In north-central Washington, coho salmon are fighting the odds
LEAVENWORTH, Chelan County — After a 530-mile journey from the ocean, a salmon skitters in a stream bordered by dogwood and willows. This fish, a precious participant in a $13.5 million experiment to resurrect long-gone wild coho runs of north-central Washington, will soon lay her eggs here.
The runs were wiped out in the early 20th century by fishermen, loggers, miners and farmers. Now they are being revived with the aid of humble hatchery stock transplanted from the Lower Columbia River.
A decade of work, financed by Northwest electrical ratepayers, yields several thousand coho that each year have the fortitude to navigate past seven dams in their upstream migration to the Wenatchee, Entiat and Methow river drainages.
"Each one of these fish is like gold to us — for them to have made it all the way through the hydro system," said Tom Scribner, a biologist with the Yakama Nation, which jump-started the runs.
The biologists hope to create — perhaps by 2025 — self-sustaining wild runs that will no longer depend on an assist from humans and their hatcheries.
But the money that now supports the runs could run dry next year. The north-central Washington coho would then likely suffer the dubious distinction of a second fade into history, and their brief reappearance would rank as a costly, wasteful footnote in the broader struggle to restore salmon in the Northwest.
The effort is guided by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which was established by Congress to help restore fish and wildlife harmed by the construction of Columbia River dams. For the past 10 years, the council recommended the Bonneville Power Administration fund the Yakamas' coho project.
That changed this year as competition sharpened for the $179 million annual BPA budget to spend on restoration projects. Rather than spending money to use hatchery fish to revive dead runs, the council favored increased support for trying to protect those wild runs that survived into the late 20th century, and thus gained federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
In north-central Washington, much of the money will be spent in the next three years on efforts to restore and protect waterways used by threatened runs of spring chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
"There was a limited amount of money and a lot of requests this year," said Larry Cassidy, a Washington member of the eight-person council. "We have had to make some hard choices."
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In north-central Washington, coho salmon are fighting the odds
