's working forests remain cornerstone of our region's environment, economy and culture.

Near Ashford, along Washington, SR seven Pierce County, thousands of acres of evergreens make up the highest quality community forest.

It's also where watersheds provide critical habitat for species like steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, we report back this summer, scientists from The Nature Conservancy toured Pierce County when the Squali Community Forest Board President Justin Hall shared methods he hopes can save vital salmon habitat.

They truly are, to me, a forest species.

This is where they begin and end their life, and they give back to the forest that has given to them.

This is busy Wild Creek federally recognized critical habitat for endangered fish and headwaters for the Marshall River, which eventually joins in the squally around 5500 acres.

Among the busy wild is owned by the squall, the Indian tribe, and then the Squally Community Forest by plucking.

Seth Zuckerman from the nonprofit Northwest Natural Resources Group, says responsible forest management can protect habitat, manage the forest for a multiplicity of objectives.

You're going to do better at serving the needs of society.

The community forest management plans pivot from a clearcutting and plantation model towards a regime called ecological forestry, a method that aims to regrow forests with native species.

We can take the average age of the forest behind us here from the current, you know, 35 to 40 years of age, and get it to 80 to 100 years of age.

We can put in a significant amount more water into the Michelle that this is a tributary of in the late summer, where, you know, salmon need it.

At that point.

Among other strategies, ecological forestry includes pre-commercial thinning that removes smaller and younger trees to help remaining stands grow older, faster.

Zuckerman says this method also improves understory biodiversity.

But ecological forestry doesn't only impact the health of a forest.

The principles can also directly impact salmon habitat.

Salmon don't just live in rivers, they live in watersheds.

And everything that happens from the creek all the way up to the ridge top matters to fish.

When forests are densely packed, tight canopies deflect snow from accumulating on the understory, which can minimize snowpack density, Zuckerman says.

Northwest Natural Resource Group launched a project across multiple forest in our region, hoping to learn how to adapt forestry management to help increase demand as snowpack.

We're looking for ways of finessing our management of the canopy so that it will do better at trapping and accumulating snow compared to forests with dense stands, Zuckerman says.

Reducing trees per acre in higher elevations inside the Squally Community forest left gaps on the forest floor.

Those gaps leave room on the ground where snowfall has a chance to condense and grow.

Over the past several years, Zuckerman says, the project revealed increased snowpack helps the soils on the forest floor retain moisture, a possible defense to mitigate risk of fire.

Besides the potential benefits for forest health, Zuckerman says helping snowpack last longer can also have a direct impact on salmon survival, slowing down how it melts during the spring so that we can extend the runoff season and again, provide that essential runoff to the stream during the hottest period of the year.

From increasing access to habitat for rearing and spawning salmon and deploying innovative methods for managing private forests, this bridge not only did the future for the fish, but it gave a future to us.

Landowners far removed from Puget Sound are playing key roles, helping save iconic species threatened with extinction.

You know, all of us here in the Pacific Northwest, we're citizens of Forest Nation, right?

And so it's essential to understand this factor that's surrounding us.

And important to all of us.

Reporting from Pierce and Cowlitz counties Steve Kiggins, northwest now.

Now we're going to move down to to the lower elevations.

Hatchery programs are an attempt to mitigate the effects of development and bad hydrologic conditions, because they eliminate the need for upstream habitat.

That's why the federal government recently announced another $240 million to help 27 northwest tribes keep their hatchery operations producing.

Now, hatcheries aren't perfect, but between now and a time when native fish can return to full strength, they're a necessary tool.

And that's where the land trust play a vital role.

Trying to cobble together vital pieces of watershed habitat, in part to slowly help bring back native fish, spawning naturally in rivers and streams.

you're looking at.

One of the last undeveloped sections of shoreline in Federal Way, Site of the former Kill Werth Boy Scout camp, but now property of the Fort Terror land Trust, working with neighbors King County and the Seattle YMCA.

It's 25 acres of forested land set aside to purify runoff and nourish the shoreline, and the fish that rely on it.

Turns out this bluff is actually a salmon feeder bluff.

And it's essential for the Puget Sound health.

And so the soils and nutrients that sloughed off of this bluff go out into the sand.

They feed the eelgrass bays there.

The salmon come through and they eat that.

And it's a great place for them to be healthy and for to keep the health of the Puget Sound together.

So Camp Kill Worth is just a small piece of the more than quarter million acres for Tara has set aside in 17 counties.

And that's just part of the 1 million acres preserved by the state's 33 other land trusts.

For Tara, CEO Michelle Connor tells me the key is working strategically in all elevations and watersheds.

we're a funnel going from the crest all the way down to the, shoreline, following the rivers.

And when you think about that landscape, you have to think about it as a portfolio.

