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Puget Sound Anglers Help Repair Flood-Damaged Lilliwaup Hatchery

When members of the recreational fisher’s association Puget Sound Anglers learned of extensive flood damage that had occurred at LLTK’s Lilliwaup Creek Hatchery in December, they volunteered to help. The hatchery is the centerpiece of steelhead rearing for the Hood Canal Steelhead Project, and also maintains summer chum and Chinook recovery programs.

On January 17, members of the South Sound Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers and LLTK staff worked side-by-side to repair extensive water and sedimentation damage in and around the hatchery building, which is located on private property at the mouth of Lilliwaup Creek. The team moved yards of earth, cleaned tanks, cut and removed fallen trees, repainted the hatchery walls, and hauled load after load of gravel and debris.

“Puget Sound Anglers holds conservation to be a solemn duty of all citizens and especially for those who directly benefit from our natural resources,” said PSA South Sound Chapter President Ed Lindsey. “As longtime admirers of the work done by LLTK, we feel honored to have an opportunity to pitch in.”

LLTK Executive Director Barbara Cairns was impressed by the energy and dedication of the Anglers. “The Puget Sound Anglers’ hard work and good cheer will stay with us for a very long time,” she said. “We look forward to their continued friendship and assistance.”

The January work-party was such a resounding success that a second event was planned for Saturday, March 15 to dig-out and repair a remote incubation site that LLTK’s Lilliwaup Hatchery staff utilize on John’s Creek, a tributary of the Hamma Hamma River. The site, which provides early-rearing ponds for ESA-listed Hood Canal Summer Chum before they are released into the Hamma Hamma River, was also severely damaged as a result of the December flooding.

Programs based at the Lilliwaup Hatchery—steelhead, summer chum, and Chinook recovery—are critical to Hood Canal salmonid-restoration efforts. The unique collaboration between Puget Sound Anglers and Long Live the Kings to return that facility to life after the dramatic December flooding and landslides is a valuable illustration of what can be achieved when divergent stakeholders unite around a common goal.