Saving the last best chance of a salmon stream in Port Angeles

April 11, 2020 Please share with others who may care and visit Ennis Friends on Facebook

Featured in this newsletter:

Link to film trailer:
https://vimeo.com/405680526
Help us raise $1000 to complete
film.
Dish passage project progresses.
Song urges “Lifeline” for stream.
Signs of spring at Ennis Creek
Who can make a map for us?

Trailer offers preview for film needing $1,000 for completion

Filmmaker John Gussman has released a trailer promoting Ennis – A Creek Worth
Saving. Click on this https://vimeo.com/405680526 link to see it.
It’s only 2 minutes in length, but it represents hundreds of Gussman’s hours in filming
the stream, interviews and historic photos.
We’re hoping to raise another $1,000 beyond current donations of nearly $1,000 to help
cover expenses. Specify Ennis film when clicking the Donate button on left side of the website
for northolympiclandtrust.org or sending a check to the Land Trust at P.O. Box 2945, Port
Angeles, WA 98362 or phoning 360-417-1815. Contributions are tax-deductible. Each $120.00
entitles the donor to a listing on the Clallam County Courthouse plaque. You can honor people –
or Ennis Creek.
We need help now in getting this amazing video out to as many people as possible so we
can get more people involved in saving this creek – our last best hope of a salmon stream in Port
Angeles. Please copy and forward the link and explain the need for help.
At this time, the main need is for donations to complete the much longer film, but other
involvement opportunities will be available, so we appreciate collecting contact information for
potential Ennis Friends.
People wanting to stay informed about this special stream should email
ennis@olypen.com to get on the mailing list and keep checking the Ennis Friends Facebook site.
Five voices from many more interviews are heard on the short trailer. In order, they are:
• Suzanne DeBey, Peninsula Daily News “Issues of Faith” columnist, retired Port
Angeles Schools teacher and active member of Congregation Olympic B’nai
Shalom (COBS), serving the North Olympic Peninsula’s Jewish Community
• Port Angeles City Manager Nathan West, former City Economic and
Community Development Director
• Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, Port Angeles City Council member, constitutional
lawyer and former science educator
• David Mattern, environmental consultant, member of North Olympic Land
Trust’s Conservation Committee and a leader of the local Interfaith Alliance
• Robbie Mantooth, Friends of Ennis Creek co-founder, community volunteer,
retired Peninsula College administrator and faculty member

Other interviews have been completed with:

• Jeff Bohman, president, Peninsula Trails Coalition
• Ed Chadd, recently retired Clallam County Streamkeepers coordinator
• Elizabeth Christian, M.D., recently retired physician; Holy Trinity Lutheran
Church and community volunteer
• Kathy Estes, Executive Director, Clallam County Historical Society
• Jessica Hernandez, Waterfront Center Development Director
• Randy Johnson, Clallam County Commissioner, longtime timber executive,
community volunteer
• Jim Mantooth, M.D., Friends of Ennis Creek co-founder, North Olympic Land
Trust volunteer, retired pediatrician
• Colleen McAleer, Clallam County Economic Development Executive Director,
Port Commissioner, former Port staff member, owner/broker real estate business
• Tom Sanford, North Olympic Land Trust Executive Director, community
volunteer
• Dr. Jim Walton, area salmon recovery volunteer; former chairperson state Fish
and Wildlife Commission, college president and Peninsula College fisheries
program head
• Jim and Karen Halberg Weaver, Wild Edge Farm owners/operators and son
Jake Weaver, one of their three children active in farming and environmental
work

Priority interviews on schedule before virus interruptions:

• Frances Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe chairperson and cultural heritage
specialists
• Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Fisheries Habitat Biologist
• Cathy Lear, Clallam County Habitat Biologist
• Pat Crain, Olympic National Park Chief Fisheries Biologist
• John Brewer, retired Peninsula Daily News editor/publisher, community
volunteer

Great gratitude to all who have given their time to support Ennis Creek!
 Fish passage project makes progress
Port Angeles City officials have received notice from the
state Brian Abbott Fish Passage Barrier Board that the City’s
project for improving fish passage under East Ennis Creek
Road has made the first cut for grant money.

