Pacific Northwest Tribes Face Climate Change With Agricultural Ancient Practice

Tribes in the Puget Sound region have a problem.
Many of them live on low-lying reservations surrounded by water. So, as climate change causes the oceans to rise, tribal land is disappearing. Climate change also threatens the fish and shellfish these groups rely on for food and income. Now, some tribes are looking at a surprising solution to these problems: clam gardens.
On a rocky beach on Whidbey Island — a densely forested island in Puget Sound — John Cayou watches for the telltale squirt that reveals a clam's location.
Then he takes what looks like a tiny pitchfork full of sand and rocks, turns it over, and tosses any clams he finds into a bucket.
Cayou's a member of the Swinomish Tribe. He's 72, and has been harvesting clams since he was a little kid.
He remembers a time when there were a lot more clams.
Clam decline
"You'd take the bucket and the clam fork, and you would go out, and believe you me it wouldn't take very long — maybe 10, 15 minutes max — you had a bucket," Cayou says.