Chetco River featured at Wild Rivers Night in Portland

Beautiful photographs of the National Wild and Scenic Chetco River, by Tim Palmer and Ann Vileisis, President of Kalmiopsis Audubon, were one of the keynote features at a wildly successful 3rd Annual Wild River Night in Portland on January 9th. Begun three years ago by Northwest Rafting Company, the event (to raise funds for river conservation) was bigger and better than ever.

Tim Palmer talking to packed crowd at Wild Rivers Night in Portland (Northwest Rafting Co. photo)

Chetco River—Oregon's version of Alaska's Kenai River

A recent article in the Medford Mail Tribune tells of Emma Winter's first winter steelhead fishing trip and the reward of landing one of the Chetco River's large mint bright steelhead. Saying the Chetco is to Oregon as the Kenai is to Alaska, the article (appearing in papers as far flung as the Billings (Montana) Gazette) also discusses theories about why the Chetco River consistently produces large winter steelhead and chinook salmon.

Emma Winters with her dad, Orie, on the Chetco and Emma's first steelhead (Wild Rivers Fishing photo)

Chetco Mineral Withdrawal Environmental Assessment released

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest recently released its Environmental Assessment (EA) for an administrative mineral withdrawal on the Wild and Scenic Chetco River.

The mineral withdrawal is being considered in-aid-of legislation —the Chetco River Protection Act, introduced by Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley, Congressman DeFazio, and Congressman Blumenauer to permanently safeguard the Wild and Scenic Chetco from future instream mining proposals in its designated reaches.

A 30-day public comment period ended on January 4, 2013. You can read the Environmental Assessment here.

Cherish the Chetco — a success!

By all accounts, “Cherish the Chetco,” a 2-day river event held on Sept. 21-22, 2012 was a great success. It was co-sponsored by Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and South Coast Watersheds, and many public agencies, community groups, and volunteers pitched in to help out.

On Friday evening, the library was packed. Noted author and river expert Tim Palmer spoke and showed slides about the history of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers program, which protects the Chetco and three other Curry County rivers (Elk, Rogue, Illinois), and he explained the special significance of the Chetco.

Invitation to Cherish the Chetco: Sept. 21st & 22nd.

South Coast Watersheds and the U.S. Forest Service are co-sponsoring a community river event—Cherish the Chetco--to promote stewardship of the National Wild & Scenic Chetco River. Everyone is welcome.

The event will kick off on Friday Sept. 21 at 7pm with “Wild Rivers Night” at Chetco Library in Brookings, featuring noted river author and photographer Tim Palmer, speaking about the Wild & Scenic Rivers system, and biologist adventurer Slade Sapora showing slides from his recent kayak trek down the Chetco.

On Saturday, Sept. 22, there will be activities up river all day.

Return to the Chetco

This week Zach Collier and friends explored the lower gorge of the National Wild and Scenic Chetco River in inflatable kayaks. On their last trip they took out above this challenging part of the Scenic River Area. So they came back. Only this time instead of 1300 cfs (June 15, 2011), the flow was 90 cfs!

Conehead Rapid on the lower gorge of the Wild and Scenic Chetco River, Northwest Rafting Co. photo

Invasive species and our rivers and watersheds

Click here to enlarged Jack Ohman's cartoon.

A new Oregon Sea Grant report found that teachers and classrooms may be vectors for invasive species. According to the research, one in four teachers who use live animals in the classroom release them into the wild. Read about the report at Breaking Waves and indelibly stamp Jack Ohman's cartoon on your minds.

The problem of invasive species is serious, national and local. It affects us right here in Southwest Oregon. Read more below about the efforts of volunteers and agencies to prevent the spread of a highly invasive plant in the Illinois Valley. We also provide links to government websites about the threats that invasive species pose to the State of Oregon, including invasive marine aquatic species from the Japanese tsunami debris. Watch Oregon Field Guide's program on the problems that common gold fish are causing when released into our streams and lakes.

Saving the Chetco River, salmon ecology 101

The recent Frontline documentary Alaska Gold chronicles many heroic and inspiring stories in the struggle to save Bristol Bay and its wild watershed from a mega copper mine. We provide a link to another one below. Bristol Bay serves as a reminder that the job of protecting our own wild salmon river from mining is far from done.

The Chetco River Protection Act has not been passed into law and the Forest Service's proposed temporary mineral withdraw still faces many hurdles before it's even decided on by the Secretary of Interior. If these efforts fail, we could once again be faced with proposals to mine the entire length of the Chetco—from Boulder Creek to the Forest Service boundary. Please go to How to Help and send a reminder to Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley that we need their help. Go ahead. Please nag the Senators for the Chetco and read about "salmon ecology 101" and what others are doing below.

Recently hatched salmon and salmon eggs from Pebble Science's Salmon Ecology 101.

