Come see the salmon

Students hosting walks along Multnomah Creek

By Rob Cullivan

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 7, 2009

photo courtesy of Rick Swart, ODFW

A coho salmon, its image captured by underwater camera, makes its way up Cedar Creek last week on its way to the Sandy fish hatchery. A festival at Multnomah Falls on Sunday, Nov. 15, will give people an opportunity to see salmon in Multnomah Creek

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If you missed the Salmon Homecoming at Oxbow Park in October, fear not – you can catch another celebration devoted to the fabled fish next weekend.

In observance of Mt. Hood Community College’s “Geography Awareness Week,” the college’s geography department is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to hold a free Salmon Festival at Multnomah Falls from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.

Chris Gorsek, who heads Mt. Hood’s geography and criminal justice departments, says he wants to highlight the salmon’s importance to Oregonians with the festival, and he has enlisted 15 geography-student volunteers to join forest service folks giving guided tours about the fish along Multnomah Creek.

“When you actually see the salmon in the stream it impacts people the way reading an article or seeing a picture doesn’t quite do,” he says.

He hopes the festival raises awareness among residents of how their actions can affect water quality and salmon life. For example, he says, something as simple as automobile oil or anti-freeze leaking from your car into a storm- drain can wind up polluting a stream.

“Anything that we have on the roadway will eventually make its way into the stream,” he says. Putting a pan under your engine to catch such toxic wastes, preventing them from entering the water supply, means better water quality, he adds.

“If everybody does a little bit, it has a very large impact,” he says.

Activities for all

The Salmon Festival will feature activities for children, including coloring sheets and word scrambles, Gorsek says, as well as information booklets that explain the life cycle of the salmon.

Representatives of the forest service, Oregon State University Water Extension and Columbia Riverkeeper, a water quality advocacy group, will staff informational tents, he adds.

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