Date of survey: 11/19/2016
Volunteer Names: Bruce Newton and Heather Brunelle
The water clarity was clear in the majority of the stretches, allowing for good visibility.
There was limited access to view creek at many areas. Residents have property that borders the creek, with no public access for viewing. I plan to follow-up with Janel to ask how local residents can report sightings to JCWC.
We were able to speak to three members of the community who reported viewing live salmon during this year.
The first resident reported seeing three salmon during past two weeks: 1st at Johnson Creek Park; 2nd in creek near her residence at SE Harney; and 3rd location not reported. This resident stated she had not spotted redds this year.
The second resident reported he had seen a live salmon earlier this year (~late summer) in creek near SE Spokane. This property owner is working with the Crystal Springs Partnership on installation of interpretive signage.
The third resident reported she had spotted a live salmon swimming in creek, two weeks prior, from her vantage standing on the Westmoreland Park foot bridge that is just downstream of Bybee overpass.
We attempted to wade creek where there was access. Where the creek bottom primarily consisted of silty, fine sediments, the wading was difficult and often too soft to allow for solid footing. We did not continue wading at these stretches with a softer creek bottom. There were several stretches that had substrate favorable for redds (i.e., finer gravel); however, no signs of redds were observed.
My suggestion for future surveys is for volunteers to mark on figure those stretches of Crystal Springs Creek containing substrate favorable for redds. This would aid future volunteers to be aware of the potential for redds at these marked locations. This effort may also help track changes in substrate conditions over time as the creek hydrology is altered (e.g., more fine gravel is exposed as finer silty material washes downstream).
– Notes submitted by Heather Brunelle