Chena River Chinook Salmon Study

Three to six inches of rain fell in the Fairbanks area last week, the highest amount many places have received since the great flood of 1967 (which was much more severe).  It came with little warning, and we suffered some equipment losses, but we also decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see how the flood affects the condition of juvenile Chinook salmon.  With parts of Fairbanks about to be declared a disaster area, three of us drove up the Chena to see what our study area looks like when it’s roaring at 8,000 cubic feet per second — enough flow to cover a football field with eight feet of water in less than a minute.  It’s bank-full on the high, cut-bank side in most places, and the gravel bars are all covered up.

First, here’s what one of our pools looked like in May during the peak of the spring snowmelt runoff:

And here’s the same spot during this flood:

Despite the high water, we managed to catch a few juvenile Chinook at the site above and gather information about their condition.  At least some of them have weathered the storm pretty well.  Some of our equipment (in this case, an insect trap tied to a log “above” the river) did not fare so well:

The water was beginning to creep out of its banks in places where the banks are a bit low:

Here’s the view downstream from the first bridge over the Chena on Chena Hot Springs Road, at what’s usually a popular gravel bar for camping and launching boats:

Even the eagles look bedraggled.

The North Fork is falling and clearing much faster than the main stem.  The high-water mark was about a foot higher than the level in the picture below.  The tree is new.