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Celebrating a banner year for Mendocino coho salmon
Last year, CCC coho salmon returns surged to their highest numbers since extensive monitoring began!
Each year, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) carefully counts juvenile and adult coho salmon in North Coast rivers and streams. This work is especially important for tracking the status of endangered populations of Central California Coast (CCC) coho. Last winter, CDFW staff realized they were seeing exceptional numbers of adult salmon returning…
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Faces of Restoration: Paul Light works and plays in the Chugach
On a sunny late July afternoon in 2023, I stood on the bank of Resurrection Creek and watched dozens of pink salmon rest in a pool. The mountains of Southcentral Alaska’s Chugach National Forest surrounded me. A young brown bear attempted to catch some lunch in another pool just upstream. The air was thick with…
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Breakthrough for the Eel
A new agreement promises to resolve decades of conflict over water use on California’s third largest watershed––and a legendary salmon and steelhead river California’s mighty Eel River once produced so many salmon and steelhead that it sustained a commercial canning operation. But for over a century, conflicts over water use have plagued the basin. The…
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The fish are back!
Salmon and steelhead are roaring back above the recently removed Klamath dams. Now, what comes next? One of the truly magical moments of dam removal is when the fish start returning to their historic, reconnected habitat. It is a tangible moment in a process that can take decades to accomplish, and it confirms our hopes…
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By the numbers on the Snake
Understanding the metrics used to evaluate and represent recovery of wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River basin is an exercise worthy of a Ph.D. From annual abundance numbers, to understanding Endangered Species Act delisting criteria, to smolt-to-adult return ratios (SARs) to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) survival statistics, the numbers can…
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Monitoring Kokanee provides insights into health
This year marks the 17th season of Kokanee Salmon Fry Trapping by the Three Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Based in Issaquah Washington, members and volunteers from the community donate their evenings to count this little native fish. Natasha Kacoroski and Wayne Lamm (Trapping Co-Lead) help excavate an area for the traps collection box. TU’s…
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Another milestone in Eel River restoration
Strengthening protections for Eel River tributaries to help recover native salmon and steelhead California’s Eel River got its modern name from the swarms of Pacific lamprey that once plowed up and down its length, but it’s more famous for its wild steelhead and salmon –– and, unfortunately, for the dramatic decline in those fisheries over…
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