First load of rescued fish moved to Salmon Creek

HOCKINSON, Clark County — It was a Sunday morning last spring, and Marc and Judy Witt were preparing to head out to church.

Judy was the one who noticed a pickup blocking their driveway and a tall, slender man staking the place out. Marc joked that he wasn't sure if he should go get his gun.

But the stranger eyeballing their rural Baker Creek Road property turned out to be Dave Brown, who wasn't interested in causing any trouble. He just wanted to see whether the small pond in their front yard might serve as transitional housing for homeless fish.

"I'm a lifelong fisherman, and I have seen fish in this county crash," he said. "If we don't do something, they'll all be gone."

For the past few years, Brown and a bevy of net-wielding volunteer helpers have scooped up wild baby salmon and steelhead stranded when tributaries that feed the East Fork of the Lewis River run dry in the summer. Rescued from shrinking pools, the fish survive in a series of concrete holding pens Brown built on his property near Daybreak Park. He releases them again when streams start flowing in the fall.

The effort appears to be paying off: Adult coho and steelhead are on the rise in the streams of north Clark County. Brown knows they're the fish he tended and let go because he tags them all with what amount to electronic bar codes that allow him to track them when they return to spawn.

"I can take a look and know that's my fish from two years ago," he said. "All the way back from the ocean."

On Saturday morning, Brown and a bunch of dedicated volunteers and agency officials congregated on the Witts' property to help Brown continue his work and expand his system. They moved 600 tiny coho salmon and a few steelhead from a container in his truck to a new spring-fed fish raceway he'd built just above the Witts' pond.

The fish came from Mill Creek at Dollars Corner, he said, but now they're headed for Salmon Creek — a waterway that old-timers remember used to teem with fish, back before it was a repository of farm chemicals and urban runoff of all kinds, from motor oil to laundry detergent. Salmon Creek is slowly returning to health, and there are a few salmon lurking in there today, according to volunteer and resident Scott Satterlee — but you have to look pretty hard to spot one.

Now Brown, with the Clark County contract to work on Salmon Creek in hand, is trying to change that. "This is the first fish transfer for Salmon Creek," he said.

"I've seen hundreds of studies that require more studies that require more studies," said County Commissioner Marc Bolt, who turned up Saturday to watch the slippery work. "When something actually gets done, you want to support it."

Dave Brown's Wild Fish Rescue program has won support from organizations such as Fish First, Clark-Skamania Flyfishers and the Native Fish Society.

Brown has won a "Sammy" award from Clark County for his innovative efforts around the Lewis River. And he's received guidance and permits from the State Department of Fish and Wildlife.