The Salmon Run Hiding Under 1st Avenue South

Here's a little local secret. Drive down 1st Ave S past the QFC and you'll cross Miller Creek without ever noticing it. It's just a concrete culvert under a residential street, the kind of thing you'd never look twice at. Yet for about ten weeks every fall, Miller Creek and its sister stream, Walker Creek, fill with wild salmon. They swim home from Puget Sound to the very gravel beds where they hatched three years earlier.

This isn't a charming metaphor. It's a real, counted salmon run, right in the middle of our neighborhoods, and volunteers have been tracking it since 2010. After more than 30 years in this corner of the Sound, it still delights me how many neighbors have never seen it. Let's fix that.

Who's Coming Home, and When

Both creeks begin inland, wind through Burien and SeaTac, and empty into Puget Sound through Normandy Park. Two species make the journey each fall, and they arrive on different schedules. Knowing which is which is the secret to a well-timed walk.

• Coho salmon: mid-October through mid-November
• Chum salmon: mid-November through early December

The coho arrive first. Just as they wind down, the chum take over. Altogether, the season runs from early October into late December, which is exactly when the local monitoring volunteers are out counting.

The Best Seats in the House

No waders or clipboard required. Three spots offer a lovely view:

• Walker Preserve in Normandy Park is one of the program's newer stewardship sites. It's a peaceful, unhurried place to watch the lower creek.
• Miller Creek Trail, just over the line in Burien, lets you stroll alongside a longer stretch of water.
• The Cove, the Normandy Park Community Club property at the west end of SW Shorebrook Drive, is where Walker Creek meets Puget Sound. Tucked behind the clubhouse, its duck pond is managed as rearing habitat for young coho. The story here starts well before the adults swim upstream. It begins with the little ones growing up in that pond.

None of these are secrets. Most people simply don't think to visit, because they have no idea what's happening beneath the surface each fall.

Where a Stroll Becomes Science

This is where it gets truly impressive. Since 2010, volunteers with the Community Salmon Investigation, affectionately known as CSI, have walked and waded the lower mile of both creeks every week during the season. They count live coho and chum. They also examine fish that didn't survive to spawn, which is known as pre-spawn mortality.

In 2023 alone, volunteers:

• counted 117 live fish
• examined 57 carcasses
• planted 113 native trees and shrubs
• restored 9,000 square feet of streamside habitat

Why all the counting? Much of this watershed was built out before modern stormwater rules existed. Rain that falls on roofs, driveways, and streets runs straight into the creeks, carrying oil and tire particles along with it. Researchers from the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center have linked that runoff to coho dying before they can spawn. As a result, our humble little creeks have become a genuine research site for understanding urban pollution.

These waters aren't pristine. What makes them special is that the salmon keep returning anyway, year after year.

Want to Get Your Feet Wet?

If watching from the bank isn't quite enough, the program is recruiting for the 2026 season. Training takes place in late September, so reach out soon. No experience is needed. Volunteers work in teams of two or three, each assigned one day a week to walk their stretch of creek and log what they find.

Two tree-planting days round out the fall, both from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.:

• November 7 at Miller Creek Trail
• December 5 at Walker Preserve

The program is a wonderful partnership between Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, King County, the Port of Seattle, and the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group, which handles sign-ups and training. For questions, contact Basin Steward Piper Hanson through the King County watershed volunteer page, or find current details on the Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group's salmon survey page.

Why I Love This Story

A living, monitored salmon run has been quietly counted since 2010 in one of the most developed corners of King County. To me, that says everything about this place. Normandy Park isn't untouched wilderness, but something wild keeps coming back, and our neighbors decided that was worth celebrating.

So the next time you pass the QFC on 1st Ave S, remember that the creek is still down there. Sometime around mid-October, the salmon will be too.

Curious what a home near Walker Creek is worth, or how the parks and trails shape everyday life here? I'd love to share a local's perspective. Reach out anytime, or request a current home value estimate whenever the mood strikes.

Michelle Codd