The Salmon Coming Back to Whatcom Creeks This November Were Spawned Before the Flood. Here's Where to Watch Them.

The salmon turning up in Whatcom Creek, Fishtrap Creek and Chuckanut Creek over the next four weeks don't come from the spawning season the December 2025 flood hit. State biologists expect that damage to show up in the returns of 2027 through 2029. This November's chum and coho come from earlier years, and the preseason coho forecast for the Nooksack is the biggest jump in years.

That makes this fall the last run before the flood years start coming home. When the 2027 returns arrive, this is the run they'll be compared against.

The Flood's Effects Arrive in 2027

In December 2025, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager Chase Gunnell told Cascadia Daily News that the agency expected reduced salmon returns from 2027 through 2029. A large share of the Chinook, pink and chum eggs laid that fall in the lower Nooksack and Skagit watersheds were probably lost to floodwater or buried under sediment. Gunnell said WDFW hoped some species fared better. Coho and sockeye tend to spawn farther up tributaries, where fast water stays clearer.

By February, the outlook was more cautious about writing those eggs off. Mickey Agha, WDFW's statewide salmon science and policy analyst, gave the same 2027 to 2029 window to the Salish Current and added a caveat:

"It's important to note that eggs being washed out doesn't necessarily mean they are dead. Ultimately, some salmon populations are resilient."

The same Salish Current article gives the local precedent. Floodwater hit pink salmon spawning in 2021, and when those fish returned to the Nooksack in 2023, the forecast of 24,997 turned into an observed run of 48,152. The river crested at 149.6 feet in 2021. In December 2025 it reached 150.49 feet, a new record.

Washed-out eggs have come back strong in the Nooksack before, which is why the 2027 returns can't be predicted from the flood alone.

A Bigger Coho Forecast, and No Pinks

WDFW's 2026 coho forecast summary, updated February 27, 2026, projects 113,934 coho for the Nooksack River. That breaks down to 84,735 hatchery fish and 29,199 natural-origin fish. The 2025 forecast was 74,798, so this year's number is roughly half again as large.

Chum are harder to pin down because WDFW lists the Nooksack and Samish together. The combined 2026 chum forecast is 49,665 fish, of which 47,253 are wild.

Pinks won't be part of this year's run. The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association's timing guide lists pinks as odd-year fish, so after the 2025 run, 2026 is an off year.

These numbers are preseason forecasts, not counts. WDFW labels its in-season hatchery figures preliminary and says facility counts don't represent total river runs. The forecast points to a strong coho year. The creeks will show the actual run.

Three Saturdays, Four Creeks

The forecast tells you which fish to look for, and NSEA's fall calendar puts you in front of them. NSEA has four free Salmon Sighting events, no registration required, with staff on hand at each to explain what you're looking at.

If you want to see the big coho forecast for yourself, go to Fishtrap Creek. It's the only coho event on the list, and NSEA and Whatcom Conservation District staff will be there to talk about salmon ecology and water conservation.

Each site has its own logistics:

• Oyster Creek is the one sighting with a Bow address. NSEA and Skagit Fisheries staff set up along the Taylor Shellfish entrance drive, and NSEA asks visitors to carpool.
• Chuckanut Creek means a walk from the trailhead, either along Chuckanut Drive or on the Interurban Trail. Both routes have inclines, so wear sturdy shoes.
• Whatcom Creek is the easiest one to fold into a downtown Saturday. The booth is near C Street, and you can park on nearby downtown streets.

NSEA posts weather cancellations on its events page and its Facebook page. Check one before you head out.

Self-Guided Spots

If those three Saturdays don't work for you, you can still see fish. The City of Bellingham names three places as its most reliable viewing spots: the northern Arroyo Park trails, the Maritime Heritage Park footbridge, and the vehicle bridge over Oyster Creek south of town.

The countywide Salmon Sighting Experience Guide map lists more sites, from in-town parks up to the forks of the Nooksack:

1. Cornwall Park, 3424 Meridian St, on Squalicum Creek
2. Fairhaven Park, 107 Chuckanut Dr N, on Padden Creek, an easy add-on to an afternoon in Fairhaven
3. Maple Creek Park, 7842 Silver Lake Rd, on Maple Creek
4. Skookum Creek Fish Hatchery, 6498 Saxon Rd, Acme
5. Nooksack Salmon Hatchery on Kendall Creek, near Maple Falls
6. Acme Bridge on the South Fork Nooksack, and Excelsior Group Campground on the North Fork

These upper-watershed sites matter in a year like this one. According to WDFW's comments in Cascadia Daily News, the higher tributaries, where coho tend to spawn, are where the agency hoped fish fared better through the flood.

North Lake Whatcom Park and Smith Creek are on the map too, but for kokanee, a sockeye that never goes to sea. They aren't a stop for returning ocean salmon. The guide's species data comes from WDFW's SalmonScape, and it describes its locations as places where salmon may be seen, not places where they're guaranteed.

New Crossings Since Last Fall

Two projects have changed the creeks since the last spawning season.

On North Fork Road, Whatcom County marked completion of the Kenney Creek Fish Passage Restoration Project on November 17, 2025. A five-foot culvert that blocked fish was replaced with a 115-foot bridge, reopening more than four miles of upstream habitat. This is the first full fall with that habitat open.

Closer to Bellingham, WSDOT's I-5 fish passage project opened new northbound and southbound I-5 bridges over Chuckanut Creek this fall. Work continues, and Old Samish Road stays closed through the end of the year while a new bridge goes in there too. Restoring the salmon channel under the new bridges is planned for summer 2027. That puts the finished channel on the same calendar as the first returns from the flood years. If you take the Chuckanut Creek sighting on November 14, you're seeing the creek before that work happens.

If you want to see restoration work up close the day after this post goes up, NSEA's Haunted Habitat Tour runs Friday, October 30, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., starting at the NSEA Campus at 3057 E Bakerview Rd. The tour visits Goodwin Creek projects built with local landowners, including culvert removals, bridge installations and large woody debris placements. Halloween costumes are optional, and RSVP is required.

Work Parties Around the Sightings

The restoration work that shapes how well the creeks hold up through the 2027 to 2029 returns is happening now, and NSEA's calendar has open volunteer slots before, during and after the sighting weekends:

• Sat, Oct 31, 9 a.m. to noon: blackberry removal at Cedar Creek in Ferndale
• Fri, Nov 6, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Field Friday planting at Kelsey Nature Reserve, Ferndale
• Sat, Nov 7, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Make a Difference Day and Arbor Day at Cornwall Park, which overlaps the Oyster Creek sighting, so you'll have to pick one
• Sat, Nov 14, Sat, Nov 21 and Sat, Dec 5, 9 a.m. to noon: tree planting along the North Fork Nooksack in Deming
• Sat, Dec 12, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: community work party at Whatcom Falls Park, improving downstream habitat in Whatcom Creek

The North Fork plantings on November 14 and 21 end at noon, the same hour the Fishtrap Creek and Whatcom Creek sightings open. You can plant in the morning and watch salmon in the afternoon, though leave time for the drive back from Deming.

At Flannery Group, we keep track of what's changing across Whatcom County, from fish passage projects on North Fork Road to the bridge and road work on Chuckanut. If you have questions about how projects like these affect a road, a creek or a property you're watching, schedule a local market consult and we'll go through it with you.