Autumn returns and so do salmon

Salmon that began their life in gravel beds along the McKenzie River are now homing in on their native streams. Surveys have found up to 22 redds across the Finn Rock Reach, and others have been observed in the area’s tributary streams.

Volunteers have also returned to take students upriver to witness the natural phenomenon. The Salmon Watch program returns every fall, as watershed councils across the state partner with schools for field trips centered on salmon ecology. It’s a special lesson that some students remember for the rest of their lives.

“Salmon Watch is such a great way for students to learn about their ecology that they’re a part of – and salmon are just so exciting to see!” said Carrie Patterson, an Agnes Stewart Middle School teacher and Salmon Watch Steering Committee member. “Too many of my students haven’t been able to go up the McKenzie – a crown jewel of our area – and a place that people come from around the world to fish and visit, and this a great way to bring them out to experience it.”

The Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council has been coordinating long-running programs to educate students throughout the Eugene-Springfield area. On Tuesday, they hosted a session at the Eugene Water & Electric Board’s Trail Bridge Hydroelectric Project Spawning Channel, east of McKenzie Bridge.

During their Salmon Watch field trip, students learned about salmon ecology while rotating through four stations.

At the water quality station, they took samples from the stream to test water temperature, turbidity, and pH. At the macroinvertebrate station, students identified insects salmon eat, and at the riparian ecology station, they learned.

“Being a part of the Salmon Watch is a magical experience,” said Dassy Smolianski, who coordinates Salmon Watch for the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council. “The wonder nurtured within the Salmon Watch program has a long-lasting positive impact on students and their relationship to the natural world.”

EWEB often hosts the Salmon Watch experience at the Trail Bridge Hydroelectric Project Spawning Channel. The utility recently finished enhancing the spawning channel's habitat as part of relicensing the project. Habitat improvements include adding spawning gravels for adult salmon and Bull Trout to lay their eggs, developing high-preference spawning beds for egg development, and calm pools for juvenile fish that emerge from the eggs.

EWEB added whole trees this summer and created large wood structures to provide a complex cover habitat throughout the spawning channel. This will protect young fish from predators by providing shelter and habitat for them to forage for their prey.

“We are all so excited to see the new habitat in the expanded spawning channel because we know it will provide both excellent spawning grounds and a place to inspire kids to care for the Chinook and Bull Trout that return every year to complete their lifecycles,” said EWEB’s Patty Boyle, who supervises efforts to deploy the license at the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project. “We hope that experiencing special natural areas like this will encourage healthy, active, and outdoorsy lifestyles for our students.”

Although Salmon Watch is not quite as miraculous as the journey of spawning salmon, it relies upon a healthy community of volunteers to succeed. Volunteers come from EWEB, local watershed councils, the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, the National Forest Service, and retired teachers about the importance of healthy streamside forests.

Many attendees have said that the fish biology station makes a lasting impression. Going through the station is often the first time many students have seen Chinook salmon in the wild.