Chinook salmon begin return to Russian River

The first chinook salmon of the fall run have begun making their way up the Russian River to spawn, with biologists hoping to see a continued year-to-year increase that started three years ago.

"The Sacramento and Klamath rivers are seeing fantastic returns of fish. We are hearing it up and down the California coast," said Dave Manning, a Sonoma County Water Agency principal environmental specialist. "We should see at least an average number of fish, around 3,000 fish, and hopefully more."

The first chinook was photographed Sept. 5 swimming through the Water Agency's fish ladder at Forestville, where the agency has a rubber dam to form a pool for its water-pumping operations....

Read full article in the Press Democrat