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--> --> USFS drops coho carcasses into rivers Officials hope the 14,000 dead fish will help juvenile salmon By Gillian Flaccus Associated Press Writer PORTLAND - The U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife plan to drop 14,000 hatchery coho salmon carcasses from a helicopter to enrich rivers for juvenile salmon. In the past, wild salmon died in the rivers after spawning, recycling nutrients from the ocean into the headwaters of rivers, providing food for juvenile fish as well as insects, trees and other wildlife. As wild salmon populations decreased, the rivers have lost those nutrients. "We'll be monitoring to see if adding carcasses to the system serves the same function and produces more native salmon smolts," said Dan Shively, a Forest Service biologist. Jim Muck, an ODFW biologist, said a helicopter will drop 2,500 carcasses per stream mile on Thursday and Friday, weather permitting. The helicopter will carry a 'drop box' that can hold 200 fish at a time, he said. The Stream Enrichment Program is part of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, a state plan that brings together federal, state and local groups to work toward salmon conservation. "We've been doing this kind of thing for a few years now, but the numbers have been very small - we've mostly hand placed the fish," said Glen Sachet, Forest Service spokesman. "This is the first time that we've had the opportunity to place large numbers (of fish) like this because of the unusually large hatchery returns this season," he said. "We're really going to be able to test scientifically what's happening." Sachet said a specially rigged gravel bucket will drop the fish from several hundred feet in the air. The drops are scheduled for the Hot Springs Fork and Collawash River in the upper Clackamas River drainage and Camp Creek, Clearfork and Clear Creek in the Sandy River drainage, he said. Surplus coho from U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Eagle Creek National Hatchery will provide the carcasses for the upper Clackamas River, while the ODFW hatchery in Sandy will provide the dead fish for the upper Sandy River. The fish are hatchery surplus and are not suitable for human consumption. Besides the helicopter drops, volunteers will hand place small numbers of carcasses in selected drainages. Hatcheries provide salmon and steelhead for sport fishing while state and federal programs work to restore wild fish. Biologists generally try to keep hatchery fish from breeding with wild stocks, which are considered genetically superior and behaviorally better able to survive in the wild. State wildlife officials will also donate about 140,000 pounds of frozen salmon fillets to the Oregon Food Bank from this year's abundant hatchery salmon runs. ODFW says the fish will provide meals to about 500,000 low income people in Oregon. The first shipment of 40,000 pounds of fish will be delivered to the food bank Wednesday. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing