The Survival of Juvenile Coho Salmon and Steelhead This Summer Is Dependent Upon Adequate Stream Flows
Press release from the State Water Resources Control Board:
North Coast Water Conservation Outreach FlyerCoastal streams in Northern California are experiencing extreme low flows this summer with most stream flows at or below those of the 2012-2016 drought. The survival of juvenile coho salmon and steelhead this summer is dependent upon adequate stream flows to provide necessary food and maintain survivable temperature and oxygen levels in pools. Due to the extremely low flows this summer, every week is critical to the survival of these threatened and endangered fish.
Some ways you can help protect these fish include reducing water diversion activities and conserving water whenever possible with reduced use. Every small and immediate action on your part this summer is beneficial to the cumulative effort needed to protect and support the habitat of these endangered fish. Information on this effort and other ways you can help can be found in the attached flyer.
Thank you for doing your part to help protect our steelhead and coho salmon population!
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Too Late…
The pot growers and dfw have destroyed the eel river
Yep.
The logging industry destroyed the river long ago before anybody was cultivating mj .they plowed creek beds and turned them into roads,filled the river with silt. I’ve seen pictures of 3 mast sail ships going all the way to redway to deliver cargo before the 50’s logging boom. Place the blame where the truth is
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Just because there was an earlier wrong doesn’t mean that someone isn’t adding to it.
well said guest well said.
No ships ever went to redway but yes the logging did great damage also; however there are many areas of the eel drainage that are not timbered and the watershed is greatly recovered now. The problem is that the river gets sucked dry in the summer and squawfish an illegally introduced species predate on the juvenile salmonids.. and the dfw won’t institute control procedures,
Wonder how many straws it takes to wipe a tributary legal or illegal farming it’s still a straw in the creek . Catch the rain 👍🏼🙏🏼!!!!!
here … here
evaporation due to the excessive heat has been a major factor also.
Bottom line. If it rains, there will be fish. If it doesn’t… nothing’s gonna save them.
Same thing with dope farms. No rain. No dope.
It is not too late for these fish. No more than it’s too late to wear a mask to protect yourselves, your family, and your community from a virus. It’s about priorities. It’s about recognizing a recreational and cultural resource in these sea-run salmonids that once gone, can NEVER be replaced. In the end, it’s about your goddamn character as an individual participating in this loss and about the ignorance of our society.
As a moderate conservative and yet an environment-loving stream biologist, angler, hunter, and hiker, while sitting here watching the DNC, it’s obvious that, as with our country’s current problems, we need to suck up our regional differences, pro-pot or not, and do the right thing for these coastal anadromous fisheries of Northern California. No matter which side of the green coin we’re on. These fisheries are our shared history. They our are livelihoods. They are our recreation. They are a unique and irreplaceable part of our shared coastal, NorCal culture. And, alive or dead, they’ll be our legacy as a people.
Unlike pot grows readily relocated to areas more appropriate to farming than spawning watersheds, salmon and steelhead cannot move. They are biologically mandated to return to the same river, to the same tributary, their ancestors came from. Because of their need to return to the same home, they’ve been killed off by the Gold Rush. They’ve been killed off by road building. They’ve been killed off by poor logging practices. They’ve been killed off by dam building. They’ve been killed off by gill netting at sea and in river. They’ve been killed off by water-takings for valley farmers. After all these attacks over 100+ years, our coastal salmonids are at death’s doorstep.
Do cannabis growers in these watersheds want to be responsible for putting the final nail in the coffins of these fish? For most responsible growers I’ve met the answer would be no. But there our many other “potholes” (pot assholes) around our region who don’t give a shit because they’re profiteering short-timers.
Excuse-making, big-mouthed, water-sucking, profiteering Green Rushers need to go. Sustainable farms need to start taking it upon themselves to hunt these bastards down and get rid of them – to save their own industry. Before someone bigger decides to remove ALL grows from coastal salmonid watersheds.
And if you think you’re a “good guy” using only well water to grow, well, let me illuminate you a little about hydrology. The more water sucked out of the ground in summer, the lower the water table – particularly in these dry years that, due to climate change, have become the norm rather than the exception. And the lower the water table, the more water from rivers and tributaries perk underground to replenish the space left in the water table. So if you’re suckin’ ground water out of a water table for a spawning tributary for salmon and steelhead, you’re indirectly suckin’ it out of the creek.
Reality’s a bitch, ain’t it.
But it’s the only real game in town.
DO THE RIGHT THING.
They have been killed by our global stewardship which focused on profit before permaculture, war undeclared, and wants not differentiated from our needs.
Nature bats last and she’s coming out swinging.
Waiting now for the Great Melt. Salmon won’t be the only endangered species to try and endure the results. That and constant radionucleatides dumped into the Pacific, contributing to phytoplankton collapse.
I also see heat and fog reduced redwoods crowns dying next. Fires will crown out and fire tornados the norm. Selling and moving or just walking away from investment lands will be also what’s happening. And politicians will be faced with declining revenues for everything, even salaries and pensions.
Predicting that bad things will happen is always a safe, although self indulgent, bet. Sooner or later, something bad will occur and act as justification of the opinion and the ignoring of the myriad of things that go right in the meantime.
This is why we need to keep Scott damn at lake pilsbury to keep water flow in major drought years. If the lake wasn’t there to subsidize the river it would be dry from pilsbury to Hearst right now.
nonsense. Most of the water goes over to the Russian River.