Drought Leads To Stressed Out Salmon In Northwest Rivers

03:53

July 28, 2015

Chris Burns, natural resources technician with Washington’s Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, stands in the Dungeness River. Flows are roughly one-third of normal, prompting fears that salmon won’t be able to make it upstream to spawn. (Ashley Ahearn/EarthFix-KUOW)

River levels around the Northwest are dropping as the drought continues - and the water’s getting warmer. That’s a problem for salmon.

Wildlife managers in Washington and Oregon have limited fishing to certain times of day and closed some rivers altogether. But some say that’s not enough to help struggling fish.

Ashley Ahearn from Here & Now contributor KUOW headed out to the Olympic Peninsula and has our story.

Read more via KUOW

Reporter

Ashley Ahearn, environment reporter at KUOW and part of the multimedia collaborative project EarthFix. She tweets @aahearn.

This segment aired on July 28, 2015.