George Davis Creek's Work Window Closes Saturday, Right as Sammamish's Kokanee Start to Run

Since June, East Lake Sammamish Parkway near NE 7th Court has had a 20 mph zone, a detour map and weekend crews. The East Lake Sammamish Trail has been cut in two between Louis Thompson Road NE and NE Inglewood Hill Road. On Saturday, October 31, the City of Sammamish's in-water work window for that project closes. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says late October and early November is when Lake Sammamish kokanee typically start leaving the lake to spawn in its tributaries.

The timing is deliberate. The construction on the parkway is fish infrastructure, and the fish it was built for are due this week.

What the Parkway Crews Have Been Building

The George Davis Creek Fish Passage and Storm Improvement Project started construction on June 1, 2026. Work began off East Lake Sammamish Shore Lane NE near the King County trail, then moved to the parkway, private property and the stream corridor. During the full closure, crews relocated utilities and built part of a bridge, while stream restoration and pile drilling went on at the same time. The City's hydraulic project permit limits in-water work to June 15 through October 31.

Public Works launched the project in 2018 with a list of problems near the point where the creek reaches the parkway. One of them was "multiple barriers to fish passage for migrating kokanee salmon and other salmonoids." Right now the creek runs through a bypass. The City says that once stream restoration is complete, the bypass comes out and George Davis Creek will flow all the way to Lake Sammamish again.

The trail closure is part of the same effort. King County's April 2 trail bulletin described a 600-foot closure, with no detour, to replace aging culverts under the trail. It gave the purpose plainly:

"Once complete, this will open high‑quality salmon habitat on George Davis Creek and finish the last section of the ELST."

So the work fixes two things at once. It opens a creek to spawning fish, and it fills the last gap in the trail.

The last scheduled day of weekend work is Saturday, October 31, which is also the last day of the permit window. The City's Cone Zone page, updated October 16, lists George Davis Creek work on Saturdays and Sundays through October 31, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with limited traffic impact.

From 19 Fish to More Than 8,300

The Lake Sammamish kokanee are a native freshwater salmon. They spend their whole lives in fresh water instead of going to the ocean, and they spawn in only a few streams that flow into the lake. In 2017–18, only 19 adults made it back from the lake to their spawning grounds. That collapse led to the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group, which King County's Water and Land Resources Division coordinates.

In early 2025, the Work Group's technical committee put the 2023–24 return at 279 spawners, three times the 81 counted the year before. Trout Unlimited's Three Rivers Chapter noted that the population was still in the "low abundance zone." The next run was far bigger. King County's May 2025 release reported more than 8,300 returning adults, the second-highest count since monitoring began in 1996. The release gives two different season labels for that number, but the 279 figure for 2023–24 places it in the 2024–25 run. The Snoqualmie Tribe's recap put the figure at about 8,000 kokanee returning at the end of 2024.

The Work Group gives the parkway corridor much of the credit. According to King County's DNRP Field Notes, at a July 2026 gathering hosted at the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe's Harvest Kitchen, the partners named modern box culverts under the East Lake Sammamish Trail and Lake Sammamish Parkway as "one of the most successful actions so far." George Davis Creek uses the same approach, applied to the next creek on the shoreline.

Local groups are part of it too. The Work Group's members include the City of Sammamish, Friends of Pine Lake, Save Lake Sammamish, Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park, Trout Unlimited, and residents who live in the lake's watershed.

Watching Them at Ebright Creek

King County's Salmon SEEson program turns 20 this year. Its viewing map lists Ebright Creek, on the Sammamish side of the lake. The season listing on ParentMap's calendar runs from early November through late January and includes directions to the viewing spot.

• Where to park. The viewing site is at 127 E. Lake Sammamish Parkway SE. A small, unmarked parking area sits on the west side of the parkway, between the road and the East Lake Sammamish Trail.
• Where to stand. Walk about 50 feet south onto the trail to where Ebright Creek passes under it.
• Call first. Dan Lantz of King County's Salmon SEEson program asks visitors to call 206-477-4746 to confirm kokanee are visible before heading out.
• When to go. Early morning or late afternoon avoids glare on the water. Polarized glasses help you see through the surface.
• Who lives there. The site is in a residential area, and the listing asks visitors to be courteous to neighbors.

Because kokanee stay in fresh water their whole lives, they are much smaller than the sockeye they descended from. Look for the red spawning color in shallow water, not a big ocean salmon. The Salmon SEEson description calls them one of only six known native kokanee populations in Washington, and the only place to see them within 90 miles of Seattle.

Where George Davis Creek Stands

Closing the permit window does not mean the project is finished. The City lists substantial completion for Q4 2026 and final completion for Q2 2027, and it has not yet announced that the bypass is gone or that full flow has returned to the lake. King County says the 600-foot trail closure lasts through the rest of 2026, so people walking or biking that stretch should still expect two separate trail segments for now.

In its July 2026 update, the Work Group said the George Davis restoration was scheduled to finish later this year and is "expected to contribute to even stronger returns in the coming years." That same update still cited the early-2025 count of more than 8,300 as its latest figure. So this winter's run is the first since the big jump to arrive while George Davis Creek is nearly rebuilt. The bypass removal, the reopened trail and the next published count are the milestones to watch.

The City's project page offers email updates, and the Cone Zone page posts each week's parkway impacts while work continues.

Kokanee and Creek Dates for November

The kokanee events stay close to the lake, and the City's volunteer schedule continues the restoration work on the plateau's preserves.

1. Thursday, October 29, 4–7 p.m. Pumpkins on the Plaza takes over the Upper Commons at Sammamish Commons tonight, with scavenger hunts, animal encounters, trick-or-treating and food vendors. It's a good stop before kokanee season starts.
2. Saturday, October 31. The in-water work window on George Davis Creek closes, and the last scheduled day of weekend project work wraps up.
3. Wednesday, November 4, 5:30–7 p.m. Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park hosts Lakeside Lectures: Kokanee with University of Washington professor Jeff Jensen and Dave Kyle of Trout Unlimited. A registration link is posted on the Friends' event page.
4. Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The City's native planting at Beaver Lake Preserve is free, but parking is limited, so sign up in advance.
5. Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Volunteers at the Evans Meadow Restoration at Evans Creek Preserve plant bulbs and wildflowers for the pollinator meadow. Sign-up is required.
6. Early November through late January. Ebright Creek's self-guided viewing season. Call ahead before each visit.

Creek restoration along East Lake Sammamish has changed parkway traffic, trail access and the shoreline's ecology all at once, and it's the kind of public work our team follows closely. If you'd like to talk through what projects like George Davis Creek mean for the streets and parcels around them, Foundation First Group can help. Schedule a Strategy Session with a Principal.