Currently browsing… salmon
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A step in the right direction for salmon on the Snake River
After decades of litigation, delay and dwindling salmon runs, the federal court has once again stepped in. And this time, the urgency could not be clearer. Without urgent intervention, salmon will disappear from the landscape In his February 25, 2026 opinion, Judge Michael H. Simon did not mince words. For more than 30 years, he wrote, “the abundance of these salmonids has…
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A record-breaking run
In honor of National Salmon Day, we are sharing stories from a part of the country where the ecological, economic and cultural importance of salmon cannot be overstated. Alaska’s famed Kenai River is a phenomenal fishing destination in any year, but 2025 was one for the record books. Over 4.2 million sockeye salmon returned to…
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Yukon River salmon declines: What’s under the surface
And what anglers who value the abundance of these fisheries can do to help When I moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 2008 to study for a degree in fish biology, I was mesmerized by the salmon that ascended thousands of miles up the Yukon River and its tributaries to spawn and die, begetting the next…
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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…