(Competition was intense as sizable fish competed for spawning sites)

Story by Judy Pickens
Photos by Tom Trulin
Special to West Seattle Blog

Since 1994 when the first coho spawners in modern history came into Fauntleroy Creek, the count has ranged from 0 to 274, with 20 per year being typical. This year, however, the count hit an all-time high: 347.

Records were also broken elsewhere in central Puget Sound, including east West Seattle’s Longfellow Creek. The reason could be that these fish found ample food during their two years in saltwater, or because of other factors yet to be determined.

On Nov. 1, volunteer watchers began documenting the first of 19 spawners in the lower creek. With no more fish for a week, the Fauntleroy Watershed Council called off the watch on Nov. 10. Dennis Hinton, Tom Trulin, and Mark Sears continued to check, just in case especially high tides brought in more.

(Mark Sears made sure drift logs did not block spawner access to the mouth of the creek)

“More” proved to be an understatement. On Nov. 14, a second wave of vigorous two- to seven-pound spawners began pouring in from Fauntleroy Cove. The daily count ranged from 76 on Nov. 15 to none by Nov. 24.

The council had hosted an open creek for the general public during the first wave. Now without watchers on duty every day to ensure visitor safety, organizers instead invited volunteers to stop by and bring guests. All told, at least 400 visitors came during spawning season, including student groups ranging from preschool to high school.

With so many fish trying to leave fertilized eggs in the gravel, tens of thousands of eggs were lost to birds and other predators. How much “home hatch” results will be evident in mid winter when any surviving fry will emerge from the gravel to start feeding in the creek.

(Dennis Hinton with a board full of tick marks)

“The real benefit of such a glut of spawners is what it indicates about water quality,” said veteran watcher Dennis Hinton. “Hatcheries would have released most of these fish as smolts. Without a home creek or river to return to, spawners sniff for clean water.

“The fact that they found it here is a testament to how successful this community and our agency partners have been in restoring this small urban creek to health and keeping it that way.”

The council will have more extensive summary of spawning season in its 2024 annual report; watch for it in late January at fauntleroywatershed.org.

(WSB photos, video)

It is now the season of suspense for those who care for and about Fauntleroy Creek: When will coho salmon spawners show up? Wondering about questions like that is what concluded this year’s gathering to welcome them, with singing, drumming, and more. Some of the ~100 people who showed up visited the creek after ceremonially placing stones on a banner in the center of their circle:

The gathering was just yards from the creek, in a courtyard outside the home of creek stewards (and Salmon in the Schools volunteers) Judy Pickens and Phil Sweetland. Judy told the crowd she was “delighted you all are interested in this little creek of ours.”

More than a quarter-century has passed since Judy and other volunteers led the restoration that brought salmon back into the creek. Now, each year the work to keep it accessible includes clearing logs from the creek’s mouth near the ferry dock (that was done three weeks ago). Now it’s time to watch, wait, and count – Dennis Hinton told the gathering that while the high tides are high enough now for salmon, there’s not enough water in the creek for them until we get more rain.

(Even that might not bring immediate results, he noted, since the first spawners didn’t show up until early November last year.) Learning about the creek and fish was a lesson for all ages in attendance:

The music-making was again led by Jamie Shilling:

She was joined this year by Chaz Hastings, a tabla drummer who Judy also noted is a “newly minted creek volunteer”:

The gathering was, as always, brief, with a few familiar songs paying tribute to the creek and the fish, and a chance for the kids to imagine what it might be like to be a fish:

Dappled late-afternoon sun came through the creekside trees, as organizers observed they couldn’t remember the last time this mid-October gathering was greeted by 70-degree warmth. Likely it’ll be colder, and muddier, by the time the fish make their appearance; as Judy told the gathering, once that happens, volunteers will likely host an “open creek” day so you come down to creekside to try to see them yourself (watch for announcements here on WSB). It’s impossible to predict how spawning season will go – last year, watchers counted 34 coho; the year before, 254.

(Graphic courtesy Judy Pickens, showing culvert’s route, schoolhouse at left, church at right)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two culverts carrying salmon-bearing Fauntleroy Creek underground below two streets must be replaced and widened. That’s long been known. But a behind-the-scenes part of the story has just come to light.

