SUQUAMISH — While the Suquamish Tribe’s Salmon Recovery Coordinator and fisheries biologist Paul Dorn calls himself a “cog in the gears” in the efforts to protect salmon habitats in Kitsap County, others believe his own work merits public recognition.

Dorn is one of five final nominees to be inducted into the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center’s Wild Salmon Hall of Fame. The inductee will be announced Sept. 25 during a reception at the Alderbrook Resort in Union.

While Dorn reiterated that improvements to salmon habitats in Kitsap during his 35-year career could not have been completed without the help of those who have volunteered their time and support, he was humbled by the nomination.

“I appreciate the honor, but the only reason I’m probably nominated is the work of all the other folks,” he said.

Dorn has been working for the tribe in various capacities for 29 years — he was the tribe’s Salmon Enhancement Program manager until 2002 and has been the Salmon Recovery Coordinator since 1999.

Previous to his employment with the tribe, he worked as a researcher and instructor at various institutions, including Shoreline Community College, Big Beef Creek and Fisheries Research Institute at the University of Washington College of Fisheries. He is also currently associated with, a member of or participates in nearly two dozen associations, groups, boards and councils.

Most recently, since becoming Salmon Recovery Coordinator for the Suquamish Tribe, he has been working with groups and agencies on preservation and restoration projects that provide appropriate habitats for wild salmon. He is also involved with upstream/downstream salmon migration studies, the effects of hatchery salmon on wild salmon and beach seining.

Projects that are a result of his work and coordination with other volunteers and agencies include the salmon corridor restoration and culvert replacement at Dogfish Creek in Poulsbo last summer. He is also working with Bainbridge Island to develop its shoreline master plan and to identify the island’s critical habitats that need to be protected. On the east side of the Kitsap Peninsula alone, there are $11.2 million worth of Salmon Recovery Funding Board projects that need to be completed, he said.

One major project that Dorn has been active in is the development of the Cowling Creek Hatchery in Miller Bay, which he and the Suquamish Tribe established in the 1970s to help restore chum salmon within Puget Sound. The creek is now the largest salmon run in Kitsap County, after Chico Creek. The project also has a personal touch, as the mouth of Cowling Creek is on his property on Miller Bay Road, where 12,000 to 13,000 chum salmon return to the stream every year through his front yard.

Dorn said he has always been a fish lover and used to keep aquariums when he was a kid.

“It was amazing to me the diversity of fish and the world they live in,” he said.

As a military kid who often lived overseas, he said the Northwest is definitely a unique place to call home after residing in areas where the natural habitats are long gone.

“Yet, here in the Northwest, you can drive five, 10 minutes and see natural habitat,” he said. “I know what a beautiful area we live in. I have to do my part to leave the world a better place.”