This week on July 6, Environmental Services staff spotted a large, healthy-looking, hatchery spring Chinook salmon in Crystal Springs, upstream from the confluence with Johnson Creek. 

This is good news considering earlier this week, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) noted that more than 200 spring Chinook carcasses have been found in the Willamette River in Portland because of high water temperatures.  

Spring Chinook salmon typically die in the fall after they’ve spawned. Some also die from stress, disease, or predation before they spawn.

Stream temperatures in Crystal Springs are inching up due to the recent extreme heat. The good news is that Crystal Springs projects like the Westmoreland Park restoration have reduced normal stream temperatures nearly three degrees Celsius. We need to do more work to protect the water quality of our urban streams, but we’re encouraged by salmon thriving in Portland’s waterways.  

NEWSFLASH:  Two days later, the Crystal Springs Partnership observed a salmonid in lower Crystal Springs near SE Harney Street.