A little creek by my house that my granddaughter & I have seen coho fry in is getting destroyed (cutting trees back hoe etc) : who & how do I report that? The creek dumps into the north fork of the Chehalis River & I know the salmon are struggling there.

Contact WDFW at the Region 6 Office. They can contact both Habitat (who would have had to issue permits) and Enforcement.

Take pictures. Date/time stamp them if you can. If you can't, then have someone hold up today's newspaper (front page). Continue to document the activity until WDFW et al can get respond.

If you have any pictures of the creek area before the construction started, that would/should be useful to WDFW.

MaxMad:

Do it before they do the 3 R's......raid, rape, and run......would be nice for WDFW LE to catch them doing "what they are doing"..

Good that you are willing to do something.....to many people would tend to "look the other way"

Pictures of the equipment, license plate numbers, people operating the equipment, will all be helpful

Call County/City Planning Dept and see if they have a permit for clearing in a Critical Area buffer.

J...
F...
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GDITMMM!

A co-worker of mine who lives up around Edmonds saw this in a small creek in her backyard.

She said the creek went white one day. She asked her neighbors what was going on and a few of them went for a walk around the neighborhood and tracked it down to new townhouse construction going on up the road. They were apparently dumping paint into the creek.

She said she called the police about it but I never followed up to see what ever came out of it.

Gotta love those real estate developers!

Paint in the creek would a "spill" and one should call Ecology's spill response line.

One thing that might help in situations like this would be in WDFW would have, near the front page, in every reg pamphlet, a list of phon numbers to call for violations.

Poaching call here, a spill call there (and define what a spill is), construction in or too close to a waterbody call here, and so on. Should be easy to set up a page that would cover most environmental incidents.

Maybe you should have "followed up" on it to find out, better would have been to make some calls yourself. Counting on others to go the extra yard is just lazy behavior. People not holding polluters accountable is a big part of the problem. When they get away with this stuff they are more then willing to continue it. Bob R

Get ahold of the tribes that have fishing rights in that basin. They may be more inclined than WDFW to stop the mayhem. Worth a call.

Unfortunately, the Tribes would have no legal authority off Rez. They could try to pressure the State but it would be a two-way street with the State pressuring them for enforcement in their bailiwick.

Bob.

I completely agree. If I had seen it or knew enough about the story to investigate, I would have. But my account of it was through the account of another person. So, I don't have enough history or details to call any organization to inquire about a story I don't know much about. And the only people I would in essence call would be the police which I don't think would be a useful.

I completely understand your frustration with my thinking. I've got to get better at speaking up / following up about things.

I had a construction project near my house trashing a creek several years ago. I think it was my county's surface water management office that I emailed pics to. They had someone on site within a day or two and they were appreciative of the heads up.

It is not helpful to paint all real estate developers with that broad brush. It is a false narrative and you alienate those that can help.

So, I know you mean well but did you even look?

From page 2 of the fishing regulations it says, "To report fish kills, oil or hazardous material spills, contact Department of Emergency Management: (800) 258-5990"

and also says, "For non-emergency violations/poaching: Call WDFW toll-free 1-877-933-9847 (1-877-WDFW-TIP). See page 5 for more details"

It's in a highlighted box.

Yup.
Fake news.

When it comes to " doing things in a responsible manner concerning fish and stream conservation" or making a buttload of money most developers go for the latter. I think a broad brush is just what is called for. If developers want a better image maybe they should police each other to get out the bad players. (yeah, like that's going to happen ) Bob R

Developers know the game and always play it because they are in the business of being in business. Usually they ask to pave it all but will settle for exactly what they actually wanted to begin with. Ask for the cow when all you want is a glass of milk.