Swimming with salmon
Maria Thi Mai
On Monday, September 26th I hosted a meeting of regional salmon experts at the Portland Building. The meeting was a great reminder of how connected Portland is to the larger Northwest Region.
From transportation to economics to environmental protection, what we do -- or don't do -- in Portland has a big impact on salmon as well as the rest of the region. All the salmon from the entire Willamette Watershed swim through Portland.
Bob Lohn, the region's top federal salmon recovery official, representatives from Oregon and Washington's governors, the Army Corps of Engineers, state fish and wildlife agencies and others joined me and staff from Environmental Services to chart next steps for salmon recovery for the lower Columbia River/Willamette Rivers.
Salmon are important. The health of salmon populations is a good indicator of the health of Portland's watersheds and environment. Like blood pressure or cholesterol in humans, native fish are one way to evaluate environmental health.
To have healthy salmon in Portland and elsewhere, you need a healthy watershed. To have a healthy watershed, you need salmon. What's more, many federal regulations the city is required to comply with -- many water quality standards, for example -- are designed to protect salmon.
Federal and state leaders gave Portland kudos for our hard work to improve our watersheds. But they also noted that there is more work to do.
State and federal scientists -- with help from city staff -- are trying to forge agreement about goals for salmon recovery -- how many fish, where the fish are, how many young fish survive for each pair of spawning adults, etc. They also are working to create agreement about the most important problems facing salmon so restoration efforts can achieve the greatest possible return on investment.
The state and federal goal is to have a final plan for recovering local salmon in place by December of 2006. A clear strategy for achieving that goal is due before the end of the year.
Portland is following the process closely and participating actively to ensure that local needs remain central in state and federal plans.
To find out where salmon live in Portland, check out http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=77000.
This rainbow trout that was captured (and released unharmed) by city fish and wildlife staff in Errol Creek, a small tributary that flows into Johnson Creek in SE Portland.
Posted by Maria Thi Mai on September 29, 2005
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Filed Under Environmental Services, Good Government, Livability & Environment
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