Volunteers are recruited annually to observe fish in streams throughout the Lake Washington Watershed from stationary locations at banks, bridges, and decks. The 106 volunteers (106 individuals, pairs, or groups, totaling 166 people plus one classroom) who surveyed in the Lake Washington Watershed and the 36 volunteers (36 individuals, pairs, or groups, totaling 42 people) who surveyed streams outside the Lake Washington Watershed are listed in Table 1.

Agency staff held four training sessions in 2000. A field training was also held for trained volunteers at a stream site with a variety of spawning fish species (in Bear Creek). Additionally, Snohomish County, the City of Seattle, and Friends of the Hylebos Wetlands held separate training sessions. Snohomish County began county-wide volunteer salmon surveys in 1999 and held training sessions accordingly; they traded data with King County that was collected for the streams draining into the Lake Washington Watershed (North, Swamp, and Little Bear creeks systems; see Sammamish River Tributaries below). Seattle’s additional training session focused on Fauntleroy Creek and was partially facilitated by Friend of Fauntleroy Creek. Friends of the Hylebos Wetlands, based out of Federal Way, Washington, focused on Hylebos Creek.

All volunteers were shown a slide presentation and taught to identify adult spawning salmon species. The slide show was also placed on King County’s web site so volunteers could review it at their convenience. During the training sessions, volunteers were asked to sign up for a site to survey that was easily accessible from their home or work location. They were given salmon identification materials, including color adult species identification cards and spawner timing charts. Volunteers were taught how to fill out and return data forms.

Surveys were conducted between August 30, 2000, and February 5, 2001; most surveys were concluded by the end of December 2000. For the 2000 salmon spawning season, volunteers were asked to watch at their survey sites for 15 minutes twice per week. In prior years of the survey, volunteers were asked to survey for salmon at least twice a week and spend at least 10 minutes observing at each location for adult spawners (prior to 1998, volunteers were asked to survey only once per week). Actual survey frequency and duration varied greatly among volunteers: the average survey frequency was biweekly but varied from almost every day to once per month.

Volunteers counted all live and dead fish they observed. (If a volunteer surveyed the same site more than one time on the same day, the highest count was used.) Unidentified fish were also counted, and described when possible. For the 2000 spawning season, one new column of data was added to the data collection sheet: volunteers were asked to collect was how many citizens they came into contact with during their streamside duties. All data were recorded onto field data forms (Appendix C), which observers mailed to King County personnel on a monthly basis. Staff entered the data into an Access database, then survey locations and fish species identified at each location were entered into a Geographic Information System (GIS) using ArcView 3.1. Survey data are organized by basin and presented below in the Results section. Data include stream name and state stream numbers, as assigned by Williams et al. (1975), corresponding stream sites (with Site ID and river mile), dates of surveys, number of surveys, number of surveyors, and number of each species observed. Raw data are presented in the appendices in the back of this report.

Several means were used to assure that the data collected from volunteers were accurate and consistent during all phases of the program. As one precautionary measure, volunteers were provided with training by fish experts: data included in this report were collected by volunteers who attended one of the training sessions for the 2000 season (most but not all returning volunteers attended a training session in 2000). Volunteers were provided with laminated fish identification cards and a packet of training materials with fish identification information in it. Repetitious as well as additional fish identification materials were placed on the Internet. Contact persons (fish experts) were made available to volunteers to answer questions and verify species identification when necessary; volunteers were encouraged to call upon these experts if they were unsure of species identification. As a final measure, staff of the cooperating jurisdictions screened and processed the data sheets and the information was checked multiple times for accuracy following data entry.

Because of the limitations of data usage from a volunteer program such as this (Limitations of Volunteer Data in the Discussion below) and despite quality control measures, the data are intended to be used only to make preliminary evaluations of the distribution of spawning salmonids in the Lake Washington Watershed (and some nearby drainages). These data cannot be used to infer population structure or size.

For questions about the Water and Land Resources Web Site, please contact Fred Bentler, Visual Communication & GIS Unit. For questions about Salmon Watcher, please contact Jennifer Vanderhoof. Updated: May 14, 2001

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