Legacy - January 2015

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Published by: Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy Wild Game Fish Conservation International Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI): Established to advocate for wild game fish, their fragile ecosystems and the cultures and economies that rely on their robust populations.

LEGACY – Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, nononsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their contributions to society and the varied and complex issues impacting them and those who rely on their sustainability.

LEGACY exposes impacts to wild game fish while featuring wild game fish conservation projects, fishing adventures, wildlife art, accommodations, equipment and more. Your photos and articles featuring wild game fish from around planet earth are welcome for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of LEGACY. E-mail them with captions and credits to Jim (wilcoxj@katewwdb.com).

Successful wild game fish conservation efforts around planet earth will ensure existence of these precious natural resources and their ecosystems for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY.

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Founders

Bruce Treichler

Jim Wilcox

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Contents WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook _________________________________________________________ 5 Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk ___________________________________________________ 6  Elly Edwards__________________________________________________________________________________________ 6  Short-term action required in Mount Polley tailings pond clean-up: government ___________________________ 9

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 11  Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby _________________________________________________ 11  Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:___________________________________________ 12  Shopped: Net Closes on Fishy Salmon Labelling _______________________________________________________ 13

Response to WGFCI ______________________________________________________________________________ 15  President Obama: Keystone XL pipeline. _______________________________________________________________ 15

Recommended reading: __________________________________________________________________________ 16  “Great Bear Wild” ____________________________________________________________________________________ 16  The Salmon __________________________________________________________________________________________ 17

Community Activism, Education and Outreach _____________________________________________________ 18  Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register _________________________________________________________ 18  Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________ 19  Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives _________________________________________________________ 20

Salmon feedlots__________________________________________________________________________________ 21        

TAKE ACTION: Organic Fish May Be Coming Soon and it is a Horrible Idea ______________________________ Could Canadian Fish Farms Harm California's Wild Salmon? ____________________________________________ Is there something fishy about the health advice on farmed salmon? ____________________________________ Fish dying without spawning __________________________________________________________________________ Restoring Rivers Inlet wild salmon – remove open salmon farms ________________________________________ Canada Blocks NAFTA Investigation Into British Columbia Fish Farm Impacts on Wild Salmon ____________ It is Time to Advertise! ________________________________________________________________________________ PE01547: Conserving Scottish wild salmon ____________________________________________________________

22 24 28 29 31 32 35 37

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind _______________ 38 Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked _________________________________________________________  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen ________________________________  Washington State Marine & Rail Oil Transportation Study – Preliminary Findings & Recommendations _____  The oil boom in one slick infographic __________________________________________________________________  U.S. cabinet member cites new concern in Keystone XL decision: aboriginal rights _______________________  The Facts about Kinder Morgan _______________________________________________________________________ Coal ___________________________________________________________________________________________________  Train carrying coal derails in downtown Paris __________________________________________________________ Hydropower ____________________________________________________________________________________________

39 39 40 40 41 44 45 45 47

 DON'T LET ORCAS BE DAMMED! _____________________________________________________________________ 47  California dam being removed ________________________________________________________________________ 49  Dikes and dams not always the answer ________________________________________________________________ 51  How Alaska bucked the trend of salmon loss — but that’s in jeopardy ___________________________________ 53  B.C. government approves Site C dam _________________________________________________________________ 55  Chehalis Basin Strategy: Reducing Flood Damage and Enhancing Aquatic Species _______________________ 59  Governor’s Chehalis Basin Work Group – 2014 Recommendation Report _________________________________ 60

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters  Governor Inslee’s response to Chehalis Basin Work Group _____________________________________________ 61  Panel: Dam needed to prevent Washington farmland flooding ___________________________________________ 62  Seismic risk rises at some B.C. dams __________________________________________________________________ 64 Solar __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 67

Wild Game Fish Management _____________________________________________________________________ 68  Oregon license plate money, meant for endangered salmon, instead funds Salem bureaucrat's salary ______ 68  Lake-estuary impasse will be tough to break ___________________________________________________________ 70  3 ANGLERS BUSTED ON TAHUYA FOR SNAGGING, WASTING WILD COHO______________________________ 73  Should U.S. Government Kill Thousands of Birds to Save Salmon? ______________________________________ 76

Wildlife Artists: __________________________________________________________________________________ 82  Derek DeYoung Art: “Dream Double 2” (SOLD) _________________________________________________________ 83  Diane Michelin - Fly Fishing Fine Art: "GET’EM" ________________________________________________________ 84  Dan Wallace: Passion for Authenticity _________________________________________________________________ 85

