River Snorkel: Abundance from River_Snorkel on Vimeo.
I grew up on this unnamed creek, hiking, swimming and rambling. Washington’s salmon populations were in pretty bad shape back then. Sometimes I would only see a couple Chum salmon all winter. These days the creek is supporting healthy populations of nearly every type of Pacific Salmon as well as Rainbow and Cutthroat trout. Closed to fishing for over 40 years, the fragile recovery from near extinction is becoming evident. Wild Coho, Pink, Chinook and Chum salmon are returning in steady numbers to this hidden watershed, despite the terrible state of wild fish stocks in the PNW. This is a very small success, and the road ahead is not clear, but for now it’s wonderful and incredibly heartening to share this moment of abundance. Music by my friend Josh Clauson. Josh also grew up in the woods and was very happy to lend his wonderful music to this project. You can check out his music at: joshclauson.com
