THEY ARE ONLY an inch or two long, little brown bullets darting just beyond the reach of fish biologist Charlie Dewberry as he peers through his diving mask into the shallow waters of Knowles Creek.

They'll stay in this Oregon Coast Range stream for another year, growing bigger and stronger before starting their magical and unexplained swim to the ocean.

Hugging the shoreline for the next two years, sometimes traveling 1,000 miles or more in search of food, these coho salmon will reverse course and - just as mysteriously - find their way back.

Back to the very stream where they were born.

Here, in the Siuslaw River tributary near Mapleton that Dewberry has been helping to restore for 15 years, they'll complete a ritual of mating and spawning that has endured for thousands of years.

Then they'll die. Even in death, the salmon complete the circle of life:

Their carcasses provide nutrients that help the next generation, survive.

For eons, salmon were the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest's rivers, migrating by the millions each year up the Columbia, Rogue, Siuslaw and hundreds of other streams. They were sewn into the fabric of Northwest Indian culture, diet and religion. Then they served as the foundation of a world class commercial and sport fishery.

Salmon became a symbol of what we Northwesterners like to think is our unique link with the land and water. Knowing that these fish endured such severe natural hardships gave us strength.

"They are a life force, a symbol of life," says Joseph Cone, a Corvallis author of two respected' books on salmon issues. "There's an intimate link here between the physical world of the Northwest and the culture of the Northwest. Humans have drawn strength from the salmon, not only as food but a kind of cultural strength."

But now the salmon's world has come crashing down. The effects of 125 years of overfishing, logging, mining, grazing, road building, urban development, pollution and dam building have decimated the Northwest's once abundant salmon runs. Only 5 percent to 10 percent of the West Coast's historic runs remain.

After years of delay, the federal government is poised to act. It will decide by