We're honored to be returning to play for two beloved events: this Saturday, at La Honda Gardens, the annual Harvest Dinner to benefit
La Honda Educational Foundation. Always a warm and welcoming evening with farm to table dinner and auction to benefit vital public school programs for the children of La Honda.
Then, on Sunday, we're excited to be invited back to perform live during the Tuolumne River Film Festival, presented by
Tuolumne River Trust, at Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center. This evening features a selection of short films from the
Wild & Scenic Film Festival, live music, and more. In previous years, we have been enlightened by stories of the Tuolumne River watershed, which is the source of our Bay Area drinking water and originates in Yosemite National Park. You won't want to miss this!
Register here for your $10 tickets, or pay $15 at the door.
We traveled to Stanley, Idaho, to view the totality of the recent solar eclipse. During our stay, we stumbled upon the story of the sockeye and Chinook salmon, which travel 900 miles,
across 8 dams, and over an elevation gain of 6,500 feet to reach their spawning areas at Redfish Lake (for the sockeye) and in the Salmon River (for Chinook). These Chinook are the same "King salmon" caught for human food in the Pacific Ocean, during their several years of life in saltwater before returning to their freshwater birthplaces to spawn. To imagine that we had backpacked and camped at the birthplace of these fish -- so often the main dish of our dinners -- was humbling. To learn of their plight, and the impact of hydroelectric dams along their path, was sobering.
We happened to be present for one of the eight days each year when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service performs artificial spawning in the Sawtooth Hatchery, located just south of Stanley, Idaho. We witnessed the entire process of harvesting, genetic sampling, combining of eggs and sperm, and dispatching of the fish that have made the incredible journey back to their homes after their lives at sea. This human intervention is our attempt to help boost the endangered salmon population, which in 1996, fell to just
one single sockeye salmon returning to Redfish Lake. This year, there were a total of 33 sockeye counted at Redfish Lake as of our visit.
Whiteboard at the Sawtooth Hatchery in Stanley, Idaho.
The fish ladders at Sawtooth Hatchery used to trap returning Chinook salmon in the Salmon River.
View of the Salmon River basin south of Stanley, Idaho.
Sign from installation at Sawtooth Hatchery.
To learn more, visit
Sawtooth Hatchery on Facebook,
Discover Sawtooth, and
Ride for Redd.
The more we learn about the water and the interconnectedness of all life on earth, the more wide-eyed we walk, with wonder, gratitude, and awe for the precious gift of life. We seek ways to live in greater balance and harmony with the earth, and we open ourselves to constant learning about ways to steward the land and water that give us life.
Please join us in celebration of this gift, whether or not you can come this weekend.
