"Thank you for your patience as we work to help recover local Kokanee salmon populations." That line sits on King County's East Lake Sammamish Trail page, below the notice explaining why a 600-foot stretch of the trail has been closed since June 1.
The patience runs out on a schedule that matches the fish. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says adult kokanee leave Lake Sammamish for its tributaries starting in late October and early November. The in-water work window for the City of Sammamish's George Davis Creek project closes Saturday, October 31. So the last weekend of crews working in the creek and the first weeks of spawning season overlap along the same half mile of East Lake Sammamish Parkway.
Five years ago, Ebright Creek went through the same kind of rebuild a short way up the shoreline. It is now one of the best places on the plateau to watch spawning kokanee. That makes it the best preview of what George Davis Creek is being built to become.
A fish found in one lake, and the creeks it can't reach
King County's DNRP Field Notes calls the Lake Sammamish kokanee a native and genetically distinct freshwater population found nowhere else. The same article marks the 20th year of Salmon SEEson, the county's fall viewing program. These are sockeye that never go to sea. They spend their adult lives in the lake, then swim up the short, steep streams that drain the plateau.
Many of those streams hit pipes before they hit gravel. The City of Sammamish started the George Davis Creek project in 2018. Its reasons included periodic flooding near the trail and the Parkway, costly yearly sediment cleanouts, and "multiple barriers to fish passage for migrating kokanee salmon." The plan replaces the old drainage system with an open stream channel. The channel runs 900 feet east from the lake to where the creek flows through what the city describes as an undisturbed ravine. The city says that creates 900 feet of potential spawning habitat where none exists now. It also opens unimpeded access to another 2,000 feet of stream upstream.
Last fall's numbers show why that matters. A December 2, 2025 public comment in the City of Sammamish's records passes along preliminary counts from Alison Agness, who leads the Kokanee Work Group. The run was near its end, and the comment lists the counts by creek:
| Creek | Fall 2025 count, preliminary |
|---|---|
| Ebright Creek | 173 |
| Zackuse Creek | 23 |
| George Davis Creek | 0 |
| Pine Lake Creek | 0 |
| All spawners returning this year | 1,320 |
The 1,320 total is a secondhand preliminary figure. According to the same comment, carcass counts for fall 2025 weren't available yet. Even so, the gap between the creeks is plain. Ebright, rebuilt in 2021, drew more spawners than the other three named creeks combined. George Davis drew none.
The years swing hard, and the creeks have to be ready for both
A single year's total is a weak baseline for this population. King County reported more than 8,300 adult kokanee in the 2024–25 run. The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe called that return the third-highest since official counts began in 1996. A year later, the fall 2025 run came in at roughly 1,320. The public comment set that figure against the 81 fish that returned three years earlier.
The comment also describes a pattern behind the swings. A higher return comes around every third year, with two lower years between. Most kokanee live three years, though some return at two or four. On that pattern, 2024 was a peak year and 2025 a lower one. The pattern would put fall 2026 in a lower year too, but it describes past runs and doesn't count this year's fish.
That is the case for building creeks before the fish need them. In a low year, a few hundred spawners decide where the next generation hatches. Each stream they can actually reach counts for more.
Ebright Creek is the finished version
Ebright Creek once crossed under East Lake Sammamish Parkway through a structure the city replaced with a fish-passable box culvert. The city's project page reported the Parkway reopened on September 16. Final contractor tasks were wrapping up the week of its September 29, 2021 update. King County lists a matching fix downstream. A modern box culvert under the East Lake Sammamish Trail removed a barrier to Ebright Creek.
George Davis is set up the same way, with the work split between road and trail. The city handles the Parkway and the stream corridor. King County is replacing the culverts under the trail and under East Lake Sammamish Shore Lane NE. Under an interagency agreement, both jobs went into a single contract. The city received six bids in February 2026. It chose Northwest Construction Inc. in March, with the lowest qualified bid coming in just under $9 million against an engineering estimate of about $13 million. The city had already spent $4 million buying property to daylight the stream to the lake. Grants covered about 65 percent of that price.
Zackuse Creek, between the two, shows what a partial fix looks like. The Snoqualmie Tribe says three impassable culverts were replaced there in 2018, opening about 1,500 linear feet of habitat. Its small kokanee run has become more common since, though the restored stretch still ends at another impassable culvert. Its 23 fish last fall sat between Ebright's 173 and George Davis's zero.
What's still closed, and for how long
The city's schedule puts substantial completion of George Davis Creek in Q4 2026 and final completion in Q2 2027. The project page says the stream bypass comes out once stream restoration is done. At that point the full flow of George Davis Creek returns all the way to Lake Sammamish.
Until then, here is what affects a normal weekend:
- The trail is split. The closed 600-foot section sits between Louis Thompson Rd NE and NE Inglewood Hill Rd and stays closed through the rest of the year. King County says there is no detour around it. Once the culverts are in, the county plans a new wide paved section, which it says will finish the last piece of the ELST.
- Weekend crews through October 31. The city's October 16 Cone Zone update lists George Davis Creek work on Saturdays and Sundays from October 10 through 31, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with limited traffic impact.
- The Parkway stays slow. The same update lists work on East Lake Sammamish Parkway south of NE 7th Court and possibly on East Lake Sammamish Shore Lane. It notes the posted speed limit there is 20 mph and points drivers to the city's detour map. Cone Zone updates weekly, so check the newest notice before a Saturday drive along the lake.
Where to watch while the new creek is finished
King County's 2026 Salmon SEEson viewing map lists self-guided viewing sites across the county. Two spots near the lake belong on a list this season:
- Ebright Creek. It is on the county's Salmon SEEson site list, and it is the plateau creek with last fall's highest count. Use the county map for current access rather than older directions.
- Issaquah Creek at Lake Sammamish State Park. Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park points to three spots: the bridge over Issaquah Creek, the wetlands boardwalk, and the end of the boardwalk at the creek mouth.
Kokanee are small and red at spawning time, and they show up in shallow, clear riffles. Keep the timing in mind. WDFW's late-October-to-early-November window is when the fish start moving into the creeks, so the first visits of the season may turn up only a few.
A Wednesday evening with the people who count them
For the background behind the numbers, Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park is hosting Lakeside Lectures: Kokanee on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. The speakers are University of Washington professor Jeff Jensen and Trout Unlimited's Dave Kyle. The registration page lists the Meadow Shelter at Lake Sammamish State Park as the venue, with a 5:30 p.m. start. Trout Unlimited's work ties straight back to the plateau creeks. Its Kokanee Work Group presentation lists fry trapping on Lewis, Ebright and Laughing Jacobs creeks, a remote stream incubator at Zackuse Creek, and an incubator box site at Pine Lake Creek.
The talk comes days after the in-water window closes. That timing makes it a good chance to hear how George Davis Creek fits into the restoration work from the people tracking these fish.
The trail reopening and a restored George Davis Creek will change how the north end of the lakeshore feels to walk, and our team follows changes like these across the Eastside. If you're curious how projects along East Lake Sammamish Parkway might shape the value of your own home, Steve Knoblaugh and the Knoblaugh Team can walk you through it. Get Your Instant Home Valuation whenever you'd like a starting point.
