December 8, 2004
Wild Mattole salmon have had a good year. A near-perfect spawning season last winter was followed by a successful down-migration of yearling coho and tens of thousands of young-of-the-year Chinook salmon. Though rains ended early this past season, a cool spring and early summer helped sustain river flows and keep the river mouth open long enough for nearly all of the young salmon to reach the ocean. Even the vandalism in May that killed 8000 fish had little impact on the overall success of the down-migration.
The Mattole Salmon Group (MSG) rescued over 2200 young Chinook at risk of not making it to the ocean before river mouth closure, successfully caring for them through the summer. These fish were released with the help of students from Margaret Fraser's K thru 4 Mattole Elementary School class. Many of these students had participated in MSG's classroom incubator program and may have helped release some of the very fish they hatched in their classroom.
In June of this year, MSG began building a second large boulder and wood structure in the Mattole estuary for the purpose of providing improved habitat for juvenile salmon and steelhead. This structure, funded by the California State Coastal Conservancy and the California Department of Fish and Game, is part of MSG's long-term effort to restore habitat in the estuary to the point that once again, as in centuries past, the estuary can serve as a nursery rather than a grave for young salmon trapped there when the river mouth closes. Within days of its completion, the structure was
already providing shelter for numerous young fish.
With the early end of last season's rains, MSG feared that a long hot dry season would cause the upper river to cease flowing as it did in 2002, and again lead to the loss of thousands of coho and steelhead fry stranded in drying pools. Preparations were made to begin rescuing stranded fish, and the community waited and watched nervously. Just as the river reached dangerously low flows and pools began to dry up, cool weather and light rains prevented disaster. The river began to flow again and few fish were lost.
Now, in early November, enough rain has fallen to re-open the river mouth and allow this year's spawners to begin entering the river and head for their spawning grounds. The year's cycle is complete, and the salmon have had one of the few years in recent memory where they were in concert with nature.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2004