Zaccuse Creek could prove a boon for kokanee

Longtime Plateau resident aims to rehabilitate the creek and introduce the freshwater species to it, but he needs the city’s help first.

By Megan Campbell • November 11, 2015 8:09 pm
Longtime Plateau resident Wally Pereyra stands in Zaccuse Creek in late July. Pereyra hopes the kokanee will one day spawn in this stream
Longtime Plateau resident Wally Pereyra stands in Zaccuse Creek in late July. Pereyra hopes the kokanee will one day spawn in this stream

There isn’t a paved path to Zaccuse Creek from Wally Pereyra’s place.

After ducking under low branches, pushing through chest-high blackberries and stepping over a buried barbed wire fence, the path eventually opens to reveal a stream in perfect condition for spawning kokanee, a freshwater cousin of sockeye salmon, Pereyra said.

It was about 2 p.m. on a late July day.

The sun sat high above, but the trees’ outstretched limbs, with chilled spring-fed water running below, provided relief from the summer’s record-setting heat.

Pereyra bends down, reveling in the condition of the stream — it’s beautiful.

For the past 42 years, Pereyra has lived just east of Lake Sammamish, slowly buying up neighboring land to protect the surrounding environment. Most recently, he acquired 13 acres to include Zaccuse Creek.

­­­On Tuesday, a pair of adult kokanee swim in Ebright Creek, which also runs through resident Wally Pereyra’s property. Ebright is one of three creeks the freshwater fish return to in the fall in order to lay eggs. Ebright Creek, a kokanee-bearing stream, also runs through Pereyra’s property. Ebright is one of three steams kokanee return to in the fall to lay their eggs.

“From a population health standpoint, that’s really dangerous,” said David St. John, coordinator and chair of the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group.

If, for example, a flood were to wash out all three creeks at once, thousands of baby kokanee, a year’s worth of new fish, would be washed away too. Even if one flooded, it would still dent the kokanee population, he said.

A once thriving kokanee population, numbered in the tens of thousands, spawned in many streams that feed into the lake. But in recent decades the species has experienced a dramatic decline and flirted with extinction, he said.

“Today you can find kokanee only in Lake Sammamish,” he said.

Zaccuse Creek, although a viable candidate to boost the population, does not support the kokanee species.

“What we want to do with Zaccuse Creek and others is to reestablish spawning,” he said.

Back on Pereyra’s property, heading downstream toward East Lake Sammamish Parkway, it starts to become clear why these freshwater salmon aren’t spawning in this perfectly suited creek: Their route from the lake is clogged.

In order for the kokanee to reach the breeding waters on Pereyra’s property, the famously red salmon would have to pass through three culverts, according to St. John.

The first, an old wooden culvert under a private road, and the second, a more modern pipe under the East Lake Sammamish Trail, will likely be replaced by King County in the coming years but are still passable, St. John said.

But the third, a city-owned culvert under East Lake Sammamish Parkway, poses a real problem for kokanee migration.

“That’s a barrier almost, we think, all the time,” St. John said. “It’s not a barrier they can overcome.”

Of the three, it’s the longest — approximately 40 feet — and the most costly culvert to replace, he said.

The narrow pipe doesn’t allow for proper drainage; sediment and other debris cannot make it through, either. This causes flooding on Pereyra’s property east of the parkway.

Pereyra, also a member of the Kokanee Work Group, has a Ph.D. in fisheries from the University of Washington.

He’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money rehabilitating and fighting development that threatened Ebright Creek.

“These kokanee were here long before we were,” Pereyra said. “This is worth protecting.”

He wants to see the city put in a bottomless culvert under East Lake Sammamish Parkway.

The project, which would include a replacement culvert as Pereyra described, would cost around $884,000, according to a preliminary estimate from the city of Sammamish.

This would include replacing the 3-foot box culvert with a 10-foot bottomless one.

Sammamish Mayor Tom Vance said the city has roughly $300,000 from the King Conservation District, which could be earmarked for this replacement project.

The Sammamish City Council, however, has not approved such a project nor has it allocated any funding to the project.

Pereyra said he strongly believes the council, especially with 2016 additions Christie Malchow and Tom Hornish, will prioritize the replacement of this culvert in coming years.

Resident Wally Pereyra uses a fallen branch to smooth blackberries on his way to Zaccuse Creek. He said this area needs to be rehabilitated, but before he begins that work he’s waiting for the city to replace a culvert under East Lake Sammamish Parkway.