Saving Northwest salmon may save us, too

By DAVID MANN and KATHY FLETCHER
Special to the Journal

As we approach the 21st century our state faces great challenges and great opportunities. In protection of our environment, we are at a crossroads. We must change “business as usual” because it is causing a continued destruction of our environment which threatens our water — and our way of life.

The degree of damage has been so great that one of the most resilient and adaptive living creatures ever, our wild salmon, is facing the possibility of extinction. And the factors that threaten the salmon, threaten people too.

Today, by doing what is needed to save them, we may also save our way of life.

Much of what we value in Washington comes from its natural beauty and bounty: abundant forests and wildlife; clean, tree-lined and free-flowing streams and rivers; open plains; and natural shorelines. These things that people enjoy are also what wild salmon need.

By enforcing current laws we can take a big step toward restoring wild salmon.

The species of fish in danger of extinction once thrived in almost every county in the state. So when salmon are in bad shape and getting worse, the things that people enjoy about Washington are also in danger. It is our challenge to take the right path in the fork of the road of history. In the short run, this path may not be the easiest or most traveled.

Saving salmon will cost money and require sacrifice and risks. Ironically, we already spend huge sums of money, hundreds of millions of dollars annually that actually harm salmon. If government and industry change “business as usual” to stop habitat destruction, pollution and wasting of water, the people would also be willing to sacrifice for salmon.

The problem with business as usual

Habitat destruction: In order to survive, salmon need many of the same things that people need, including abundant, cool, clean water. For decades we have been doing things that hurt salmon: taking too much water from rivers and streams, cutting trees and farming too close to streamsides, and allowing pollution from logging, farming, sprawling developments and toxic chemicals to damage water quality.

Recent data shows that Washington loses over 200 acres a day of both farmland and forestland. That’s over 200 football fields each day. By losing our forests and farms to development, we give up forever the protection that these types of land uses may provide.

Development, where it does occur, can be done in a much more sensitive manner that would provide better protections for streams and salmon. When we allow sprawling development, and construction near salmon streams, wetlands and shorelines, we also allow increased water pollution, increased flooding and a decrease in recreational opportunities.

Over-fishing: Catching too many wild salmon is one of the other reasons they are in tough shape. Harvesting huge numbers of salmon once was a major cause of decline. In some cases, catching fish still contributes to their decline, though the impact of fishing is less than it once was.

If we hope to recover the salmon, we will need to commit more resources to managing harvests and ensuring that enough adult salmon return to rivers to spawn. In the long run, this sacrifice, combined with the other necessary measures will help recover a salmon population that can be sustainably harvested and will return as a major economic contribution to our region’s economy.

Dams: Blocking safe passage of newborn salmon going to the ocean and adults returning to spawn is a major barrier to salmon recovery. The more natural a river, the better for salmon. Yet most of the electricity used in Washington is generated from hydroelectric dams, and irrigation of cropland in central and eastern Washington is supplied by reservoirs created by dams. However, there is increasing support for removing or modifying a handful of dams that provide very little electricity or irrigation benefits. In addition, by changing how other dams are operated, we can produce electricity for our region’s people and industry, provide irrigation for our region’s farmers, and protect our salmon.

Hatcheries: Billions of newborn salmon have been artificially hatched and raised in hatcheries. The production of hatchery fish has masked the decline of wild fish populations lost due to habitat destruction, pollution, over-fishing and dams. Furthermore, hatchery fish harm wild fish by eating them, competing for scarce habitat and food, weakening the wild gene pool and transmitting disease.

The benefits of change

Making changes to business as usual will benefit more than simply salmon. The very things that define our way of life in the Northwest will improve — cleaner water, reduced sprawl and reduced pollution. These positive changes can help protect our economy as well.

People want to live in Washington because it is a beautiful and bountiful state. We cannot continue to destroy the beauty and bounty and hope that our way of life will somehow be preserved.

More obviously connected to the economy is the amount of money that salmon and fishing in general pump into the economy each year. The fish caught by Washington commercial fishers were worth $148 million in 1996. The overall impact on the state economy is much larger; this figure does not include operating expenses at the fuel dock, shipyard and grocery store.

In addition, recreational anglers spent $704 million on fishing related expenses in 1996, which translates into $1.3 billion and over 15,000 jobs. While this may be curtailed in the short-term, recovery of wild fish will secure our state’s fishing economy for future generations.

Solutions

One of the quickest ways to start saving salmon, our water and our way of life can be achieved by enforcing environmental laws on the books. This is simply not happening right now. Washington has been a national leader in establishing laws to protect shorelines, forests, water and land. But without enforcement, laws are not worth the paper they are written on.

Furthermore, the general public favors this policy.

Enforcing current law will not solve all the problems, but it would take a big first step towards restoring wild salmon. These laws take money to enforce, though far less than the billions that have been spent on artificially creating salmon in hatcheries and putting wild salmon in trucks to get them downstream past dams. We need to stop spending all this good money on bad projects.

Changing the behavior that has caused much of the decline will actually solve the problems: stop destroying habitat so we can protect our waters; reduce over-fishing; and shift away from our reliance on hatcheries.

Common sense tells us that natural, healthy waters are what salmon thrive on. By doing the things we need to to save salmon, we will save our water, economy, and way of life — the very things that we all enjoy and want to pass on to our children.

Copyright © 1998 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.