Wild Salmon Center News - December 2023

IN OREGON, CARVING A NEW PATH FOR COHO, INFORMED BY THE PAST
Above Tioga Falls, on Oregon’s Central Coast, stretch 14 miles of exceptional wild fish habitat. Climbing this cascade has always been tricky for salmon and steelhead. Then came commercial timber and the largest splash dam in Oregon history, and this seasonal hurdle became downright impassible. In recent decades, agencies and conservation interests have tried, and largely failed, to restore fish passage at Tioga Falls. This fall, Wild Salmon Center and our partners can report success: Oregon Coast coho salmon are making the leap up our brand new, nature-mimicking fishway. Read the full story of chutes, ladders, and lessons from the past:
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HONORING SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR
We were saddened to learn earlier this month of the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Justice O’Connor was a trailblazing American figure who ended up as the arbiter in many of the crucial political and cultural debates of the last half century. But many may not know that the Justice was also an avid fly fisher who supported wild fish conservation . In 2008, Wild Salmon Center CEO Guido Rahr hosted Justice O’Connor, by then a friend, on the lower Deschutes River for steelhead fishing. What happened next won a tribute in Stronghold, the story of Rahr's epic journey to save wild Pacific salmon.
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GET READY TO SEIZE A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME SHOT TO SAVE 28 MILLION ACRES
Across Alaska, 28 million acres of public lands could be repurposed for extractive industrial development . These large, intact landscapes, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, support all five Pacific salmon species, three of North America’s largest caribou herds, abundant moose populations, and vast numbers of migratory birds. They provide subsistence resources for over 100 Alaska Native communities, and serve as massive carbon sinks. Any day now, BLM will launch a 60-day public comment period on whether to open these lands mining and other industrial uses. We'll need your help to tell BLM to keep these precious landscapes intact. Look for our action alert to land soon!

SOME FUTURE SALMON HABITAT COULD COMPETE WITH MINING, STUDY FINDS
A new study in Science examines British Columbia's transboundary region to find where future salmon habitat created by retreating glaciers might overlap with mining claims. The study, led by Drs. Jonathan Moore and Kara Pitman of Simon Fraser University with research collaboration from Gitanyow First Nation Hereditary Chiefs, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, and the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station, finds that glacial melt will create new salmon habitat in 114 subwatersheds. Yet it also notes that B.C. environmental policies currently overlook this habitat in mine assessments, while mining companies often fail to consult with First Nations rightsholders on whose unceded lands much of this new habitat will be found.
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The mission of the Wild Salmon Center is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of wild salmon ecosystems across the Pacific Rim.

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