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| White Salmon River |
For almost one hundred years Condit dam blocked migration of
anadromous fish to their spawning tributaries, and now with it gone, I could
not help but to think of what’s next in the process of healing. The few native
fish that find their way home are fighting the odds of not only nets, fishing,
warm water and Bonneville Dam, but also
repopulating a section of river that their lineage have not seen in a century.
Though doubtful of swinging a fish that day, I continued to have
hope for a grab. After a few hours of fishing, that hope lead me to a fish, a
rainbow trout. Throughout the morning I encountered several more and then
something dawned on me. The hope for wild steelhead in this watershed does not
only reside in the few returning adult steelhead, but also these resident trout
that had been living behind the dam over the last century. Though I do not know
if there were plants of hatchery trout above the dam previously, a native
population of trout can and will hold the genetic heritage of the fish that
returned to the river over a century ago.
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| Resident White Salmon Rainbow Trout |
Studies have shown that adult resident male trout will spawn at
times with steelhead. Read more via the Wild Steelhead Coalition. By the end of
the afternoon I could not help but smile with the realization that there is
indeed hope for these native fish. A few
days later I randomly met a fisheries biologist from the Yakama Nation. With a
big smile on his face he informed me about how many spring chinook that he had
recently tagged in the upper watershed.
There is indeed hope for the White Salmon River.
There is indeed hope for the White Salmon River.
