Restaurant Owner Makes Stream Habitable For Salmon And Loves The Results

When we have a business, we don’t often think about what is on the outside but we tend to focus on what is on the inside.

It seems as if that was the case for Holly Smith, a chef who owns an Italian restaurant in Kirkland, Washington.

According to MYNorthwest, there was a stream outside of her business, the Café Juniata, and when she looked outside at the stream, she noticed that there were not any fish in it. She decided she was going to make a change in order to get the fish back in the area again.

The restaurant has been up and running for 22 years and you can find it along Juniata Creek. Although she has paid attention to the stream over the years, in those decades, she only saw one fish swimming by. She knew that that was much lower than it should be.

In order to get the stream back up and running again, she got together with a nonprofit organization, Adopt-a-Stream, and the King Conservation District. She wanted to have an area where the fish would do quite well, so the first step was to get rid of some invasive species of plants.

Salmon also need a special type of habitat, so they added some woody debris to the area so the bank would be protected. In speaking with KING5 News, she said: “The moment that Adopt-a-Stream left, they left in the morning on a Thursday, we came out and there were 15 to 20 fish lined up. I was like ‘This is not real,’ someone had stocked the stream for me.”

All in all, about $100,000 was put into the project but grants were available to help pay for what was needed.

It’s amazing how much good can be done with just a little effort.