Photo by Jim Mantooth, April 2020 Photo from Lead Entity for Salmon Restoration
City Engineer Jonathan Boehme, PE/Civil Engineer II, Christopher Bruning and their
team members will work with Cheryl Baumann and Eric Carlsen, of North Olympic Lead Entity
for Salmon Recovery and Natural Resources Director Matt Beirne and habitat biologist Mike
McHenry of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to take the project application to the next step. The
City has been championing this project for decades, and it has been a priority for many Ennis
friends including Port Angeles City Manager Nathan West, McHenry and the late Dick Goin,
exceptional stream volunteer. Washington State’s Legislature established the grant program in
2014 to help identify and remove impediments to salmon and Wildlife and state Recreation and
Conservation Office.
According to http://hws.ekosystem.us/project/180/16187 tracking salmon recovery
throughout Washington state:
“This project will remove a fish passage barrier culvert at River Mile 0.5 on Ennis Creek.
“The existing double concrete culverts under Ennis Creek Road will be replaced with
either a bridge or wide concrete box or arch culvert. Preliminary design work has been
completed. …
“Ennis Creek is the one of the least disturbed of the 5 independent urban drainages. It
has the largest undisturbed upper watershed with snow-fed headwaters in the Olympic National
Park, the least development, a wide diversity of existing native fish stocks and a high potential
for restoration.”
Special thanks to Ennis Friends volunteer, John Brewer, for contributing reporting and writing.

Who can help us with map of Ennis Creek

Filmmaker John Gussman would like to include a map of Ennis Creek in the movie Ennis
– A Creek Worth Saving.
Does anyone have a suitable one for such use?
Please email ennis@olypen.com as soon as possible.
 Murals featuring Ennis Creek get refurbishing, new sign
Photos and article from John Brewer, Ennis Friend and mural project leader

A NEW SIGN for the "ʔiʔínəs/Ennis Creek" mural at City Pier was installed recently by
members of the Port Angeles Nor'wester Rotary Club.
The Rotary club in the late 1990s sponsored the creation of "ʔiʔínəs/Ennis Creek" and
three other murals in the downtown area – "MV Kalakala," "Sluicing the Hogback" and
"Olympic Visions.''
Last summer the club sponsored a $50,000 project to get them restored – the sun, salty
sea air and emissions from cars and trucks took a toll over the years, especially to "Sluicing."
Parts of the murals were repainted, and all got new coats of high-tech sealant.
Included in the restoration were new, weather-resistant aluminum signs that include better
explanations for what the murals depict.
You can see the new "ʔiʔínəs/Ennis Creek" sign by pressing Ctrl and clicking:
https://www.scribd.com/document/456095386/New-Ennis-Creek-Mural-Sign
The new signs also incorporate welcome greetings in the Klallam language, plus a scan
code that allows a visitor with a cellphone to hear Klallam phrases. One of the words you can
hear is "ʔiʔínəs," the Klallam name for their centuries-old tribal village at Ennis Creek. In
addition, there's a second scan code on the signs that will take you to a website displaying all of
Port Angeles' murals – the Port Angeles Art Mural Trail by pressing Ctrl and clicking:
https://www.visitportangeles.com/mural-trail/
You can learn more about the mural restoration – including the role played by the Lower
Elwha Klallam Tribe and its chairwoman, Frances Charles – in this Peninsula Daily News story:
https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/walk-into-history-tribal-leaders-view-refurbished-mural/

When Rosalie Kaune came for an Ennis Creek walk,

she brought some trillium starts she and her
mother nurtured from seeds. Could those be baby
trilliums coming up where Jim Mantooth planted
the gift bulbs beside the stream last winter and
took this photo in early April? Watching eagerly!
 Song urges “Lifeline” for stream
A new song, “Lifeline,” celebrates Ennis Creek and urges actions for its recovery.
Wes Mantooth, who grew up along Ennis Creek, wrote the song for his mother’s 80th birthday.
Its final chords are heard on film trailer, and filmmaker John Gussman plans to use the entire
song for the film itself. To hear the song and see all the lyrics press Ctrl and click:
https://wesmantooth1.bandcamp.com/track/lifeline-from-the-snowfields-to-the-salish-sea

Its last verse and chorus:

Some still cling to a dream,

A stream as it was meant to be –
Water’s clean, meandering
In tidal grass, fish wait to journey
To come back from the journey.

