Hatchery fish could repopulate White Salmon's wild stock

UNDERWOOD, Wash. —
In a little over a year, the sparkling emerald water of the lower White Salmon River will turn brown with a torrent of mud unleashed by the removal of Condit Dam.

The mountain of sediment that has accumulated against the back side of Condit over the past 95 years will bury the lower White Salmon until the river's natural flow can clear it away in two to five years. Before that happens, federal researchers wanted to get a better sense of any wild salmon spawning in the three miles between the dam and the White Salmon's confluence with the Columbia River.

Two years ago, they installed a rotary screw trap to scoop salmon fry skimming along the rivers surface after emerging from the rivers gravelly bottom in the spring.

They found fish by the thousands...Continued@URL... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004467079_apwawhitesalmonriver.html?syndication=rss