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses ___________________________ 86  Kingfish West Coast Adventure Tours _________________________________________________________________ 86  Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing __________________________________________________ 87  Spirit Bear Coffee Company___________________________________________________________________________ 88       

Hidden Paths - Slovenia ______________________________________________________________________________ ProFishGuide: Coastal Fishing at its Best ______________________________________________________________ Silversides Fishing Adventures _______________________________________________________________________ UWET "STAY-DRY" UNDERWATER TOURS ____________________________________________________________ Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” _________________________________________________________________ Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 __________________________________________________________________ Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors________________________________

Forward The January 2015 issue of Legacy marks thirty nine consecutive months of our complimentary eMagazine; the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published by Wild Game Fish Conservation International.

As recreational fishermen, conservation of wild game fish is our passion. Publishing “Legacy” each month is our self imposed responsibility to help ensure the future of these precious gifts that have been entrusted for safekeeping to our generation We continue to urge our readers to speak out passionately and to demonstrate peacefully for wild game fish and their ecosystems; ecosystems that we are but one small component of.

Bruce Treichler James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk

 Elly Edwards

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A aerial view shows debris, contaminated water and tailings going into Quesnel Lake caused by the Mount Polley tailings dam breach near the town of Likely, B.C. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014

 Short-term

action required in Mount Polley tailings pond clean-up:

government November 24, 2014 WILLIAMS LAKE - Four months after a torrent of mine water and waste gushed into two southcentral British Columbia lakes, the province says the mine's owner is only at the forefront of a cleanup that is expected to take years.

The B.C. environment ministry released its first progress report Monday into the Mount Polley tailings pond breach, identifying a number of pressing actions that are required to restore the water and land.

Returning the outdoor surroundings to their original state will take years, not months, said Environment Minister Mary Polak as she laid out the long-term goal the government has set for Imperial Metals Corp.

"This is the very, very beginning. And it's not to downplay the efforts that have been made by Mount Polley," Polak said in a conference call with reporters.

"But the scale of the initial disaster is tremendous. We are at the very beginnings of this. It is going to take a long time."

The now-closed gold and copper mine is located about 600 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, near the town of Likely, in the province's Cariboo region.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Polak said she has recently toured the area, and already observed big efforts involving the installation of a stone dyke and "shear amount of earth" that has been moved to address the breach along Hazeltine Creek.

The dam burst on Aug. 4, sending a cascade of effluent into a series of salmon-bearing lakes and streams and initially affecting upwards of 300 residents with a water ban. Water quality tests prompted the warning to be rescinded in the days after the dam burst.

Imperial Metals has reported to the government that about 17 million cubic meters of water and eight million cubic meters of tailings materials discharged into Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake, a substantial increase from its original estimates.

The report identifies as a key concern the upcoming spring snow melt, which will boost the water flow that could potentially push additional mine sediment into the lakes.

Hubert Bunce, the Environment Ministry director for Mount Polley, said the system in place now wouldn't be able to handle what may come this spring.

"The company is aggressively looking at their options to repair the breach that the failed portion of berm, such that it will be able to hold back the freshet flows that would come to it in the spring," he said.

Human health and environmental risk assessments must also be conducted, he said, which involves charting out pathways of potential contaminants for humans or fish.

Polak said she believes the company will deliver on its promises, but said the province hasn't fully handed over trust in the company to do its work without government auditing and a strict call for reporting back.

"We're not shy about telling them when they're deficient and when they have to provide us with further information."

A spokesperson for the mine wasn't immediately available for an interview.

Imperial Metals has said it may make an application at some point to re-open the mine, which Polak said would be fully reviewed by government. Outstanding risks would be weighed in the process of making the tough decision, she said.

"It's a difficult thing to balance. The communities are very conflicted," she said.

"On the one hand there's certainly an importance that they place above all else on their health and the safety of their environment. But at the same time, you have people that are out of work and they're hurting." :

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

 Warning: Eating Farmed Salmon May Affect Your Baby

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Shopped: Net Closes on Fishy Salmon Labelling December 9, 2014

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters New fish labelling laws will force retailers to display more specific information about the provenance of salmon and other fish. The EU Fish Labelling Regulations come into force across Europe on Saturday (13 December). To coincide with the tightened rules, the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture (GAAIA) is launching a consumer campaign called "Shopped: Fishy Salmon Labelling" .

