Urban Snorkeling the Spokane River — From Upriver Dam to Greene Street

Over a few weeks in the summer of 2026, I snorkeled the mile and a half of the Spokane River between Upriver Dam and the Greene Street bridge — the whole reach, top to bottom, in the middle of the city. Some of it is nearly empty. One stretch is full of fish. This video is what I found, segment by segment, and what I did about it. Upriver Dam is owned by the City of Spokane, and its federal license expires in 2031. The relicensing process is happening right now. Anyone can participate. Almost nobody does — not because it's secret, but because almost nobody knows it's there. I filed a study request asking for a professional, segment-by-segment survey of this reach. FERC docket P-3074-013. It's public, along with everything else filed in this proceeding, and the links are below. If you fish this stretch: the regulations section starting at 06:04 covers selective gear rules, barbless single-point hooks, and how to identify a hatchery trout. Most of what I see out there is people getting this wrong without knowing it. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Intro 01:00 — About Upriver Dam 05:13 — Before you go: poison ivy, fishing regulations, gear 07:41 — Segment 1 09:30 — Segment 2: The constriction 12:22 — Segment 3 13:28 — Segments 4 and 5 14:07 — Segment 6: The riffle 19:59 — Segment 7 (and a word about pikeminnow) 22:07 — Segment 8 23:00 — The whole picture 27:02 — My study proposal 29:08 — What a study could lead to 29:41 — Who pays 31:02 — Closing LINKS FERC eLibrary — Upriver Dam, Project No. P-3074 (search the docket to read my study request and everything else filed): https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/se... City of Spokane relicensing page and FERC notification signup: https://my.spokanecity.org/publicwork... Fish Washington app (WDFW) — current regulations for any water in the state: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulatio... Keep Fish Wet — fish handling: https://www.keepfishwet.org/ A NOTE ON WHAT THIS IS This is one person with a mask and a snorkel making observations across a handful of afternoons in a single summer, at flows between roughly 850 and 1100 cfs. Where I'm guessing, I say so. The point of the study request is to get people who are actually trained to do this into the water. Filmed on the Spokane River, Spokane, Washington between Upriver Dam and Greene Street.