This fall's Science in Our Valley seminar series schedule has been announced and the first seminar takes place Wednesday, September 25 with a scientist that is familiar with the area, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Dr. McClain Johnson. Johnson's seminar topic will be close to home as he will be presenting his work on the Wenatchee River, 'Code Redd: Estimating Summer Chinook Salmon Spawners in the Wenatchee River'.

"Over the years we've looked at ways to develop and refine and make more precise estimates of how many spawners are out there. We do that by counting Redds. Like all types of counts there's errors associated with counting Redds so we've pioneered some methodology to add confidence to our estimates of redds, so I'm going to share some of that," said Johnson.

Johnson will share how WDFW has intertwined the usage of drones to collect more accurate statistics on the summer Chinook Salmon spawning during his seminar along with highlighting how modern technology provides valuable metrics with contemporary salmon management.

"We're basically evolving some of these tools to make our estimates of how many spawners in the Wenatchee more accurate, more precise and more cost effective," said Johnson. "In the last five years that's moved forward significantly and that's what I'd like to talk about."

These seminars will be hosted every Wednesday this fall from September 25-November 13 and will run from 4-5 p.m. Johnson's seminar will be held at WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center.

More From NewsRadio 560 KPQ