Salmon Season a Success – 250 Educated!

SYRCL’s annual Salmon Tours program culminated on November 6^th with a final tour of the year on the lower Yuba River.  Over the last six weeks, the program educated a total of 250 students and public participants.

Salmon Tours give participants direct experience with threatened Chinook salmon, benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs), riparian zones, Yuba River ecology, and SYRCL’s current Hammon Bar Restoration Project restoring riparian vegetation to the Yuba Goldfields.

In partnership with the rafting company Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC), the Salmon Tours program took five school groups and three public groups rafting down the Lower Yuba to get up-close-and-personal with spawning salmon and their redds.

New this year, SYRCL provided “Salmon Walks” taking two school groups on-foot to watch salmon spawn, explore riparian zones, and collect BMIs.  Thanks to the UC Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center,  this free option of a Salmon Tour provides the same amazing educational opportunity to more schools of our region.

Salmon Tours celebrate the natural heritage of where we live – wild salmon – and create a community of advocates who will help us work to restore important salmon habitat to the entire Yuba Watershed.

Thank you to the Salmon Naturalists and ETC guides for all their hard work in educating the public and to the UC Center for letting us utilize their facility.

If you missed out, stay tuned for next years’ Salmon Tours Program starting up in fall 2013.