One of the replacement plans, for the section beneath 45th SW, has not been particularly controversial – it’s in city right-of-way and the planning is under way after the “restart” about which we reported back in March.

The other is an entirely different story – one that has just closed the book on a difficult chapter.

Fauntleroy Church and the City of Seattle have reached agreement on how to deal with the other section of culvert, which carries the creek under California SW and the church parking lot – a 130-foot city culvert, almost a third of which extends under the church parking lot [vicinity map], where it joins a 230-foot church-installed culvert. At one point in this “long conversation,” as Fauntleroy Church senior pastor Leah Atkinson-Bilinski describes it, there was the possibility that the church would face a giant price tag for the culvert project – potentially $7 million – a sum that would have bankrupted the church.

(WSB photo, exploratory drilling in 2020)

That was the state of things in 2019. Then in 2020, the church says, a city contractor doing geotechnical boring “inaccurately locate(d) the culvert and punche(d) two holes in it.” That took the situation to a different level, with the church pursuing city commitments regarding responsibility for the resulting damage, and the need to replace the 70+-year-old culvert. The conversation came to “dead ends, where it felt like we couldn’t move forward,” the pastor said. Eventually, the church felt compelled to file a lawsuit against the city, and did so last year (but did not serve it).

As the result of that, the church and city have struck a deal – recently signed by both parties – under which the church will deed part of its land to the city, enough for construction of the new city/church culvert. How much, nobody knows until the new culvert is designed. The agreement includes stipulations to protect the church’s future, such as protecting the garden outside its basement-level preschool space and a certain number of ADA parking spaces, plus the fire lane. And as part of the deal, the city is relieved of liability for damaging the church’s current culvert. And there is a provision to ensure the city would be compensated for the investment of public funds, should the church site be sold to a for-profit buyer within the next quarter-century.

Many, but not all, details of the culvert replacement itself will be guided by state and federal requirements. Rev. Atkinson-Bilinski says that ideally the deal would have given the church a bit more say in the future plan, but it does guarantee they’ll be consulted as “important partners” and that their ideas “will be considered.” When the time comes, she adds, it will be very important for community voices to weigh in on prospective designs – not just what happens in the culvert itself, but the project features above-ground.

Just getting to this point, though, is a victory, church leaders reiterate. This all dates back to the original construction of the culvert – at a time when nobody considered looking far into the future to imagine a time when restoration of salmon habitat would be important, and possible. The city first looked at culvert replacements in 2001, but shelved the idea, which resurfaced after a partial blockage hit the 45th SW culvert in 2015. (That culvert also had a clog last year.) In 2019, design concepts were presented by the city, and that’s when the church learned it could face a multi-million-dollar expense.

(2021 reader photo, salmon in Fauntleroy Creek)

Judy Pickens, who has been involved for decades with bringing Fauntleroy Creek back to life as a salmon-bearing stream, co-chaired the church’s committee dealing with the culvert issue. She says it’s important to note that reaching the agreement doesn’t just settle the stalemate between the church and city, but also means the church is “walking its talk” regarding respect for tribal fishing rights. In addition to legal requirements, a church background document explains, “as a congregation we have accepted a moral responsibility to steward the land and water that were taken from Coast Salish peoples.”

This section of culvert has been completely underground since the early 1950s. At some point before that, there was a trestle bridge over California, the church says. Mobility was a motivation when the project was planned back in the ’50s; in addition to the ecosystem, safety is a key concern now. Four preschools are in the area, and one side of California holds one of them plus the church and the Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor), while the other side holds historic Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, home to other schools, multiple small businesses, and a popular event venue, The Hall at Fauntleroy. Once a year, the Fauntleroy Fall Festival spans all of those venues, with a huge all-ages throng visiting for the afternoon.

Will the future expanded culvert bring salmon back to the upper reaches of Fauntleroy Creek, steeper than many such streams? “The potential is there … they’ve surprised us before,” Pickens says, while tempering her optimism.

“If you build it, they will come. Hopefully!” adds pastor Atkinson-Bilinski.

But for now, some relief that they know a multimillion-dollar culvert repair isn’t looming over the church. “We’re just gratified,” says church board chair Greg Dirks, “and looking forward to partnership with the city and community.”

Watch for more on how you can get involved, via the Seattle Public Utilities project page.