|
Soundings
Additional Spawning Grounds Preserved on the Skagit
September 29, 2005
It's fall and the salmon are returning to the Skagit River, one of the nation's healthiest salmon river systems, as well as one of the most amazing, most historic and most ecologically admired success stories.
This success - and it is an award-winning environmental achievement - isn't an accident. It's the result of continuing efforts by Seattle City Light to nurture healthy fish runs and to keep the Skagit River watershed a model for the nation.
In 2003, the Seattle City Council approved legislation authorizing the City Light Superintendent to purchase land along the Skagit River and in the Tolt/Snoqualmie River watersheds to meet goals of the city's Salmon Recovery Early Action Program.
To advance that goal, the council approved Council Bill 115360 in September 2005, accepting deeds to two properties in Skagit County, as well as authorizing the grant of a conservation easement to the Skagit Land Trust on one of the properties. Farmlands, too, are now preserved on those two large parcels.
The newly acquired lands constitute over two miles of shoreline and side channels, habitat for Chinook and Chum salmon and steelhead as well as foraging habitat for migratory bull trout. Preserving this additional spawning ground comes just in time for salmon migration.
The return of the salmon is a spiritual experience. The Chinook salmon arrive first. The run begins the end of August. This year the Chinook run draws smiles. Thousands of the wild salmon are heading up river. One of the giants - 45-pounds at a guess - leaps into the autumn sunshine, trailing droplets that sparkle like diamonds. The healthy Chinook run is one of the long-term benefits of working to ensure that fish can coexist with hydroelectric power facilities on the Skagit. Fish and kilowatts. Here one can see that, with hard work, technical expertise and an eye to the long term, the region can have both power and fish.
The Pink Salmon come next. These fish cycle into the river every two years. This year's return demonstrates the bitter truth that, despite massive efforts, the natural world is a difficult and cruel environment. This year the return is meager. A massive run of more than a million two years ago encountered a flood that ravaged the Skagit and savaged stocks. Here is where we will next place our conservation efforts.
Finally, in the winter weeks and months come the Chum, many thousand of them. As many as 600 bald eagles, no longer a dwindling species, come to feast on the banks of the river, dining on spawned out salmon. Nature has come full circle as the fertile salmon eggs meanwhile are about to hatch another generation.
Purchasing properties along the river helps fulfill the city's commitment to salmon recovery. The salmon that are so much a part of native life and lore, are returning to their birthplace. And, at the same time, those of us who are fortunate enough to live in this incomparable land are enjoying the bounty of two remarkable, renewable resources: salmon and hydropower.
Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden is a former columnist for the Seattle Times and now chairs the Council's Energy and Environmental Policy Committee. You can learn more by going to http://www.seattle.gov/council/ratereview.htm. |
