CDFW’s Mokelumne River Hatchery in San Joaquin County is seeing strong Chinook salmon returns for the second year in a row. Last year’s return of nearly 20,000 salmon was the highest ever recorded on the river since 1940. This year’s return with some 15,000 salmon and 400 steelhead counted to date is on pace to become the third-highest return on the river. Although one of the smallest tributaries in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Mokelumne River’s contribution to the West Coast’s salmon p