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Salmon & The North Cascades National Park Service Complex
The mission of the National Park Service is to preserve and protect this land for future generations. It is important to take care of the salmon for the salmon's sake, for the sake of the myriad of creatures that depend on the salmon for survival, and for the sake of future generations of human beings so that they too may marvel at the sight of salmon, returning to spawn in their natal waters.
"The high quality of fish runs of the Skagit is due, in part, to the protection that the upper slopes of the watershed receive by inclusion in the wilderness areas of North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan National Forests." (Sharing the Skagit: An educator's guide to the Skagit River Watershed. North Cascades Institute. 1993. p.27)"(Salmon have a) remarkable range of physical variation and survival strategies...Mature males and females of the same species can be strikingly different in appearance; spawning adults differ greatly from fish in the ocean; certain fish will remain close to their home streams rather than circle the North Pacific, returning earlier and thus smaller than others their age." (Robert Steelquist. Field Guide to the Pacific Salmon. Sasquatch Books. 1992. p.9)
The Salmon Species That Run Through the Skagit River Watershed
Five species of salmon utilize the Skagit River Watershed.
http://www.nps.gov/noca/salmn5.htm