In the wake of bad environmental news, from drought to excess hurricanes damaging North Carolina and Florida, it sometimes helps to have some good news, so here’s a bit. Earlier this year, dams on the Klamath River in California and Oregon were opened, and positive results have been observed:
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – For the first time in 114 years, biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) have observed a fall-run Chinook salmon returning to spawning in the Klamath Basin in Oregon.
On October 16, the ODFW documented this bright, beautiful fish in a tributary to the Klamath River, Spencer Creek, above the former J.C. Boyle Dam.
This is the first anadromous fish — a fish that migrates up rivers to spawn — to return to the Klamath Basin in Oregon since 1912 when the first of four PacifiCorp hydroelectric dams was constructed, blocking migration to historic habitat, according to an announcement from the ODFW. Hopefully, we will see the return of coho salmon and steelhead to the upper watershed soon. [Dan Bacher, Daily Kos]
Chinook Salmon
Source: Wikipedia.
That the fish can return that quickly after a century of inability to reach the area on its own is quite encouraging. However, it still competes against an overpopulation of humanity, and humanity has a long ways to go to reduce its CO2 and methane emissions, other air pollution, the mountains of garbage it produces, the discards which are not recycled, and all the other detritus it generates to the detriment of the balance of the environment in which humanity – and the fish! – live.
It’s well past time for humanity to roll its sleeves up and clean up after itself. After all, one of the victims of its irresponsibility is itself, from ages 1 to 100.