Hatchery salmon threaten wild populations, scientists say

All the citizens and organizations writing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife out of concern over the high percentage of hatchery salmon allowed on the Chetco are to be congratulated for standing up for the river's exceptional wild salmon populations. Here's an excerpt from a new post, "Hatchery salmon threaten wild populations, scientist say," on Breaking Waves, Oregon Sea Grant's news blog that provides even more science supporting the need to reduce hatchery supplementation:

Watch Frontline documentary—citizens fighting to preserve one of the world's greatest salmon fisheries

If you missed it on PBS, you can watch Frontline's Alaska Gold in full online. Frontline's website contains other resources of interest too. Go to Alaska Gold. The documentary is about great salmon watersheds, how they work and people coming together to protect one of the world's greatest salmon runs. It equally presents the multinational mining company's arguments to develop a mega mine in the watershed. The footage is excellent. The film inspiring. Highly recommended.

Photo courtesy of Felt Soul's Red Gold website. See the Red Gold trailer below.

This is how frontline describes the documentary:

Celebrate our beautiful undammed rivers

Here on the Wild Rivers Coast we are blessed with the most beautiful productive, undammed salmon rivers between the Olympics and Baja.  As river lovers like Phyllis Clausen celebrate the removal of dams on their rivers, it should be a reminder to celebrate and take care of our free flowing rivers—the Elk, Chetco, Illinois and Smith River—and their wild watersheds.

Phyllis Clausen celebrates the removal of the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River.

Below are two powerful short videos about dam removal—one the trailer for DamNation, a new documentary by Felt Soul on dam removal and the other Andy Maser's short film for Outside Magazine on the spectacular removal of the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River.

Support Chetco River's wild chinook salmon—one day left

The Chetco River's chinook salmon are legendary. Preserving the river's wild fish populations and the habitat that sustains them should be the highest priority.

Native fish and wild river advocates are urged to send a short email to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife by Friday June 29th asking them to make the management of hatchery populations in the Chetco consistent with other coastal rivers.  Currently the agency's draft fall chinook conservation plan allows for a much higher percentage of hatchery fish in the Chetco River—out of all other populations in the Rogue Species Management Unit (SMU)  If you can't make the Friday deadline, comments submitted by Sunday, July 1st should still count.

To make it easy, we've provided a sample paragraph (below) that you can just copy and paste and the email address of where your comment should be sent. It will only take you a few minutes to help preserve the integrity and health of the Chetco's famed wild chinook salmon runs.

Map of ODFW's Rogue Fall Chinook Species Management Unit (SMU).

ODFW's Draft Fall Chinook Salmon Conservation Plan

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have released their draft conservation plan for fall chinook salmon in the Rogue Basin and the coastal rivers and streams between Euchre Creek and the California border. It includes Chetco, Winchuck and Pistol Rivers. The Elk River will be part of the Coastal Fall Chinook Species Management Unit.  The public comment period for the Rogue/Chetco SMU closes June 30th. There are two public meetings between 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.:

• Grants Pass: June 5 at the Marie Hill Conference Room, 510 NW 4th Street.
• Brookings: June 7 in the Council Chambers of Brookings at City Hall, 898 Elk Drive.

 The draft plan and an executive summary are available at ODFW's website, along with other information, and will also be available at the meetings.

A nice chinook salmon caught during the Labor Day Ocean Salmon Derby at Brookings/Harbor.

Proposed Chetco withdrawal wildly popular in Oregon

We wrote earlier that local support for the proposed "withdrawal in aid of legislation" for 5,610 acres of the Wild and Scenic Chetco River was overwhelming. At the Bureau of Land Management's Brookings Oregon October 26th hearing—90 percent favored the measure, with only about 10 percent in opposition. Until now, however, we didn't know just how wildly popular the proposal is with Oregonians, and people across the nation.

Mining on the National Wild and Scenic Illinois River in 2011. These are small dredges operating under the State of Oregon's general 700 PM permit.  Now imagine the impacts of mining 15 miles of the Chetco River with dredges weighing up to one ton, with six mining operations each mining up to 470 cubic yards of streambed per year for 10 years. Rich Nawa photo.

Businesses and communities caring for salmon rivers and watersheds

"Now the most important right we have is the right to be responsible." 

These are the words of Gerrald Amus, Kitimat Village elder, from Patagonia's new video about the Skeena River, its salmon fisheries and the communities along it. Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company that's demonstrated business can be ethical, promote conservation and sustainability and be profitable at the same time. Now working with the First Nations of the Skeena, they're beginning a new venture—salmon products.

Port Orford Ocean Resource Team's 2011 Water Festival.  Ocean Resource Team photo.

By their nature, the salmon and steelhead fisheries, the watersheds and the communities of the Chetco River and Oregon's Wild Rivers Coast are different from those in British Columbia. But perhaps this beginning on the Skeena River can serve as added impetus for finding our own unique ways to preserve and restore the watersheds and wild fisheries of the Elk, Illinois, Chetco and Smith Rivers and grow healthy communities at the same time. See Patagonia's thought provoking video below and read about some of inspiring work that's already happening on the Wild Rivers Coast.

Prominent scientists speak for protecting Chetco River

Writing in the Oregonian Jack Williams and Mike Dombeck, two of the nation's most prominent fisheries scientists and conservationists, urge Congress to take advantage of the second chance that's been given the Wild and Scenic Chetco River and its wild salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout. They write: