Yes, absolutely.
I think one of the most amazing facts about chinook that encapsulates just how important they are is that, if you do isotopic research into boreal forest tree species—spruce and other species that line the banks—you find the nitrogen isotopes that come from chinook salmon, because one of the major things they do in their life cycle is bring the nutrients of the Bering Sea thousands of kilometres inland to ecosystems that otherwise don't have access to them.
They're absolutely critical to the basic ecological function of this entire ecosystem in a way that's difficult to underestimate. We don't know what a Yukon River watershed looks like if it does not have the nitrogen that fish carry up and give not just to the plants but to the entire food web, from very small invertebrates in the stream systems all the way up through to bears, eagles and the kind of wildlife we like to have on our calendars.
They're truly critical in that sense. The ability for these fish to maintain this nutrient cycle is really fundamental to the functioning of the river, biologically and culturally.