Without much fanfare, Senator Maria Cantwell reintroduced her Pacific Salmon Stronghold legislation in the U.S. Senate. The purpose of the bill is “to expand Federal support and restoration of the healthiest remaining salmon strongholds.” In Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California the bill would focus resources on the roughly 20 percent of the habitat that supports approximately two-thirds of salmon abundance. In Alaska, the bill would increase resources to public and private groups working to conserve core areas of salmon abundance.
Current federal efforts are a losing strategy if the goal is to ensure robust populations of salmon for ourselves and future generations. Federal salmon recovery efforts are ESA driven and are triggered only after salmon populations are recognized as being at risk of extinction. The attention is better late than never but wouldn’t it be better to avoid that situation in the first place?
The existing recovery efforts are important and should continue unabated but there needs to be an existing complementary program. A policy that identifies and directs federal and state resources to conserve, maintain and enhance already healthy populations of salmon. This is particuarly true in the Pacific Northwest where are healthiest rivers produce salmon at a fraction of their historic numbers but with directed funding could produce many, many more fish.
This is exactly the type of legislation we can and should get behind. The bill has the support of all Senators from California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Other notable supporters include: ODFW, WDFW, CDFG, the Oregon Governor’s Office, Trout Unlimited, Oregon Trout, California Trout, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and many others.
This is an idea whose time has arrived and we will continue to support this legislation until it becomes law.–KM
