The Osprey: The Case for Managing Skagit River Wild Steelhead
Throughout last year’s presidential campaign — all the debates, analysis and opinions — I don’t recall hearing anything about wild fish. But it is now apparent that the election of the present administration and its policies have the potential to greatly affect wild Pacific salmon and steelhead conservation. And for the most part, not in a good way.
Here in steelhead country we are already seeing the beginnings of the trouble the Trump Administration may cause us.
It isn’t just salmon and steelhead that may be put at risk by the Administration’s proposed national monument rollbacks. Zinke has said that two marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean should also be shrunk — Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll — to make way for increased commercial fishing.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
• SKAGIT RIVER STEELHEAD
• KOEYE RIVER SOCKEYE
• WILD FISH STRATEGY
• SKEENA VICTORY
• COLUMBIA UPDATE
• MINING & HOT WATER
• STEELHEAD GUARDIAN
And it seems that the Trump Administration is trying to breath life back into the Pebble Mine, a massive, proposed gold, copper and molybdenum mine in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska that produces the world’s greatest runs of sockeye salmon. Conservationists, commercial fishing organizations, local businesses and Native Alaskan groups had been fighting the proposal for more than ten years. When the Obama Administration blocked the mine proposal by denying Northern Dynasty Ltd. the permits it needed to move forward, opponents thought victory had been achieved. But in May of this year, the Trump Administration reversed the Obama ban and will allow the company to apply for the needed permits. That doesn’t make it a done deal, but the battle has been rekindled.
Equally disturbing is the Administration’s hostility to the concept of climate change, something that could have a profound impact on salmon and other coldwater fish in the years ahead and a government that doesn’t care won’t be of much help.
While what may happen over the next three years is uncertain, one thing isn’t — wild fish advocates are in for a rocky ride.