"Buyer beware: salmon is farmed and dangerous," said Don Staniford, Director of GAAIA. "The vast majority of fresh and smoked salmon on sale in supermarkets and restaurants is factory farmed not caught in the wild. Sadly, people are still ignorant about the health and environmental risks of farmed salmon. Fake salmon - even so-called 'organic' and RSPCA certified 'Freedom Food' farmed salmon - should be avoided like a nasty dose of Winter Flu. Say no to artificial colourings, cancer-causing contaminants and 15% fat by giving farmed salmon the fish finger this festive season."

GAAIA will be asking consumers across Europe to support the campaign by visiting retailers to monitor compliance with the new Fish Labelling Regulations. Consumers will be encouraged to take photos and send in case reports showing breaches of the labelling regulations. For more details visit online here "People now possess the power to demand detailed information about the salmon they're buying," continued Staniford. "Consumers wishing to protect their own health as well as the health of the environment and wild fish should steer clear of farmed salmon. Go wild for fish this Christmas by boycotting farmed salmon from Scotland, Norway, Ireland, Canada, Chile, the Faroes, New Zealand, Australia and the United States."

GAAIA wrote yesterday (8 December) to the EC's Director General for Health and Consumers and Director General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries requesting that fish labelling laws be extended further to include artificial colourings (as is already the case in the United States with 'Color Added' labels on farmed salmon fed on Canthaxanthin - E161g - and Astaxanthin), contaminant and chemicals levels; lice-infestation burdens and other environmental information.

In April, GAAIA won a victory in the UK when Tesco were forced to axe an advertising campaign for 'Scottish salmon'. In August, Protect Wild Scotland wrote to the Competition & Markets Authority alleging "systemic failures" in the marketing of farmed salmon.

In October, Wirral Trading Standards ruled that Sainsbury's breached salmon labelling laws following a complaint filed by GAAIA. Last year, Sainsbury's were twice found guilty of breaching advertising laws following complaints filed by the Salmon & Trout Association with the Advertising Standards Authority.

For details on the differences between farmed and wild salmon read Protect Wild Scotland's complaint and backgrounder to the Competition & Markets Authority online here For more information about the health risks of eating farmed salmon read online here For more information about the environmental risks of salmon farming read online here Contact: Don Staniford: 07771 541826 (salmonfarmingkills@gmail.com)

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Response to WGFCI

 President Obama: Keystone XL pipeline.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Recommended reading:

 “Great Bear Wild” Watch introduction HERE For Book Tour schedule please visit: pacificwild.org/site/events/1409757487.html

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 The Salmon

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Community Activism, Education and Outreach

 Stopping Farmed Salmon at the Cash Register

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings “Streaming like wild Pacific salmon” http://wildsalmonwarriorradio.org/

CJSF 90.1 FM is Simon Fraser University's arts, public affairs and indie music radio station!

CJSF strives to provide points of view that are rarely expressed in mainstream media.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives November 25, 2014: December 2, 2014: December 9, 2014: December 16, 2014:

Trans Mtn. expansion, Youth and climate change Burnaby Mountain update, GM salmon Burnaby Mtn. update, Climate vs. capitalism, LNG Westridge Terminal (Kinder Morgan) resistance, Mount Polley mine failure update

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Salmon feedlots

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 TAKE ACTION: Organic Fish May Be Coming Soon and it is a Horrible Idea Right now in the U.S., there is no such thing as USDA certified organic fish. Why? Because organic standards for fish have never been passed.

That may soon change, however. The USDA is getting close to finalizing organic aquaculture production regulations, based upon recommendations from the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).

And what is being proposed — including allowing ocean-based fish farms and the use of wild fish, meal or oil — is a horrible idea. Not only will these standards harm the ocean’s ecosystem, but they will impact the integrity of the organic seal.

