River of Not-Many-Return

Spring Chinook salmon that is. I fished the upper Salmon River today and caught a fiesty nine-inch steelhead. Then I stopped at the hatchery and took a look at the vestigial salmon run. 650 total fish returned from the ocean. Of those about 150 were wild self-reproducing fish. There are extremely low numbers that reflect a population on life support. Dams, over-grazed spawning habitat in the Sawtooth Valley are the culprits. Fixing it is our job as knowledgeable scientists and citizens who are stewards of the Earth. We do it despite our leadership, who caters to the destruction factors. This can change.