Land trust names Skagit River most crucial for saving salmon

Land trust names Skagit River most crucial for saving salmon

July 11, 2001, 10:30 AM
King 5
from http://www.king5.com/localnews/environmentaldetail.html?StoryID=22682

SEATTLE, WA – The Skagit River should be No. 1 on the list of rivers to protect in order to preserve salmon in the Puget Sound area, the Trust for Public Land said Tuesday.

The trust, a nonprofit national group that buys land for conservation, sponsored a study evaluating rivers, streams and wetlands in the area to find those that are in good condition and support natural populations of salmon.

"This is one piece of the puzzle ... what is the best salmon habitat remaining," said Roger Hoesterey, regional director of the trust.

"The thought (was), if we're going to preserve the species, let's first protect the areas where they currently live, where they have the highest quality habitat," he said.

The study produced by the Pacific Biodiversity Institute and the University of Montana named 10 key rivers. After Skagit, the rest of the top five were the Skykomish, the south fork of the Nooksack, north fork of the Stillaguamish, and lower Snoqualmie rivers.

They were followed by the Carbon, middle Green, Nisqually and Dungeness rivers and the Kitsap Peninsula's streams.

The Skagit River system – known for its lower reaches flowing through tulip fields and farmland – hosts five species of salmon.

Most of the watershed is in good shape, Hoestrey said, noting that some land in the upper reaches is federally owned and the Nature Conservancy has a large reserve in the lower area.

In general, rivers' upper reaches were cited as being in the best shape. Hoesterey noted that most of the growth has occurred moving out from Puget Sound. Lower sections of rivers support fewer salmon and need restoration work.

The Kitsap Peninsula, however, is an exception.

"That has a lot of very productive salmon streams in the lower reaches," Hoesterey said, "and the Nisqually is that way too. There is not as much development pressure."

Hoesterey said the land trust wants to join with the Nature Conservancy and other similar groups to buy key sections of land.

"Our thought is that if we're going to save the Pacific salmon, one piece of that puzzle has to be land acquisition and land preservation," he said.

Hoesterey acknowledged that salmon make long journeys – from rivers through the sound to the ocean and back – and analyzing the rivers' higher reaches is not the only solution needed. Experts believe that development, logging along streams, dams, overfishing and water pollution are also factors in the salmon's decline.

Puget Sound chinook have been listed as threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act. Other threatened salmon runs include lower Columbia River chinook, Lake Ozette sockeye, Hood Canal summer chum, lower Columbia chum, mid-Columbia steelhead, and upper Willamette River chinook and steelhead.

Listed as endangered – considered closer to extinction than threatened runs – are upper Columbia spring chinook.

The Trust for Public Land can be found here: http://www.tpl.org/

Forests and Fish Forever can be found here: http://www.forestsandfish.com/

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]