Setting Salmon Free

Jasper checks out the salmon development specimens.

The Tilamook Forest Center offered a unique opportunity to learn about salmon with a chance to help release some of the 500 salmon fry they hatched and raised in their interpretive center. Chinook are our largest species of salmon. They hatch in fresh water rivers and streams, growing bigger until they are ready to make the long trip to the ocean. They return as adults up to eight years later, swimming upstream to spawn in the place that they began their lives. After a brief talk on the salmon life cycle, we took a short walk across the Wilson River to Jones Creek, where participants were given paper cups with salmon fry and directed to release them gently into quiet parts of the creek where the current was not so strong. We all thought it was pretty neat to witness this chapter of their lives.

The Wilson River.

Inside the Tilamook Forest Center.

More salmon fry, which were to be released the next day.

The fire tower.  Visitors may climb up for great views and lots of information
about the history of fire towers.