The Underground’s Short Casts for 2009-03-11

4 Comments

1. 

   Snowfly March 11, 2009, 8:23 am Reply

   Tom-
   First off I am not a biologist and don’t play one on TV…I’m just someone who enjoys the outdoors and loves to fish. I don’t fish for Salmon, mostly stick with Serra trout (Dam those Truckee trout) but it concerns me to no end that these wonderful fish are seminally going away.

   What I do know about eco systems is they are connected and if the Salmon are in trouble so are many other species that rely on them, including us…just ask the people and families that lost their jobs as a result of this fishery loss.

   My hope is that much smarter people than me will be able to understand the situation and implement a sound strategic plan that is sustainable. My concern is however, the people who are supposed to be in the know; “the experts” never seem to get it right.

   Whether it’s Detroit, Banking, or Wall Street the people we rely on to do the right thing never seem to live up to their end of deal and we are always left to live with their ineptitude…why is that?

   I can only imagine the number of governmental agencies that have some level of jurisdiction over lease Salmon and the waters they live in.

   I’m fearful we will be left standing on the river bank holding our rods, having had the privilege of paying higher license fees just to say “remember when”.

   Any Thoughts…

   Snowfly

     Snowfly(Quote)

2. 

   Tom Chandler March 11, 2009, 11:10 am Reply

   Snowfly: Whether it’s Detroit, Banking, or Wall Street the people we rely on to do the right thing never seem to live up to their end of deal and we are always left to live with their ineptitude…why is that?

   In the case of salmon, it’s not just ineptitude, but economics (or greed). There’s little doubt that water supplies in California are hugely over-allocated, and that’s in a good rain year, which we haven’t seen lately.

   The “right” things to do as far maintaining self-sustaining salmon runs – and all the economic benefits they provide – is to restore habitat and some semblance of normal water flows.

   Still, it appears salmon fishermen lack the political clout of irrigators, water project management and others, so – in increasing amounts – water has been diverted, habitat destroyed, dams built (or not removed)…

   What we’re seeing now is potentially the end game for salmon on California’s and Oregon’s coasts; with climate change looming and the feds apparently willing to play chicken with salmon runs (e.g. the lower Snake dams, the Klamath, etc), a lot of questions about the longterm viability of our salmon runs remain.

     Tom Chandler(Quote)

3. 

   Bjorn March 11, 2009, 3:44 pm Reply

   I think part of it has to do with the immediate gratification we are inclined to… you take water out of a river to flood some rice fields, you see it happening, you see it “working,” but leaving the water there… to so many folks it looks like we are wasting it, like it isn’t being useful, like we have failed in some way if we don’t take it and put it towards some sort of use. The benefit for leaving it there is months away, years away, and only visible to the folks that put there eyes or hands on one of those fish. We build things. We tinker. We take a pretty good flood managment system and we put a river in a straight line, build on it’s banks (or under them), and call it all progress, instead of bending the the laws of nature and the patterns of the fish or the river.

     Bjorn(Quote)

4. 

   Snowfly March 11, 2009, 4:41 pm Reply

   I hope my comments did not come across as naive. I do understand the dynamics and importance of water recourses; especially in California where we are the nation’s number one agricultural production state and in a climate that is semi-arid to boot (I believe a movie was made about that).

   Tom’s comments just hit me as here is another case of they probably won’t get it right. To be truthful I don’t think we even know what right is in these types of cases. Our collective public trust is continuing to be eroded and the morality/ethics bar has been lowered to point we have forgotten how to raise it…we just accept it as is and move on.

   The salmon become the metaphor and in the end they are a footnote in progress. Something historians can document and poets can romanticize about for future generations.

   As we continue to outsource our voices; it will come down to who spends the most, who lobbies the hardest, who’s connected the best, and the winner is…

   Well, it won’t be the Salmon.

   Snowfly

     Snowfly(Quote)