Jason Griffith

Fisheries Biologist

360-631-0868, Email Jason

Jason came to the Stillaguamish Tribe in 2000 after a circuitous route through the world of fisheries. A Washington native, he graduated from the University of Washington in 1997 with a Bachelor's in Fisheries, and worked seasonally for the University of Washington, U.S. Forest Service, NOAA, and REI (a man needs gear). With stints in Alaska, New Zealand, Montana, and the outer coast of Washington, Jason spent time working with everything from resident trout to Elephant seals. Salmon were always his favorite though, and he has been grateful for the opportunity to help with the Stillaguamish Tribe's efforts to bring back harvestable populations of Chinook and coho salmon.

Originally hired to run a smolt trapping project, Jason has branched out over the years into a variety of other areas. While running the smolt trap consumes much of Jason's time each spring, these other projects include: reviewing timber harvest applications, documenting estuarine habitat conditions, monitoring juvenile salmon use of Port Susan, monitoring adult salmon use of various freshwater habitats, developing a new baseline escapement estimate for Stillaguamish coho, planning and implementing a wide range of restoration projects, working on various technical advisory groups, and finally, writing grants to fund all of the above mentioned activities. This list is always evolving as we refine our strategy to help speed the recovery of threatened salmon populations in the Stillaguamish.

When not at work, Jason has a wide range of interests that keep him from getting bored or fat. Climbing, photography, backcountry snowboarding, traveling, and working on an old house all take up a significant amount of his time, and mean that Jason out of the loop when it comes to new movies and TV shows. His wife of four years, Kimberly, is often a partner for many of his adventures - they met in a Seattle Mountaineers climbing course, and now live in Mount Vernon.