A decade of salmon monitoring powered by students and community

Dr. Jeff Jensen’s research brings students and volunteers into local streams to track kokanee salmon, building ten years of data on survival, population trends, and changing conditions in the watershed.

Research rooted in place

Dr. Jeff Jensen’s work with kokanee salmon centers on two connected efforts in the lakes and streams of the greater Seattle area.

足彩app哪个是正规的 first is Salmon Watchers, a fall citizen science program in the North Lake Washington watershed, including the Sammamish River. Each autumn, volunteers survey local streams and record salmon sightings. 足彩app哪个是正规的 data helps researchers track population trends in waterways that run through the same communities where many UW Bothell students live and work.

足彩app哪个是正规的 second, and the focus of this milestone, is fry trapping. This winter and spring monitoring program takes place on streams flowing into Lake Sammamish and runs in collaboration with the Three Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Both efforts involve UW Bothell students and community volunteers, but they operate in different seasons and locations.

Both programs focus on kokanee, a landlocked form of sockeye salmon with a complicated history in this watershed. 足彩app哪个是正规的 Lake Washington–Lake Sammamish system once supported three kokanee populations. Two were in Lake Sammamish, and one of those is now extinct. A third population in Lake Washington was long believed to be gone. Research led by Dr. Jensen, with support from UW Bothell students and Salmon Watchers participants, confirmed that this population still exists, though at low levels. That finding continues to shape his work.

Dr. Jensen has also served on CoSEE’s faculty oversight committee since the program’s early development, helping guide its direction while building research opportunities that connect students, volunteers, and community partners.

“Fry trapping is an essential component of managing endangered Lake Sammamish kokanee because it allows us to determine how well the eggs laid by adults have been able to survive the floods and other challenges of a winter in gravel,” Dr. Jensen said. “With fry counts, we can make estimates of the number of adults returning in 2? years, and determine the relative impacts of stream and lake conditions on kokanee survival.”

A community-led effort powered by people

Fry trapping runs four nights a week for about ten weeks each season. 足彩app哪个是正规的 schedule leaves little room for gaps. Consistent monitoring is what makes the data usable.

足彩app哪个是正规的 work depends on coordination across several groups. 足彩app哪个是正规的 Three Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited leads the overall effort in partnership with the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Workgroup. UW Bothell oversees monitoring at Laughing Jacobs Creek, one of three streams in the program. Volunteers cover the other two sites.

“When I first started fry trapping, almost all of the trapping was being done by a very small group of Trout Unlimited volunteers,” Dr. Jensen said. “This was unsustainable, and lack of personnel limited the number of nights and number of streams we could trap. This, in turn, limited the reliability of the data. UW Bothell students took responsibility for all of the trapping on one key stream, Laughing Jacobs. This, along with ramping up volunteer recruitment by Trout Unlimited, has allowed the program to expand and to give us a better understanding of fry numbers.”

Nights on the creek

From winter into early spring, UW Bothell students travel to Laughing Jacobs Creek near Issaquah to operate traps after sunset. Fry move downstream mostly at night, so monitoring happens in the dark, often in cold and rainy conditions.

This year, 21 undergraduate volunteers took part, including six returning students. 足彩app哪个是正规的 group also included alumni, a local high school student, and support from a Trout Unlimited operations manager who previously participated in the program.

Dr. Jensen notices the commitment. “I am always impressed by the tremendous efforts our students and other volunteers make to come trap kokanee,” he said. “It’s a long drive out to Issaquah, rides and carpools need to be arranged, the hours are long and the conditions can be quite cold and rainy. Some years we capture a lot of fry. Other years, like this year in Laughing Jacobs, we catch very few. Each fish we do count stands out. I think there is a real hunger for field experience that has a clear and appreciable impact.”

足彩app哪个是正规的 work was recently featured in a KOMO News segment showing students in the field during this season’s trapping.

足彩app哪个是正规的s use the traps to count fry as they migrate downstream after hatching. Researchers compare those numbers with known spawning counts to estimate survival from egg to migration. When combined with adult return data in later years, the results help build a longer-term view of survival across life stages. Some students continue the work through independent research, analyzing data and modeling future run size. A few have returned years later to see adult fish in the streams where they once counted fry.

Learning by doing

足彩app哪个是正规的 involvement is a consistent part of this work. Over the past ten years, dozens of students have participated in field research tied to these programs.

Through fry trapping and Salmon Watchers, students gain experience with field methods, data collection, and ecological monitoring. Some return across multiple seasons. Others carry the work into independent study or move into conservation-related roles after graduation.

Each spring, a smaller group focuses on analysis. 足彩app哪个是正规的y work with the season’s data to understand patterns in survival and variation across sites and years. It’s a different pace than fieldwork, but it connects directly back to what they saw in the streams.

Building a community of stewardship

Over time, the programs have created a network of participants who stay involved in different ways.

“It’s been a joy for me to see so many students become involved with, and passionate about, salmon,” Dr. Jensen said. “Many people don’t realize that even highly impacted and urbanized streams have returning salmon. 足彩app哪个是正规的 first step in getting people to care is helping them understand what’s still there and what can be protected. I like to think of the fry trapping program as a gateway for our students to stay engaged, whether as professionals or as volunteers.”

Long-term monitoring depends on that continuity. 足彩app哪个是正规的 data gains value year by year, and the work stays grounded in the communities where the streams flow.

足彩app哪个是正规的 next chapter

As Dr. Jensen reaches ten years of fry trapping and kokanee research, the program continues to evolve. One next step is expanding fry trapping into Lake Washington streams, building on earlier findings that kokanee there are still present.

CoSEE is marking the milestone while continuing to support the work ahead—research, student training, and partnerships tied to local waters.