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Let's Do All We Can for Salmon, Steelhead by Debbie Stempf Spokesman-Review, March 18, 2022

I'm responding to the article and beautiful photo in Sunday's Spokesman about our local salmon returns for the upcoming season and the improved runs predicted in the Columbia system ("Salmon run wild," March 13).

I want to give kudos to the folks out every Sunday on the Thor Street overpass in Spokane with banners and signs supporting the salmon and steelhead in the Snake River system that aren't doing so well. In fact, these fish are well on their way to extinction in just a few years.

Idaho Fish and Game reported just 44 adult sockeye returned to Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho, this year. They used to have 35,000 return; that is why it's called Redfish Lake. The lake's bounty fed the lumbermen working the area in the past.

None of us want to see these salmon go extinct in the Snake system. The beautiful habitat in Idaho is just waiting for their return. Let's make it so.