The Salmon River Restoration Council has announced the lowest numbers of returning salmon in recorded history following its annual count of Chinook salmon in the Salmon River.

This year’s count (excluding Wooley Creek) of 83 Spring Chinook in the Salmon River contrasts with an average of 750 fish per year in the past 15 years, according to a news release.

The group is forecasting some additional Spring Chinook and summer steelhead that it is expected to be holding in Wooley Creek, which will be surveyed in mid-August.

The council said the Salmon River Spring Chinook run is the largest remnant population of what was once the Klamath basin’s predominant salmon run.

Much of the Spring Chinook habitat in the Klamath River basin is now inaccessible due to fish barriers, dams and/or heightened river temperatures, the council said.

The Salmon River Voluntary Spring Chinook Recovery Group has developed a draft limiting factors analysis for Salmon River Spring Chinook, which is in its final development and review stage and can be viewed on the Salmon River Restoration Council Web site at http://www.srrc.org/.