Last week the council’s Fish Biologist Jed Kaul joined Karen Hans from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to do some fish sampling below the drop structure on the mainstem of the Long Tom River in Monroe, Oregon. In their very first swipe of the seine, they captured this yearling Juvenile Spring Chinook Salmon! (first photo below).
While most people don’t think of the Long Tom when they think of salmon, the Long Tom River is an essential piece of this endangered fish’s complex life history in the Willamette system. Wild fish born in the McKenzie or Middle Fork make their way down the Willamette during winter’s high flows in search of rearing habitat like the Long Tom. The warmer, slower and naturally clay-silted & nutrient rich waters make for great places to hide and get a little bigger before heading out to sea. Historically juvenile fish would have been common in many parts of the Long Tom system this time of year. Currently an Army Corps of Engineer’s dam in Monroe prevents these fish from accessing most of their historical range. The Watershed Council is currently engaged in a multi-year collaborative effort alongside the Army Corps and the City of Monroe to figure out how to provide passage for these special little visitors to the watershed.
Alongside this wild Spring Chinook the team also captured and observed other native fish including 5 young coastal cutthroat trout, a redside shiner, northern pikeminnow and a three spine stickleback!