You can only work with a few key pieces that are available.

There are many, many parts of that portfolio that the market does just fine with.

And there are many places that the regulatory construct, can protect.

What, like shoreline setbacks or, how timber practices are managed under Washington state, forestry laws.

That said, there are key properties that make a real difference and it's a network that works together.

It's a living system.

And the fish really are the between the deep sea all the way up to the crest and along but it takes a generational perspective to set aside land.

And for Tara saw there was more to camp kill worth than fish, that there are other connections to be made with the community and young people.

It's great that fish are considered when you're managing this property, but there's going to be some other programs happening here as well, particularly for youth.

Talk a little bit about the plans for that.

Some of the buildings, weren't able to be saved, but they weren't really the historical ones.

We do have two historical lodges that the the neighbors also, worked with us to make sure have landmark status.

So the first two buildings in Federal Way with landmark status.

And so we'll be rehabbing, those lodges to create great community space and great program space for our teens and our outdoor school programs.

So five, ten or even 50 years from now, what does success look like?

What is your vision project forward when you think about what this property will be like and who it will be serving?

success looks like the property being preserved, naturally, but the property being activated in the service of especially educating young people about the importance of nature today.

And The why King County, the neighbors, they all formed, the partnerships required to keep camp kill Wirth on developed.

And that's the legacy of the land trusts creating a pathway for the donation of land or the sale of development rights by building trust and creating market based voluntary agreements that can often bring disparate parties together.

if you think about Seattle as a whole, it's very expensive.

The land base here is very, very expensive.

And so often when organizations started to get involved all the way back 35 years ago, we were looking for ways to create value.

And that might be value through speeding up a land use, decision or resolving a conflict between a developer and a community, or solving a family legacy issue where there was an inheritance involved.

And so we would really try to sit down, listen hard to what the parties wanted, and look for solutions in which everyone was a winner rather than somebody wins and somebody loses.

And if you look across land trusts around the country, that's really a niche that land trusts uniquely play.

Talk a little bit This is Newbury Woods community forest, 202 acres of wooded land that is home to trees.

More than 100 years old and 1.5 miles of Little Anderson Creek.

one of the hundreds of small salmon bearing creeks flowing into the Salish Sea, in this case directly into the Hood Canal.

the the creek as a as a whole plays a critical regulatory role for downstream reaches utilized by fall chum salmon and, winter steelhead, which is federally threatened species.

And by a critical regulatory role, I mean that, the health and quality of the water in this creek, directly impacts the health and quality of the water for for that spawning and habitat in Hood Canal for those species.

While the amount of water coming out of Anderson Creek seems small with climate change and the rush to develop land, every bit counts.

And land trusts like the Great Peninsula Conservancy are in a race to preserve places just like this one.

In fact, the original plan for this acreage was a 40 home development.

here.

There's absolutely pressure.

I mean, the development pressure is real, especially here in West Puget Sound.

We're seeing thousands of people move into the area again.

We're happy to see people move in, but we want to see smart development.

We want to we want to protect those areas that have the highest ecological value.

And that's it's really around here.

It's salmon, streams, shorelines, upland forests that are healthy.

I mean, we have really great fauna here.

So we have cougars, bears, they need a place to live as well.

So we want to protect those areas that have the highest ecological value.

so what we do is we work with willing landowners, who will sell their land, or sometimes they'll place conservation easements on their land and those protect the land for all time after that.

And so this is protecting vital habitat for wildlife and also for people to enjoy, places for people to get out in nature.

And that's one of the unique things about the community forest model.

It's not just about fish and wildlife.

It's also about making a place for people to explore the outdoors.

People like neighbor Tom Coleman, who says he's thankful the trust could create this opportunity by bringing together a group including the Navy, the U.S. Forest Service, the county, the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group and the original landowners.

getting out in wild areas is is a wonderful feeling for people.

I think they kind of take a deep breath and relax.

And it's sort of our, our as humans, our natural environment.

So once we get people here, we'll often get them back.

But to get them when it comes to things like tree thinning and trail making, climate informed land management is part of this, And of course, so is looking to identify other parcels that can work in conjunction with this one we really focus on finding those lands that have the highest value and protecting those, and then those become an anchor, property.

And then from that anchor property, then we'll strategically continue to work with landowners up and down, in this case here at Newberry Woods Community Forest.

The stream corridor to protect more and more of the areas that have the highest value.

As I mentioned at the start of this program, I've been working on saving the salmon for a decade.

And the bottom line is that there are several big takeaways when it comes to restoring Puget Sound salmon.

We're all in this together.

It's all connected.

And while it's going to be time consuming and expensive, we can fix it with enough social and political will.

There is still time.

As always, I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching northwest.

Now.