A single bare-boned Coho carcass sits on top of the rocks and sediment washed into lower Johnson Creek. The spinal cord is a symbolic and lingering reminder of storm-caused devastation to last year’s salmon run.

Patrick Allen and other members of Trout Unlimited, a national organization supporting cool water fisheries, aided in the creek cleanup March 27, making it more inhabitable for local trout and salmon.

Allen said December storms sent water rushing from the top of the hill near construction sites downstream through a culvert where the fresh water stream enters Liberty Bay. The culvert, too small for surging water to get through quickly, resulted in a flood 15 feet higher than the stream bed. All the Coho salmon eggs were flushed out.

“It had to have been a 50 to 80 percent loss of fish,” Allen said. “They had just spawned. The water was moving those rocks, which are big compared to the salmon eggs, so fast that those little eggs didn’t stand a chance.”

Allen, who recently earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental science and is currently pursuing a degree in fisheries, said it didn’t have to happen. “That culvert is antiquated. The water had such force it looked like a firehose.”

Johnson Creek used to be the main drinking water historically for Poulsbo residents said Paul Dorn, salmon recovery coordinator with the Suquamish Tribe for 34 years.

“Historically it had great habitat and was clean enough to drink,” Dorn said. “Now no one, without a considerable Continued@URL... http://www.northkitsapherald.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=95&cat=23&id=1184804&more=0