Young winter steelhead fry, freshly hatched in the cold waters of the the North Santiam River, face a long and harrowing journey that takes them to the sea and back. In spring through early summer of their second year, steelhead smolts from the North Santiam River enter the sea and move directly offshore. Beyond that,…
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As winter gives way to the cold rains of spring in the North Santiam Canyon, newly hatched steelhead fry begin to wriggle their way to the surface of their gravel nest. In the cold waters of a tributary stream above the North Santiam River, their stream, they face a long and harrowing journey that will…
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Based on video monitoring (through mid-November) at Upper and Lower Bennett dams near Stayton, approximately 5,200 summer steelhead moved into the upper North Santiam this season. That’s about 20 percent of the nearly 25,000 summer steelhead that passed the Willamette Falls this. year Coho season on the North Santiam from Stayton up to Big Cliff…
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Devil’s club or devil’s walking stick is a large shrub native to the cool moist conifer forests. It is found from Alaska to western Oregon and eastward to western Alberta and Montana. This native shrub always catches my eye in the late summer. Those clusters of showy red berries remind me of Christmas. I’ve…
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The waters of the North Santiam begin their journey on the snowy slopes of Mount Jefferson. Nearly ninety miles later they join the South Santiam. Along its journey the river flows past forest and farm, field and city. Its flow is interrupted by high wall dams and and diverted for irrigation, municipal use and even…
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The decade of the 1930’s was an era of large government building projects. Many undertaken to counter the economic hardships of the Great Depression. The 1930’s also saw the population and industrial development in the North Santiam Canyon finally reach levels that would economically justify a flood control project. So the Detroit Dam complex, which includes…
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Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Santiam River watershed, lying just below the confluence where the North and South Santiam rivers join. It encompasses about 2,800 acres of flat to gently rolling land near the confluence of the Willamette and Santiam rivers south of Salem, Oregon. Ankeny Refuge was created to provide vital…
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