This is some great news and another reason why the Sawtooth Valley and Mountains are sacred. If salmon have the instinct to swim to the ocean and come back to the Sawtooths each year then obviously this place is special.
The entire article is at this link.
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005127436
Hundreds of sockeye return home
452 ‘red fish’ have arrived in Sawtooth Valley this summer from the Pacific Ocean
For the second summer in a row, hundreds of sockeye salmon are pouring into the upper reaches of the Salmon River near Stanley. Their final destination is the Redfish Lake area, in the eastern shadow of the ragged crest of the Sawtooth Mountains.
Altogether, 452 of the "red fish" have arrived at either of two fish traps located on the Salmon River at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery or near the mouth of Redfish Lake Creek
Redfish Lake sockeye are unequaled in that they travel to the highest elevation, over 6,500 feet, run the longest distance, about 900 miles, and travel the farthest south of any North American sockeye population.
Idaho fisheries biologists hope that eventually, as many as 2,000 sockeye born from fish allowed to spawn naturally in Redfish Lake will migrate back to the Sawtooth Valley each summer. So far this summer, 69 sockeye born from natural spawners have returned.
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The unsettling part?... humanity had to "re-intervene" to make it possible. For the most part, I'm ambivalent when it comes to "humanity." I think we go in cycles of positive and negative influence. But at any rate, what a footprint we make! In evolutionary terms, we are the equivalent of a giant asteroid. But with so much more subtlety. And oh... mmmmmmm salmon +1.
There are historical accounts that most rivers in Idaho were almost the color red when the Salmon were spawning, swimming to the ocean or coming back home to Idaho.
I can't believe Summer is winding down.
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