FORT COVINGTON — Alice Jock has canoed on the Salmon River for decades — ever since her father ran a small marina just north of Fort Covington.

But she stood along the shoreline recently with many of her neighbors, staring sadly at the trickle of water that remains of the once swift current.

“I still canoe, but I can’t go very far now,” said Jock, who also enjoyed fishing and swimming in the river.

Things have changed for her and the other river-edge residents, who once docked their boats or sat out on a nice evening enjoying the view.

A dam downstream was removed during June and July, sending tons of dirt into the Salmon River.

Heavy rains earlier in the spring eroded some of the shore. And that, coupled with diminished precipitation in August, prevented the sediment from washing away.

It instead settled across the entire 200-yard width of the river, four to six feet deep in most places.

WILDLIFE AFFECTED

The sediment allows 6-foot, 2-inch former Franklin County District Attorney Andy Schrader to walk to the middle of the river and barely get his ankles wet.

“It used to be up to here,” Schrader said, making a slashing motion across his chest.

This section of the Salmon River behind his house on Salmon Street once teemed with bass, walleye and northern pike, as well as a variety of water fowl and other creatures.

“We had Canada geese like crazy,” he said, then gestured to a large cluster of dried sticks on the opposite shore. “We used to have beaver, too. They would eat the apples off that apple tree. But the squirrels got ‘em this year.”

Another change?

“Seeing a great blue heron walking in the middle of the river,” Schrader said. “They usually walk along the shoreline.”