Yuba River Salmon Tours – 300 more people get The Experience!

Wild Chinook salmon are great to think about, but until you’ve seen them during spawning season while floating the lower Yuba River, they might be only big fish.

Throughout this fall, SYRCL River Science staff, volunteer naturalists, and river guides from Environmental Travel Companions (ETC) have taken over 300 people on the Lower Yuba River to experience the wonder of wild salmon spawning.  These tours included seven school groups, as well as weekend tours for the general public.  The tours provide a plethora of information about the geography and history of the Yuba Watershed, the lifecycle and habitat requirements of Chinook salmon, and so much more.  John Regan shared, “My daughter has known from an early age that saving water ‘helps the fish.’  Seeing the salmon up close brought those lessons home for her.”

A highlight for SYRCL’s Salmon Tours this fall was the opportunity to show the current rehabilitation project underway at Hammon Bar.  The goal of this project is to improve riparian vegetation and backwater habitat, a critical need for healthy young salmon. Of course, nothing tops seeing the wild fish do their stuff.  As said by SYRCL volunteer Terra Nyssa, “My heart jumps when I see those big fish in a splashing frenzy!”.

SYRCL would like to take this opportunity to thank ETC and our volunteer naturalists as well as all the participants for joining us for our 2011 salmon tours.  If you have not yet had “the experience”, then be sure to plan for a tour next fall.