Tag Archives: saving salmon
Washington State making a muddle of saving salmon
Local experts connected in various ways with salmon fishing and conservation must be ready to blow a gasket over the Washington Legislature’s latest clumsy efforts to “help.” In legislators’ defense, saving salmon is a supremely messy business, with more murky cross currents and furious undertows than a dangerous outer coast beach.,, Intentional confusion is added by outsiders whose only interest is in grabbing salmon for themselves or using the issue merely as a means to generate financial donations from well-wishing urbanites. And as if all that wasn’t enough, salmon management is also bound up with the need to help Washington’s endangered resident orcas, and with the obligation to coordinate some policies with Oregon and Canada. >click to read< 18:31
Saving salmon is a ruse for breaching our dams
In the early 1990s, our small group were researching environmental claims that the lower Snake River dams were devastating salmon runs. At that time, we learned about East Sand Island, a man-made island in the estuary of the Columbia River. This island was formed from dredging deposits in 1983. And by 1984 Caspian terns, cormorants and gulls, which had colonized the island, were feasting on salmon smolts. We thought: “Wow, this is an easy fix. Tear out a man-made island and save millions of endangered fish.” The environmentalists beat us to the punch. They filed in federal court to protect the island and the birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Now we have the largest nesting colony of these non-endangered birds in the world on a man-made island. >click to read< 08:38
Culvert design aimed at saving salmon in Langley Township
Nat Cicuto carefully picks his way down the gravel slope on the south side of the new 86 Avenue culvert to reach the bank of Yorkson creek. It’s a grey, rainy day, and the muddy water is moving fast through the just-installed precast concrete box beneath the road that connects 204 Street to 205B Street. Cicuto, president of the Yorkson Watershed Enhancement Society, has to raise his voice to be heard over the sound. “This is huge,” he says, smiling. “We’re gaining about 100 metres of spawning habitat.” The replacement for the old culvert under the road has opened up the waterway and comes with fish baffles inside that will serve as habitat for wild Pacific coho salmon, he explains. Cicuto calls it a “history-making design” that will protect the fish from people and predators. Video, read the rest here 18:13
