(Jeff Smith / Flickr Creative Commons)

On a cold morning, a fish biologist puts on a helmet, steps into a helicopter and starts flying along the middle fork of the Salmon River. She looks out the window and starts counting the spots where Chinook salmon are spawning.

That biologist is Carli Baum and she works for Idaho Fish and Game. She wrote the story of how she counts fish nests from the air in a recent article that helps people better understand how the folks at the department do their job every day.

Carli joined Idaho Matters to tell us more.