The 2020 chum run on Betty Creek is fast coming to a close. Only a few very late arrivals are still trying to push their way upstream - the rest are either dead or in their last throes. I'm not sure how productive it's been. I've only been watching this stream since April of 2014, so this is just my 7th year of witnessing the spawning cycle. It's certainly been way better than last, when not a single fish made it into Beatty Creek. The rains came very late that time around, and the creek didn't begin carrying water until the first week in December. This year's November rainfall was close to record breaking, and the creeks are running good and strong as a result. So it goes with the ephemeral streams in which the chum are born - at the end of their days there's not always access to the place of their origin.
If the volume of rotten carcasses at this spot were a reliable indicator, I'd be tempted to conclude it was a bountiful event. But I know for a fact that an as-of-yet undetermined obstacle just a short way upstream from here completely obstructed fish passage beyond the 150 foot elevation level this year. Accordingly, the body-count found here owes its relatively high count to the fact that a good many chum never made it to the places upstream where they otherwise might have chosen to die.
Another factor possibly attributing to the absence of spawning chum further upstream may be the water level itself. It seems quite low, given the relatively solid amount of rainfall we've experienced this last month. I'm suspicious of the water-table - I can't be positive about this, but my gut tells me it's dropped considerably in the last couple years. Development upstream, as well as logging in the Capital Forest itself may be a factor. I'll leave the determination of such factors to those who may possess some instrumentation, and maybe more reliable data - I have neither.
When I first began witnessing the annual spawning process, contemplating their ravaged carcasses used to make me a little sad. I'm over that, and now I simply study the dying and deterioration process for insights into how it replenishes and revitalizes the system. My admiration for the salmon maintains, however - what a fabulous creature. One of the most effective predators in the entire ecosystem.