These impacts are primarily caused by poor forestry practices, dams, and water diversions. Estuaries and their associated wetlands provide vital nursery areas for the chinook prior to its departure to the open ocean. Wetlands not only help buffer the estuary from silt and pollutants, but also provide important feeding and hiding areas. The draining and filling of wetlands and the pollution of the estuary from industrial discharges and run-off, negatively impact chinook salmon. Chinook salmon is highly valued by commercial fishermen, despite their scarcity relative to other Pacific salmon along most of the Pacific coast.
Chinook salmon is also an important subsistence fish and a valuable recreational resource.