Lesson 7: Spawners & the Forest Ecosystem

Using their amazing sense of smell, salmon swim back to the stream where they were born, pouring all their energy into producing and fertilizing eggs. They bring nutrients from the ocean back to the freshwater ecosystem. (Researchers have found that trees near salmon streams get 25 to 70 percent of their nutrients from salmon!) Salmon are connected with many, many different organisms from bears to trees to birds to fungi. We invite you to draw an ecosystem web showing all the connections you can think of in a Pacific Northwest forest.

First, download our Ecosystem Connections Drawing activity.