*Submitted by UCSRB staff
Each year around late summer/early fall spring-run Chinook salmon spawning begins to peak in the Upper Columbia. These salmon migrate over 500 miles from the Pacific Ocean to return home to their natal streams. This migration to spawn is a salmon’s final journey and is a critical part of its lifecycle. Success depends largely on healthy freshwater habitat for spawning and for future hatchlings. Clean and cold water, steady stream flow, and unpolluted gravel beds are essential for healthy spawning activity.
An adult female salmon will dig shallow nests, called redds, in the fine gravel of streambeds. She will then lay a few thousand eggs in these redds as she spawns over a couple of days. After fertilization, Chinook eggs typically take several months to hatch, depending on stream temperatures. Once hatched, the salmon remain in the gravel as “alevin” for a few weeks, until they are able to swim independently and emerge as “fry”. As they grow, fry need fresh, free-flowing cold water supplying lots of oxygen and healthy riparian vegetation to provide shelter, shade and help keep the water cool. Conserving salmon habitat, both in-stream and along stream banks, ensures that food is available and fry have some protection from predators.
The Upper Columbia spring-run Chinook salmon has been an ESA-listed ‘Endangered’ species since 1999. Barriers to fish passage, predation, low or altered stream flows, pollution and warming water temperatures are all contributing to the decline of wild salmon populations. Human-infrastructure has fragmented salmon habitat, and the associated changes to the landscape have altered the hydrology of many rivers and streams. These impacts have detrimentally affected salmon migration, spawning, and rearing, while also degrading floodplains, riparian buffers, food sources and water temperatures.
Although habitat loss remains one of the most significant threats to our salmon populations, there are many things we can do as individuals to help make small improvements.
Some of the many ways you can help include:
- volunteer to help with a local stream restoration project
- avoid disturbing spawning areas
- plant a buffer of native riparian vegetation, if you own land adjacent to a stream or river
- don’t leave trash or fishing gear on the riverbank or in the water
- clean your boat and equipment after every trip and flush the motor according to the owner’s manual
- attend to any fluid leaks from your car or boat
- decrease the amount of chemicals you use on your lawn or garden
- advocate for clean, healthy waterways
To learn more about salmon, salmon conservation and how you can help restore this iconic Washington species visit our Integrated Recovery Page and follow us on social media.
