In Meadowbrook, the Salmon Run Shows Up in the Planting Strips First

Salmon still return to Thornton Creek, and the place where the creek's two branches meet at Meadowbrook Pond is the most likely spot in the neighborhood to see one. They come in very small numbers, though, and in recent years scientists have tracked them mainly by the DNA they leave in the water. Over the same years, the work to bring more of them back has moved onto the streets around the pond. On a late-October walk in Meadowbrook, you're more likely to pass part of the salmon effort than to see a salmon.

For anyone heading out with polarized glasses this fall, that changes what you're looking for.

The confluence holds the record, and the record is thin

Meadowbrook Pond is a Seattle Public Utilities stormwater and flood-control facility on 35th Avenue NE between NE 105th and NE 110th Streets. The North and South Branches of Thornton Creek meet on the pond's east side near NE 107th Street. The pond is there to manage water and provide habitat. The paths, bridges, and viewing platforms around it make the confluence easy to watch from dry ground.

The salmon history at that spot is short enough to list:

• 2010: the last confirmed Chinook sighting in Thornton Creek before 2018.
• 2016 and 2017: SPU spawning surveys counted between one and five coho observations each year.
• 2018: the same surveys recorded no coho, even though three redds, or nests, were found. None of the 2016 to 2018 surveys recorded a Chinook.
• October 17, 2018: separately from the surveys, a female Chinook was seen digging a redd just below the confluence, and a male joined her a few days later.

KOMO News covered that 2018 pair as the first Chinook spawning in the creek in eight years, following rehabilitation work in 2014. That pair spawned at Meadowbrook, beside the pond.

Since then, the clearest evidence has come from water samples. Seattle Public Utilities and the U.S. Geological Survey sampled Thornton Creek for salmon environmental DNA from 2018 to 2020 and published the results in Northwest Science in August 2024. They found both Chinook and coho DNA during fall returns, and coho detections peaked from about mid-October through late November. These are the most recent published Thornton Creek salmon findings, and they're several seasons old. The timing is still the best guide available. Late October into November is when fish were in the water.

Why a coho can die before it spawns

Low numbers aren't only about whether fish can get upstream. Thornton, Pipers, and Longfellow Creeks all have well-documented histories of coho dying before they spawn. The Washington State Department of Ecology explains the leading suspect. A tire additive called 6PPD reacts with ozone to form 6PPD-quinone, which is lethal to coho. Tire particles shed on roads wash into storm drains and then into streams.

Thornton Creek is part of that research now. A study published September 15, 2026 reported a full year of 6PPD-quinone monitoring in Thornton, Pipers, and Longfellow Creeks. Concentrations across the three ranged from below the limit of quantification to 345 nanograms per liter, and Pipers Creek had the highest. The study does not put a number on how many Thornton Creek fish the compound has killed.

West Seattle shows how bad it can get. Over 52 days of surveys from October through December 2025, Puget Soundkeeper counted 130 dead coho in Longfellow Creek and reported that 55.5 percent of returning fish died before spawning. Sightings peaked on October 27.

State policy is still in progress. Washington's SB 5931 was signed March 28, 2024, and took effect June 6, 2024. It put tires containing 6PPD into the state's Safer Products regulatory process. It did not ban them. Ecology's Safer Products page expects draft regulatory actions and public comment in late 2026. A 2026 bill on 6PPD, HB 2421, was last recorded in House Rules after February 9, and the Legislature's records don't show it passing.

While those rules are pending, the work that can help Thornton Creek this year is filtering stormwater before it reaches the creek. Much of that is happening a few blocks from the pond.

The fix runs along residential blocks

Seattle Public Utilities' South Thornton Natural Drainage Systems project built roadside drainage at four sites in the south Thornton Creek basin. One is 41st Place NE between NE 105th and NE 107th Streets, a few blocks east of the pond at about the same latitude as the confluence. The others are on 23rd Avenue NE from NE Northgate Way to NE 103rd Street, on N 117th and N 120th Streets between Meridian Avenue N and 1st Avenue NE, and on a group of Wedgwood blocks along NE 87th and NE 88th Streets and 29th and 30th Avenues NE. Construction started in May 2024 and has reached substantial completion. Landscape maintenance was scheduled through May 2026. SDOT added walkways on some streets that had no formal sidewalks. The Office of Arts and Culture added an art installation to the system near Wedgwood Elementary.

These planted strips matter because of what they filter. King County tested bioretention soil mixes against real stormwater in a 2025 study. Every mix it tested, including the standard one, protected juvenile coho from acutely toxic runoff and cut 6PPD-quinone at least tenfold. So the rain garden on 41st Place NE is doing the job that state tire rules may eventually take over.

Projects are also lined up upstream and downstream of Meadowbrook:

A few details give the list more weight. At Willow Creek, crews moved the creek away from a culvert, removed fish-passage barriers, planted the banks, and added a pedestrian bridge. At Lake City Floodplain Park, Seattle Parks plans to reconnect the North Branch to its floodplain, remove bank armoring and invasive plants, and add large wood and native vegetation. WSDOT rates the SR 522 culvert as only 67 percent passable for native fish. The King County Flood Control District grant pays SPU to study restoration and fish passage on lower Thornton Creek, which every returning fish has to pass through before it reaches Meadowbrook.

Most of this work comes after this fall. Of the projects listed, the Willow Creek channel and the South Thornton drainage are the two already finished. That's why the planting strips are the most visible part of the salmon effort this season.

Watching the confluence this fall

If you'd like to try anyway, the 2018 to 2020 DNA timing points to the weeks right after this post publishes. The confluence below the pond is where the 2018 Chinook spawned. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife offers simple guidance for salmon viewing:

1. Watch quietly from the bank and stay out of the creek.
2. Wear polarized sunglasses to cut glare off the water.
3. If you don't see anything, come back after a rain or a few days later.

Thornton Creek Natural Area, which includes Kingfisher, has trails and wildlife viewing. Seattle Parks lists its address as 13002 10th Avenue NE. It's a good creekside walk, but there's no salmon record there to match the one at the confluence.

For a near-certain sighting, Carkeek Park is the backup. Seattle Public Utilities says chum and a few coho come up Pipers Creek there from late October to early December. Volunteer Salmon Stewards will be at the creek from Saturday, October 24, through December 5, on Wednesday afternoons and midday on weekends. The annual Salmon Celebration is Saturday, November 21, 2026, with Spanish translators on site. The same SPU page lists everyday steps for keeping creeks clean, starting with using a car wash instead of washing your car in the driveway.

At Mel Parsons Homes, we pay attention to the parts of a neighborhood that don't show up on a listing, like a creek confluence or a block of rain gardens. If you spot a fish at Meadowbrook Pond this fall, or have questions about the drainage work on your street, Let's Connect.