Excess carcasses from spawning here at Cherry Lane Hatchery will be placed into the streams where natural production is occurring. Decomposing salmon carcasses are a natural part of the ecosystem here in Idaho and the decline of salmon runs we’ve seen over the last 30, 40, 50 years. Those elements that the salmon bring back from the ocean have been lost. In years past other hatcheries have been land filling excess carcasses, taking them to the dump and burying them.

But the Nez Perce tribe feels that these carcasses need to be placed back into the environment where they came from. Other than adding nutrients for fish, it adds food for eagles, otters, and other species of animals that live along the streams and also those that live in the stream such as macro invertebrates, such as crayfish, insect larvae and other little younger species of fish that will feed on them. They are all part of a web, a food chain. The loss of these nutrients that are picked up from these animals that feed on them, distribute them through the environment whether they are in the riparian zones or up in the mountain side, the natural fertilization that occurs has been lost. The use of these carcasses for this purpose is a wise one.