www.sfgate.com
sometimes.
Yeah,well I could not save all the steelhead,but I had them in my stream and the county parks Dairy Creek after we fenced 2 miles of trout stream. Planted thousands of willow slips and hundreds of trees.
I am much more excited about the big push in WA to rehab all existing migration blocking culverts. I think that'll make a much bigger difference, though I still fear there's nothing we can do at this point to actual reverse the trend. When you see runs in the almost 100% pristine watersheds along the OP still tanking, rivers that are full of woody debris, still able to meander across a flood plane, without obstruction, rivers that really haven't changed much in the last 50 years and still offer exceptionally high quality habitat, when those rivers are still failing to produce sustaining salmon and steelhead populations it doesn't give me much hope that a few restorations projects are going to make a difference in a highly developed landscape (whether that's urban or agricultural landscapes).
this is encouraging https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...ng-northwests-sweltering-summer-surveys-show/
www.seattletimes.com
I think micro contamination is a much bigger player than we realize. Like the tire issue you linked, there are likely 1000s more like it that we don't know that we don't know.It is such a massive equation! Washington fishing politics have guaranteed a race to the bottom. It has been disgusting and disheartening to watch politics win out over resources. All restoration of riparian areas is a good thing that benefits much more than the fish and the results may not be immediate. Keep it up!
Certainly the ocean conditions for the last bunch of years has caused enormous damage that is impossible to quantify. Meanwhile some folks are doing great work with culvert removals, restoration projects, fish screens on irrigation ditches, increasing spring flows to wash down smolt etc. the effects of any of these are difficult if not impossible to quantify but in the long term should result in better habitat and fisheries. With continued research we will continue to get smarter about reversing the damage we’ve caused.
My personal belief is that all harvest of bait should end. We are taking away food from the resource and it seems insignificant until you add it up to every store and every town on the coast. Similarly, have you looked at the source for the ”fish oil” pills that are ubiquitous? Most are from krill, again taking massive food sources away from the fish. How about “value added“ fish products? That is a great term for using “wasted” fish like pinks and chums and turning them into fish nuggets rather than fertilizing the rivers that they did for eons before we jacked it up. There realy seems to be no end to the pressure on the fish—even the tires on my dang truck!
Tire-related chemical is largely responsible for adult coho salmon deaths in urban streams
A team led by researchers at UW Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup has discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn.www.washington.edu
How much further does it go? The coho tend to spawn in slow backwaters. Does it effect certain trout in Montana or catfish in the Missouri?
If you're talking just tires, that study pretty conclusively showed it impacting just coho. Chum were fine. I think it's a gimme that pinks were fine, they're becoming a plague.
