The 2018 5 Rivers Odyssey crew. Photo courtesy of Flylords
It is that time of the year: long days, great hatches, and the 5 Rivers Odyssey. Now in its third year, this year’s 5 Rivers Odyssey participants will be exploring the Pacific Northwest for the next five weeks.
In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, Costa Sunglasses, Simms Fishing Products, Orvis, Fishpond USA, and the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation, the students will be exploring and documenting the challenges that face one of America’s mightiest watersheds and sacred anadromous fishing grounds: the Columbia.
In the not too distant past, the Columbia River drainage hosted one of the world’s largest runs of anadromous fish. Between 11 and 16 million salmon once returned to the river annually. Since the turn of the 20th century, repercussions of Manifest Destiney began to be felt across the watershed. Wild salmon and steelhead stocks have declined over the past hundred years. The causes are numerous: climate change, connectivity, loss of habitat, pollution, overfishing and invasive species.
These effects will only continue to make the fishery’s future bleaker unless something is done. This year’s 5 Rivers Odyssey crew will dive head-first into the challenges facing the Columbia watershed, what work is being done to restore native fish, and how you can help protect this river for future generations.
Tune into the Trout Unlimited’s (@troutunlimited), TU Costa 5 Rivers (@tucosta5rivers), Simms Fishing Products (@simmsfishing), Costa (@costasunglasses), Orvis (@orvisflyfishing), and Fishpond USA (@fishpondusa) Instagram accounts and blogs for stories from the road. The Odyssey officially kicks off this weekend, and we will be introducing the Odyssey participants in the coming days.