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This image from a video aired by KOMO TV shows what happened to one salmon that tried to cross a flooded road near the Skokomish River.
credit:
KOMO TV
UNION, Wash. — A flooding river covered a road in Washington, allowing some migrating salmon to swim across the pavement.
Video from KOMO-TV shows one salmon didn’t make it Wednesday when it was caught by a dog that walked away with its catch near Union, about 40 miles southwest of Seattle.
The salmon-crossing-the-road scene is replayed nearly every year on the Skokomish. It frequently floods after heavy rain in the Olympic Mountains.
Several factors have contributed to the decades of severe flooding, including logging and road construction in the Olympic national forest in the upper reaches of the Skokomish watershed.
A task force, which includes representatives from the Forest Service, the timber industry, environmental groups, and the Skokomish Tribe, is developing restoration projects to help reduce flooding and restore the watershed.
The Olympic National Forest is working to decommission old logging roads, which are a significant source of mud and sediment that can clog up rivers and streams.
(EarthFix journalist Amelia Templeton contributed to this report.)
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