Here's some good news from just up the road. For the first time since Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, Chinook salmon are swimming in the upper North Fork Toutle River watershed again.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2026, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and its partners released 30 adult spring Chinook into South Fork Coldwater Creek, inside the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The fish were hatchery-raised. About 70 people came to watch, including the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the U.S. Forest Service, conservation groups, and state and federal officials.

Carried home by hand

Big hatchery releases usually send fish down a chute from a tanker truck. These salmon got more personal treatment. Workers carried each one to the creek in a specially designed bag. Each fish was four to five years old and weighed 10 to 30 pounds. They were lifted out with one hand under the head and one under the tail, then set into the water.

The Columbian reported that some fish slipped quietly out of sight and others splashed their way into the creek.

Why it took 46 years

The 1980 eruption released about 3.3 billion cubic yards of debris. Sediment clogged the Toutle, Cowlitz and Columbia rivers and buried streams that had supported spring and fall Chinook, coho, and winter steelhead. The mountain still sheds about 5 million cubic yards of sediment a year.

In 1989 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished the Sediment Retention Structure (SRS) on the North Fork Toutle. It traps volcanic sediment and protects communities downstream from flooding, but it also blocks salmon swimming upstream. Coho and steelhead have been trucked around it for years. Chinook had not been moved above it for about four decades.

Four decades of natural recovery and restoration have changed that. WDFW research scientist Thomas Buehrens said parts of the upper watershed "now provide the habitat conditions needed to reintroduce Chinook salmon to their historic range." He called the project "one of the largest salmon recovery opportunities in the lower Columbia River basin."

How the plan works

  • Trap and haul: returning adults are collected at the Toutle Fish Collection Facility below the SRS, driven upstream, and released into spawning habitat.
  • Free ride downstream: young salmon hatched upstream can migrate down past the SRS on their own to reach the ocean.
  • Scaling up: the reintroduction strategy aims to release up to 600 Chinook a year into the watershed.
  • Long term: WDFW says its goal is more natural fish passage, while keeping the flood protection the SRS provides.

The work is part of the North Fork Toutle River Fish Passage and Reintroduction Plan, developed by WDFW and the Wild Salmon Center.

A promise kept

For the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the release meant more than a fisheries milestone. "We come together to witness a sacred moment: the return of salmon to waters where their ancestors once traveled freely," Tanna Engdahl, the Tribe's spiritual leader, told the crowd. She described a long-standing agreement between the salmon and the Cowlitz people, with each promising to sustain the other.

Why it matters around here

The Toutle runs into the Cowlitz, and the Cowlitz meets the Columbia at Longview and Kelso. That's the same river system we drive along on our Stella backroads trip. Salmon from these headwaters will pass through our part of the river on their way to the ocean and back.

Want to see the area?

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Check current road status, seasonal closures, and pass requirements with the Forest Service and WSDOT before you go. Watch the fish from public viewing areas, and leave spawning salmon alone.

Sources