Enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning following Thanksgiving, 11 Crown Hill residents walked to Carkeek Park to check out the annual chum salmon return to Piper’s Creek.  Doug Gresham, a wetlands ecologist and CH resident, provided expert commentary on the life cycle of salmon and the restoration project in Piper’s Creek.

Carol, Dennis, Kit, Laura, Lea, Erin, Ryan, Danielle, Matthias, Jean, and Doug saw two fish that day. The display board in the Park shows the count thus far this season at 34.  The salmon return this year is expected to be quite low because the salmon fry released four years ago were drastically affected by a fungus and few survived. With the life cycle being four years, the return in 2009 reflects the survival of salmon who were born in 2005.

Doug provided a wealth of information on salmon, wier design to restore the creek, water level impacts on fish return. We are grateful for his contribution to this event.