December 10, 2025 — A group of environmental nonprofits filed a petition in 2022 to protect the spring-run Chinook along the Oregon Coast and part of Northern California.
Jeff Miller from the Center for Biological Diversity said spring-run Chinook are more threatened by habitat changes than fish that return in the fall.
“Spring-run are blocked in their migration to where they ideally want to go,” Miller said. “A lot of their former spawning habitat is blocked above major dams.”
Spring-run Chinook return from the ocean much earlier than the fall-run salmon and will stay in deep-water pools until the fall, when they head further upstream to spawn. That means spring-run Chinook often spawn further upstream than fall-run.