ShareThisFall in northern California brings a rustle of leaves and a welcome chill to the air. Nothing's changed about that. What's been missing the past three years is the pulse of salmon returning from the ocean to their spawning streams.
The Central Valley fall chinook run was once the most abundant salmon population on the West Coast. But three years ago, its numbers plunged, hitting a record low in 2009, due to what scientists think is a mix of environmental problems.
Fishing was banned, salmon festivals canceled.
Now chinook are surging back to the American, Feather, Mokelumne and Sacramento rivers.
"To have a total ecosystem alive again, including what is under the water, it really is thrilling," said Jim Jones, a board member of Save the American River Association. "It makes you stop and just feel how blessed you are."
More than 7,000 salmon returned to Nimbus Hatchery on the American River as of Tuesday. That's triple last year's total and near the long-term average, said Harry Morse, spokesman at the California Department of Fish and Game. But it's still well below the peaks of 25,000 or more.
Some fish spawn in the river, then die. But most spawn in the artificial world of the hatchery, where they are killed and their eggs removed. Eggs taken from these fish will spawn a new generation. The young salmon swim to the ocean in spring.
(Contact Sacramento Bee reporter Matt Weiser at mweiser(at)sacbee.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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