We are talking about the subject, Can you restore nature that has been altered? in class.... Love my classmates that I respect so much. This is in response to my friend Walter, a wheat farmer from Eastern, Oregon who wondered if rafters have a wilderness experience or not and wonders if preservation is impossible in the end.... Under multi-use rule everyone has a right to use our natural resources-there will never not be conflict when people have to share.Here is my response.... I have spent many summers rafting the Deschutes. Rafters are a unique group for sure. My girlfriends and I used to love meeting rafters on the Clackamas because they werent from our small town. I have enjoyed the wilderness experience that is very different than our backyard facing the Mt. Hood National Forest on the other side of the mountain.You are right that it was more about partying than nature but I still enjoyed seeing the birds and scenery. I think there can be successful multi-use solutions with riparian buffers and the tourists that invade Maupin each summer add to the economy of the area. I have also been on the upper Clackamas with one other person rafting with wetsuits in March. The ride is wild. I personally enjoy the moments in nature when there is not a large crowd. Thank you for discussing an issue that I have spent a great deal of time considering myself. I liked your point that, “You can’t restore something altered.” I have found this true with the warming waters of the Columbia and the Pacific and our inability to stop this trend. At what point do we “give up” and accept the fact that salmon eventually won’t be able to survive in the rivers and oceans of the Northwest? In March of this year the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife predicted that salmon fishing in the ocean and the Columbia River last summer would be great thanks to an abundant run of hatchery coho and a potentially historic return of chinook, according to state fishery managers. Opportunities for anglers also look good in Puget Sound, where another strong run of coho salmon was expected this year. [1] Coho, fall Chinook, and sockeye salmon returned from the Pacific Ocean to the Columbia River in record or near-record numbers this year. The daily count of fall Chinook on September 8 at Bonneville Dam, 67,521 fish, set a single-day counting record at the dam, where counting began in 1938. The fall Chinook run is not as big as predicted by Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife agencies earlier this year, but it still is a strong run. The coho run is well beyond the 2013 return. [2] While their prediction for the Columbia came true, Puget Sound was avoided all together by salmon last summer. It is interesting that none of the reports on the Columbia took in consideration the fact that salmon have fled to the Columbia and to Canada to avoid the warming waters of Puget Sound. A mass of warm water thousands of square miles in size that was five degrees Fahrenheit above average on the surface last summer is being called the blob.” The warm-water blob stretches from New Guinea to the Gulf of Alaska, where the warming is most apparent. Fishermen and researchers are seeing southern species such as sunfish, thresher sharks and skipjack tuna as far north as off the Copper River in Alaska. A lot of factors affect the health of Idahos sea-going salmon and steelhead: habitat and water flows and conditions in the Snake and Columbia tributaries; dams and the passage devices that fish must use to navigate the dams; fishing techniques and seasons; and predators such as seals. But ocean conditions are among the most critical, because the fish spend much of their time maturing in the ocean and the shape of the ocean is largely beyond human tinkering. The remarkable improvement in salmon and steelhead runs in recent years is at least partly due to the favorable ocean cycle. [3] U.S. fishing crews can thank a blob of warm water for their lackluster haul this summer. Specifically, a 100 meter deep layer of warm water that built up due to an extended period of very mild weather over the Pacific Ocean, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research scientist Nick Bond. NOAA is the federal agency tasked with studying the climate, weather and marine life. Most years the Fraser River sockeye salmon run splits on the journey home, with about half journeying up the strait of Juan De Fuca through Washington waters. This year, 99% of the Fraser River salmon took the alternate route, the Johnstone strait around Vancouver Island, avoiding the “blob” of water 1.5-3 degrees Celsius warmer than usual — and evading Washington fishing crews altogether. [4] The legal limit for Columbia water temperature is 68 degrees to protect salmon and steelhead in the mainstem of the river (it’s lower in tributaries and spawning grounds). Over the past two years, Columbia Riverkeepr volunteers found 70-degree water in much of the mainstem. The Clean Water Act has a method of addressing this problem. It’s a process called total maximum daily load (TMDL) that identifies the sources of the problem and then sets a roadmap for reducing those sources so the entire water body meets water quality standards. Regulators started this process by listing the Columbia as an impaired water body more than a decade ago. Salmon like to be in cold water and the Columbia is no longer a cold-water environment. We’re starting to see more warm-water species like bass and pike minnow in the river. They’re happy in the Columbia, and salmon are stressed. Even at temperatures that aren’t reaching that lethal limit, if salmon are stressed, they’re more susceptible to disease and it affects their migration and growth rate. [5] Restoration and preservation should still be a goal. I don’t agree that the Columbia River should be ignored by the federal government with absolutely no funding for restoration when small tributaries in New York are funded. Monitoring and proactive phytoremediation at locations where toxins are being released is needed. We need scientific data to keep up with the changes. There must be a whole system analysis. Record numbers of salmon in the Columbia because they have avoided Puget Sound is not really a success in the long term. The Columbia River Restoration Act [6] is needed if we are to have any hope of adapting to the coming changes. There is no excuse not to monitor the second largest river in the country. Perhaps you are right. We are not preserving to a past condition because it cant be done. We must preserve to adjust to our future conditions. The Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act [7] is needed if we are to have any hope of protecting spotted owls or forests from fires. Stewardship is the answer to preserve our old growth forests and waterways. [1] Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Fishing Report for 2014 wdfw.wa.gov/news/mar0314a/ [2] SALMON RETURNS TO THE COLUMBIA RIVER ARE STRONG IN 2014 https://nwcouncil.org/news/blog/columbia-river-salmon-runs-2014/ [3] Warm water in Pacific could cook Idahos salmon and steelhead (2014, December 2) idahostatesman/2014/12/02/3518941_when-the-pacific-turns-weird-and.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy [4] Warm waters strain shared BC-Washington salmon fishery (2014, September 22) seattleglobalist/2014/09/22/washington-fraser-salmon-fishery-climate-mining/29142 [5] 11 years of warm water in the Columbia River (2011, September 1) opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/11-years-of-warm-water-in-the-columbia-river/ [6] H.R. 5216 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)The Columbia River Basin Restoration Act of 2014 https://govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5216/text [7] Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act (H.R. 1526) naturalresources.house.gov/legislation/hr1526/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:36:10 +0000
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