Tag Archives: Save Our Wild Salmon
Warming rivers in US West killing fish, imperiling industry
Salmon fisherman Mike Hudson sits on the bow of his boat at the Berkeley, Calif., Marina on Thursday, July 22, 2021. Baby salmon are dying by the thousands in one river and an entire run of endangered salmon could be wiped out in another. The plummeting catch has led to skyrocketing retail prices for salmon, hurting customers who say they can no longer afford the $35 per pound of fish, said Hudson, who has spent the last 25 years catching and selling salmon at farmers’ markets in Berkeley. “An extreme set of cascading climate events is pushing us into this crisis situation,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Wildlife and Fish. 14 photos, >click to read< 10:03
Four Washington Dams Again on Chopping Block
Farmers, fishermen and environmentalists sparred Thursday over a proposal to breach four dams on the Snake River to prevent extinction of salmon born there. The time could be ripe for the proposal long favored by environmentalists, with requirements under decades-running litigation dovetailing with measures called for by a state task force bent on saving endangered killer whales. The government is preparing to take an official position in February on whether breaching the four dams is necessary. >click to read< 20:31
Wheat farmers fear extinction if Snake River dams are removed to help orcas
In the southeastern corner of Washington state, wheat goes down the river, while salmon are trucked up around dams on the road. “And taxpayers pay for all of it,” said Sam Mace, with Save Our Wild Salmon. “Isn’t there some option of switching this around,” Mace asked, >(Salmon Cannon?)< “the fish on the river and the wheat off the river?” In Western Washington, it could seem like a no-brainer: The orcas of the Salish Sea are hungry, because there are fewer and fewer of the salmon they depend on. Removing the four dams on eastern Washington’s Snake River would help the salmon that use the river to spawn–and thus the whales that eat the salmon. But the view from eastern Washington is different. There, the dams are important to the state’s wheat growers, fourth- and fifth-generation farmers who are worried about their future. >click to read< 13:33
Trump administration urged to avoid salmon protection rules
A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws. The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water. click here to read the story 18:12
Conservationists challenge Obama’s Columbia salmon plan
Conservation groups and salmon advocates have challenged the Obama administration’s latest plan for making Columbia Basin dams safe for salmon. NOAA Fisheries NMFS said in a statement that the agency has made “clear and demonstrable progress in rebuilding salmon and steelhead runs throughout the Columbia Basin,” and it expects progress to continue. Read more here 11:12
