(From “Diaries...)
Thou Hath No Barriers

Mar 23:

The logjam a few feet in front of me is unbelievable! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. There are dozens of huge redwood and fir logs in a jumbled mass. Around them are hundreds of smaller pieces of driftwood fitted together with precision. The whole mass is so tightly packed it is difficult to believe that unbridled water power–and not a group of engineers–put it here.

This is one of my earliest surveys. Nevertheless, I quickly and confidently make the call: there is no way an adult steelhead can go through that! This is a barrier to fish passage!

I even start planning for how the barrier might most easily be removed from the stream. Luckily, before I can start to act on my stupidity, Billy (the former poacher), who has now become a friend and confidant, slaps me back into reality.

Based on his 40+ years of experience on the river, he matter-of-factly explains “Its been there for years, and the steelhead go right through it.” Later that spring (and in successive springs), I will confirm his wisdom by recording hundreds of juvenile steelhead far upstream of this particular logjam.

 

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