Ashes in the Current: hope and recovery in British Columbia's most famous salmon river

Witnessing the sockeye salmon migration at the Adams River is one of Canada’s greatest natural events. Every four years during a ‘dominant’ cycle, millions of bright red sockeye salmon make the 450-kilometre journey from the mouth of Fraser River near Vancouver, all the way into the Interior of British Columbia. It’s a gruelling journey through canyons and rapids, all while avoiding predators, battling low flows, and persisting through high river temperatures. 2026 is a dominant sockeye year, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world to the Shuswap region of B.C. to see the end of this epic migration in October. This year, the landscape looks drastically different from the previous dominant sockeye cycle in 2022. That’s because large swathes of the watershed were decimated by the Bush Creek East wildfire three summers ago. The fire ripped through 45,000 hectares, forced 8,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 270 properties, and caused $240 million in damage. What used to be a lush green forest full of hiking trails is now a barren vista of burned trees. Out of the ashes, a determined group of partners came together to restore this vital salmon watershed. Led by local First Nation Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw, along with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, BC Parks and the Pacific Salmon Foundation, work has begun to restore the Adams’ natural channel complexity. The goal was to redistribute flows from one channel into many channels. To enable this change, excavators strategically placed woody debris in the river to divert the flow and enhance spawning habitat in time for the scheduled arrival of millions of sockeye this fall. Support on-the-ground restoration to help revive salmon habitats in the Adams River and across the province. psf.ca/restore 0:00-2:50 - Bush Creek East Wildfire 2:50-5:48 - Why the Adams River matters 5:48-7:19 - 2026 restoration work 7:19-7:56 - Climate change in the Adams 7:56-9:55 - The future of sockeye salmon