To my amazement, there are wild coho spawning in our creek!! This is the terminus of a branch of Deep Creek, and our yard is the end of the road, so to speak, for the several wild coho that have made it all the way from the Clack.
Word got out really fast, since the creek is basically a channelized ditch along the road. Immediately, there were some neighbors with baskets trying to catch these endgangered and wild resources. I informed them that A) they are protected and B) they aren't fit for human consumption. Still, we saw several children throwing rocks at them. Pretty sad. A number of them were attempting to spawn, digging out redds in what is a mix of natural gravels and road gravels. I was actually lucky enough to see a hen, flanked by two large bucks, spawn. A huge plume of milt colored the little creek for a moment. Then the hen continued to try to dig out gravels from under a rock to cover the eggs. It was incredible.
I put in several calls to ODFW biologists, so they are now aware of the situation. One biologist, by random chance, happened to stop by since he was driving by. He was able to educate some of the people there, though most were being very respectful. It just takes those couple of folks to make you cringe. Even well-meaning folks were getting WAY too close, climbing down in the ditch to get pictures, while these fish were on their spawning gravels. Anyways, wanted to share with you all this incredible and historic event, as it was moving to know how far these fish have come (and strayed) to spawn in a tiny little "creek." Think of all the coho in more viable creeks right now!! They are an amazing and resilient resource.
Word got out really fast, since the creek is basically a channelized ditch along the road. Immediately, there were some neighbors with baskets trying to catch these endgangered and wild resources. I informed them that A) they are protected and B) they aren't fit for human consumption. Still, we saw several children throwing rocks at them. Pretty sad. A number of them were attempting to spawn, digging out redds in what is a mix of natural gravels and road gravels. I was actually lucky enough to see a hen, flanked by two large bucks, spawn. A huge plume of milt colored the little creek for a moment. Then the hen continued to try to dig out gravels from under a rock to cover the eggs. It was incredible.
I put in several calls to ODFW biologists, so they are now aware of the situation. One biologist, by random chance, happened to stop by since he was driving by. He was able to educate some of the people there, though most were being very respectful. It just takes those couple of folks to make you cringe. Even well-meaning folks were getting WAY too close, climbing down in the ditch to get pictures, while these fish were on their spawning gravels. Anyways, wanted to share with you all this incredible and historic event, as it was moving to know how far these fish have come (and strayed) to spawn in a tiny little "creek." Think of all the coho in more viable creeks right now!! They are an amazing and resilient resource.
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Too bad that wont happen.