You are most likely familiar with current reports of Coho salmon in our cherished McKenzie. Usually, we think about the McKenzie as a sanctuary for Spring Chinook salmon and undoubtedly this run is secured under the threatened types act. So, what are Coho doing trespassing on Chinook waters? ( spoiler alert, we do not understand).
Initially some background on Coho in the Willamette Basin. These types appear to have actually been endemic to the Willamette above Willamette Falls, a minimum of given that the 1950’s when ODFW began an equipping program. Nevertheless, there are some reports of earlier periodic passages of Coho above the Falls, most likely due to uncommonly high-water circulations. The equipping program ended in 1996. Ever since, till 2022, approximately eleven thousand Coho got in the river each year in the late Fall. Practically all of these fish generated in the Western drains of the Upper Willamette. It is thought that this types of salmon chooses the warmer waters and lower circulations of these environments, compared to the chillier, higher-flowing eastern rivers.
So, what altered? In the Fall of 2023 around 28,000 Coho passed Willamette Falls and 50+ of these passed above Leaburg Dam. There are likewise reports of Coho in the Santiams, however exact counts are not offered. In reaction to the schedule of these fish, ODFW released a short-lived policy enabling harvest of Coho anywhere salmon harvest was allowed the Willamette system…