Film Description

A small, coastal community in Northern California has been restoring its watershed for the past twenty years. Originally determined to save the nearly extinct native salmon, they realized that "salmon don't just live in streams, they live in watersheds."Through trial and error, the residents learned how to hatch thousands of salmon in homemade hatchboxes. They convinced the Fish and Game to close their river to salmon fishing and began restoring the river, planting hillsides, removing old logging roads. They wrote and performed a hilarious musical comedy "Queen Salmon" which highlighted the cooperative spirit required to reverse a deteriorating situation. They have rediscovered what our grandparents took for granted: a community that works and plays together with common goals is a more satisfying place to live. Now sustainable timber harvesting is being practiced, watershed education is practiced in the schools and the salmon have returned to the Mattole River. Environmental restoration is explained and demonstrated in this inspiring model of citizen intiative.