Don’t look away … don’t let go lightly … don’t look away …

When life throws a lifeline
Follow it upstream
‘Til you’re looking from the snowfields
Out to the Salish Sea.

Spring comes to the stream

Two photos by John Gussman, on an April day by Ennis Creek

Some of John Gussman’s most recent videos https://vimeo.com/406672771 with his words:
“Very rare event today (April 11, 2020) at Dungeness Bay. A small black bear was
roaming the tide flats near 3 crabs. I was helping the fish and wildlife folks keep track of the bear
with a drone and grabbed some footage along the way. A happy ending as the bear was finally
darted and taken away to a safer place to protect it from humans. I was so lucky to be at the right
place at the right time. I will never see this happen again I am sure of that.”
To view some of his other recent photography adventures, press Ctrl and click
Whales of San Ignacio Lagoon https://vimeo.com/400146737
Animals of Yellowstone in winter https://vimeo.com/402020717
One emphasizes the trust between whales and humans he saw in San Ignacio Lagoon, off
Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, with the Orca Network of Whidby Island in early March. The other
gets close to the animals in Yellowstone National Park a few days earlier. He encourages viewers
to watch on a larger screen than a phone. Copies of his Return of the River (about Elwha dam
removal) have sold out, but you can call Port Book and News, 360-452-6367 to reserve one of
those coming Friday: $19.95. The bookstore will deliver purchases of $10 or more within Port
Angeles and offers curbside service (call ahead) and can run your credit card without any
touching. No cash or checks during this social distancing time. Film also is available through
rental streaming on Amazon Prime.

Walk reservations welcomed

Numerous guided walks to Ennis Creek have provided information about habitat essential
for saving the last best chance of a salmon stream in Port Angeles. Although social distancing
mandates have interrupted them, please let us know of your interest by emailing
ennis@olypen.com so we can reserve a spot for you as soon as possible.

Reaching out to complementary groups

We didn’t proceed with our application to One Tree Planted and Protect the Pods (as in
orca families) for a grant to plant more trees along Ennis Creek as part of an Arbor Day
observance. Bad timing for tree planting that late and for such activities after social distancing
changed everything. Stay tuned. We’ll need to plant trees!
Cleanup along Ennis Creek with volunteers from North Olympic Land Trust’s
stewardship program also fell victim to virus conditions. We’ll reschedule as soon as possible, so
email ennis@olypen.com if you’d like to help.
We continue to work with the Land Trust and City to seek solutions for inappropriate
uses of streamside land, bringing degradation to the stream. We appreciate such thoughtful
partners – and so will the fish!

Reading recommendations
Your suggestions welcomed. Here are some from Robbie Mantooth:
The Wild Muir, by John Muir, selected and introduced by Lee Stetson. A collection of the
great environmental leader’s great adventures – from his snow avalanche trip down a Yosemite
Valley canyon to a ride in the top of a tree during a fierce windstorm.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of
Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer (member, Citizen Potawatomi Nation).
The Last Wilderness: A History of the Olympic Peninsula, by Murray Morgan with new
introduction by Tim McNulty.

Let us hear from YOU!

Currents, the Friends of Ennis Creek newsletter, and Ennis Friends, our Facebook page,
welcome your letters and comments. Why is Ennis a creek worth saving? What experiences have
you enjoyed along the stream? Share your observations at ennis@olypen.com and attach your
photos.

Friends of Ennis Creek appreciates North Olympic Land

Trust’s many contributions to this special stream, including
protecting more than 50 acres of the stream’s riparian
corridor in perpetuity, providing stewardship assistance and
guidance and handling donations to the Ennis – A Creek
Worth Saving film.