A salmon update from the Fauntleroy Watershed Council:

Volunteers are starting the annual spring count of coho smolts leaving Fauntleroy Creek for their two years in salt water.

(Photos by Dave Gershgorn. Above Scoutmaster James Kim and Dan Vornbrock [Ben’s dad] attach netting to the trap frame)

Last spring Ben Vornbrock supported this research by designing and building two net traps as his Eagle Scout project. This past Wednesday, family and fellow members of Scout Troop 284 put them back in at sites in the upper and lower creek to continue the research. Today, monitors were scheduled to start checking them twice daily through late May.

(Scout Naomi Bilinski helps Dan position the net so all creek flow goes through it. Superintending are Jamie Bilinski and creek volunteers Tom Trulin and Dennis Hinton)

Last spring’s smolt count was 30; the highest count since the research began in 2003 was 230.