Bird Wise Observations: A Tribal Elder
What does Be Bird Wise mean in practice among the various human observers of the wild birds populating our Skagit Valley landscape every fall and winter?
We’re talking to various user groups for their experience and best practices in response to the visiting birds. Scott Schuyler is a tribal elder of the Upper Skagit Tribe and serves as the policy representative for the natural and cultural resources of his community.
His perspective is distinct as a resident whose heritage predates the agriculture that now dominates the valley.
He shares his observations of the bird populations along the Skagit River both in the valley and within its upper portions along Highway 20.
Photo: Crowell Photography
The birds are part of nature’s clock; the geese and the swans, every winter.
The eagles' arrival upriver once heralded the arrival of winter today, they aren’t as migratory as the other birds.
They completely rely on salmon upriver, and when there's an abundance of salmon, the eagles are here.
I appreciate the birds. I live near farmland in Sedro Woolley on the flats by the river.
Historically, the birds were here and they’re here now and I hope that never changes. In the last 20 years there are more Bald eagles in the saltwater areas (of the Skagit Valley), relying on scavenging shellfish.
They aren't coming upriver as much anymore. During my childhood (I’ll be 60 this year) eagles were significant (fixtures) upriver in the winter months.
There were a lot more eagles because the salmon runs were bigger then.
As a kid, too, I used to watch Great Blue heron fish, walking through the shallows of the river, just plucking the fish–I assume the fish were salmon smolts, Coho and Steelhead.
This was in the spring and early summer, the herons perched at their favorite fishing spots, catching fish that swam past.
Photo: Sauk Mountain by Andy Porter
I like seeing the eagles when the river is producing salmon. If the salmon are here, the eagles are fed; we’re fed.
The eagle population that used to migrate upriver following the salmon, they’re not here anymore.
The Chum salmon was the main food source for eagles during the fall and winter, and that run has declined.
There used to be a Bald eagle festival in the town of Concrete up Highway 20 to celebrate the eagles, in fact. Now there are no salmon, no eagles, no festival.
The eagles have switched their feeding to the valley, more foraging elsewhere.
Back when the salmon runs were much larger than they are now, I remember counting up to 20 eagles in one tree.
To see that! The Bald eagle is the symbol of the Upper Skagit tribe, having an eagle population that’s healthy is meaningful to us.
That’s a sign of a healthy environment, if the eagles are not here, there’s a problem. The salmon’s survival is our survival.
The environmental integrity is lost and everything that relies on the fish then suffers.
The river relies on the carcasses to feed the organisms that feed insects that feed fish that feed birds and so on up the food chain.
Nothing should ever be taken for granted.
The Upper Skagit Tribe passes our traditions and way of life through our tribe’s oral history, we know our ancestors lived adjacent to the river for our members to rely on the life of the river for food and ceremonial purposes.
The Upper Skagit Tribe historically controlled the Skagit River Valley from Mount Vernon to the Newhalem City Light project and the Ross Lake area.
Photo: Skagit Valley from Sauk Mountain by Andy Porter
These were–and still are–great places to live. Every main town now along the river was once a tribal village site.
The areas the settlers first chose were for the same reason as our ancestors did.
The Swinomish and the Sauk-Suiattle tribes also occupy areas of the Skagit River Valley.
The Upper Skagit Tribe is historically the largest tribe along the Skagit River and still is, to this day.
My people relied on the birds as part of their sustenance. Some of our tribal members still hunt migratory birds.
The Tribe regulates a season for hunting and members now use firearms.
Not like our ancestors who used canoes to run birds into nets or traps.
Our ancestors hunted the larger populations of ducks, and geese when possible, using every part of the bird for sustenance or ceremony.
The hunters from our community still collect feathers for other tribal members today.
June McCormick Collins references the collection methods that I describe in her book, Valley of the Spirits: the Upper Skagit Indians of Western Washington.
Allen Smith also describes hunting ducks with bow and arrow in the National Parks Service publication, Ethnography of the North Cascades.
I spend a lot of time in the lower valley fishing, and it’s common to see Bald eagles perched in trees.
If I find a fish that is spawned out (has no subsistence value for human consumption), I will lay the carcass on the bank for the eagles to feed on.
As a parent I try to pass this appreciation for birds along to my kids.
They’re adults now. We don’t know how much they listen to us, but then they’ll recite information and you know it came from you, “Look, Dad, there’s a Peregrine falcon!”
I do notice people taking pictures along the side of the road.
As a resident here, I’m not bothered by that.
There are people that come up to the reservation area and stop to take photos, especially of the eagles along the river.
I have sympathy for agriculture (as it is impacted by the increase in the number of birds coming to the area).
But the creatures are here as Mother Nature intended, it’s a natural part of the environment that the birds are here.
The birds can survive because there is agriculture; the two can co-exist. (Although) without agriculture, some birds might not be as successful.
As a Native American, I appreciate the wildlife we have.
Our perspective will always be more protective of the environment.
It wasn't until the last 200 years that we began to lose nature because of us, humans.
Who bears the cost of this loss? Mother Nature bears the cost.
By: Bryony Angell