The photo of Jon Hartley holding a dead Chum Salmon near the mouth of Salmon Creek, printed in the Aug. 8 Highline Times, dramatically illustrates the sorry fate of Salmon Creek.

A quarter of a century ago the creek teemed with salmon. And a few still try to return to Salmon Creek, but face not just the obstacles of boulders at the mouth of the stream, but no place to hide or spawn once they get into the stream. If they do negotiate the boulders (possible at very high tide) to the lower part of the creek, they encounter water that flows down between two straight-walled banks from a narrow, dark and steep culvert through which Salmon Creek is funneled under Shorewood Drive. No salmon has ventured through the culvert that was installed under the road over 20 years ago. It is a trap and it is there that they meet their demise.

Still, every year at spawning time a few salmon do visit Salmon Creek and try to migrate upstream. Maybe the memories of a great creek once teeming with its species still survive. If these obstacles were removed, the creek could again become home for families of salmon.

Jean Spohn

Burien