www.singingfalls.com/seine

It's almost January 2009. I had been very concerned about the coho run this year. Autumn had a very low precipitation rate compared to all other years that we have lived here. In fact, Elk Creek didn't look much different in late October than it does in the heat of late summer. Very low water levels were recorded for our 54 square mile sub-basin by the real time USGS online stream gage record. I prayed for rain.

See if you can Elk Creek at Drew, Oregon on the map located at this USGS site: http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/?m=real&r=or&w=real%2Cmap

Right around Thanksgiving one of the local property owners came up from California for a short stay. I keep an eye on his place for him and we have become good friends. He stopped by before he left for home to say what a wonderful time he had. The turkeys, bears and deer put on quite a show for him it seemed. But one of the great highlights was an afternoon spent thining brush along the riparian zone. All of a sudden his attention was drawn to the stream where he was listening to some serious carrying on instream. Sure enough the first pod to make it into the drainage was hard at work propogating the species.

Joe Hall Creek was still way to low in volume to make a way for the salmon up our canyon. Shed Creek flows year around and had plenty of water to accommodate the first pods. On or about the solstice the unusually cold Autumn shifted into snow and ice. Not a lot of snow and ice, but enough to store some of it on the upper reaches of the Elk Creek watershed. Then arrived the warm rains and furious snow melt. I knew something was up last week when I saw a large bald eagle hanging around. I still had some doubts since these birds of prey are famous for loving angora goat meat too. But the eagle's insistance to perch by the main stem of the watershed on an old snag told me the pods were moving forward.

Within a day or two I had received reports from the neighbors that otters were working along the stream. Another sign. Then came the report that another neighbor said he had seen a dozen or so salmon up on Three Falls making the jump. Good news indeed but sad lonely Joe Hall Creek was still shy of the rainy seasons covorting red salmon.

We received almost an inch or warm rain in the last 36 hours. The snow is all but gone from the bottom 40 acres and the high country surrounding us looks heavy with super wet snow. I checked the stream gage on Joe Hall this morning to find that the stream had risen eight tenths of a foot. Not long afterward one of the co-operators on our stream restoration project called to let me know the coho were nesting in Joe Hall by his house. Fantastic! Especially in light of the new status of coho; which is once again on the endangered species list as a "threatened" fish. Last summer the Salmon Commission, made up of coastal fisherman, declared they could find little if any coho salmon in the ocean. The few making their way to Singing Falls is a very welcome sight. My heart is better at ease because they have come. I care much about them and all of God's creatures I find interfacing with my life.