"The drought, along with man-made impediments, has placed the state’s wild Chinook population at grave risk."

"HELLTOWN, Calif. — The name doesn’t seem to fit this quiet place set above a gentle swerve in Butte Creek, just an old span of bridge, some rusted-out mining equipment manufactured before this state was officially a state, and a seldom-used house.

But the harsh reality becomes apparent quickly, a smell on a hot, thin wind.

It is the stench from piles of rotting Chinook salmon carcasses on the creek banks and from the upside-down bodies of others snagged, already dead, on the creek’s pale rocks."

Scott Wilson reports for the Washington Post with videos and photos by Melina Mara September 13, 2021. [2]