After discussing the return of the first Klamath River salmon to Oregon last week for the first time in 114 years, just a few weeks after the completion of the river’s dam removal project, we are faced this week with news of shockingly low numbers of fall-run Chinook salmon returning to spawn to date at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery.
Coleman is located on the upper stretch of the Sacramento River on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River below Redding.
The hatchery, after opening its gates to spawning salmon on the first Saturday of October, has taken only 1.68 million eggs as of October 19, 2024. This is only a small fraction of the typical 20 million eggs harvested during the spawning season, according to Scott Artis of the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA), who described the hatchery as a “salmon ghost town” in a statement…