In an excellent report called Like Water and Oil: Ocean-Based Fish Farming and Organic Don’t Mix, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) outlines the key reasons why the proposed regulations are flawed and why ocean-based farms are completely incompatible with organic standards.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Here are the main points: * Fish farms at sea pollute the marine environment. Their presence in the ocean alters oxygen levels in the vicinity of the farm, creating lifeless zones, and fish farms discharge pollutants, many of which sink to the ocean floor, reducing populations of bottom-dwelling plants and animals and mobilizing mercury and other toxins that have accumulated in the sediment. * Fish farms at sea pose risks to wild species and aquatic ecosystems. Attracted by feces and uneaten and partially digested feed that flows out of farms, wild fish congregate nearby in large numbers. This not only alters their feeding behavior, but it also exposes the wild fish to diseases and parasites that breed within the confines of the fish farms. * Fish farms at sea cannot prevent escapes. Escaped farmed-fish harm wild fish and ecosystems through the spread of parasites and pathogens. Disease develops in the cramped sea cages and can later infect wild salmon, trout, and eels as escaped fish swimming in oceans and rivers come into contact with wild species. * Fish farms at sea cannot contain or control inputs and outputs. Seawater regularly flows in and out of fish farms, carrying with it unknown substances, some of which are synthetic and prohibited by law in organic production. * Farming migratory fish can never be organic. This statement holds true regardless of the type of system in which they are reared. That is because their confinement in fish farms would curtail their biological need to swim far distances, creating stress. Some migratory species are also anadromous, such as salmon, migrating between freshwater and the ocean during various life stages, a behavior not possible while in containment.

When it comes to farmed-fish, CFS believes that a land-based, closed-loop, recirculating organic system could be possible. Yet, it strongly recommends mandating substantial field-testing to ensure the operational criteria for different types of land-based farms can meet the high standards demanded by the Organic Food Production Act. MY TAKE If you’re slightly confused because you’ve seen organic fish at a restaurant or market, that is understandable. This fish was certified abroad, not from here, and is not recognized as organic in the U.S. Yet, if we soon have USDA certified organic fish in this country, it is imperative that the regulations for fish adhere to the basic principles of organic and be comparable to how animals are raised on an organic farm – 100% organic feed, no pesticides or chemicals, the operations must promote biodiversity, etc.

Unfortunately, it is just not possible for ocean-based systems to be in compliance with the basic principles of organic.

And it boggles my mind why the NOSB continues to take action that weakens the integrity of the organic seal. This is an industry that we should be protecting at all costs, instead of allowing standards to be watered down.

WHAT YOU CAN DO If organic is important to you, please take action and sign the e-petition telling the USDA not to approve ocean-based fish farms. To do so, click HERE.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Dead salmon in the Fraser Rive

 Could Canadian Fish Farms Harm California's Wild Salmon?

December 15, 2014 For the last few years (25), British Columbia has been the site of swirling controversy as biologists charge that salmon farms may be spreading exotic diseases to the province's formerly numerous wild Pacific salmon runs.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

An independent documentary from last year suggested that farmed salmon from the B.C. coast may pose a threat to wild salmon runs in other places, as the viruses that afflict the farmed salmon may survive the journey from fish farm to grocery store to your kitchen sink. The viruses are not considered a threat to human health, but can wipe out wild Pacific salmon stocks. California salmon may also be at risk when they mingle with Canadian wild salmon in the North Pacific.

Editorial Comment: 

The toxic laden fat in BC-raised, Atlantic salmon is in fact harmful to human health.



Premature death of adult wild salmon is harmful to human health for those who rely on wild salmon for subsistence.

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Utilization of forage fish for farmed salmon feed is harmful to human health: 

Removes nutrition from those who rely on these smaller fish for subsistence



Depending on location, some forage fish contain high levels of PCB’s and other toxins that are harmful to human health

The actual level of risk to other runs of wild salmon is unknown, say activists, in part because Canadian officials are obstructing independent scientific investigation of the health of fish in the hundreds of salmon farms in British Columbia. But it's possible that the viruses now afflicting British Columbia's farmed salmon could be spread to California's wild runs through acts as simple as washing salmon steaks in a kitchen sink prior to cooking.

According to the documentary, "Salmon Confidential," government agencies in Canada have allowed hundreds of penned farms for exotic Atlantic salmon to be built along the Johnstone Strait, a narrow passageway between Vancouver Island and the mainland through which the vast majority of the Fraser River's native wild salmon swim on their way to their spawning grounds.

In those fish farm pens, thousands of imported Atlantic salmon (invasive species) are kept in close quarters and fed artificial food, then harvested for the export market. The overcrowding allows parasites and pathogens to spread rapidly through the pens. And though the Atlantic salmon can't get out of the pens, their waste can, filling the Strait with effluent.

Editorial Comment: Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon escape their ocean-based feedlots. They compete with wild salmon for feed as well as spawning and rearing resources while spreading deadly salmon diseases.

As shown in the film, biologist Alexandra Morton and others contend that by forcing B.C.'s wild salmon to run a gauntlet of fish farms and their effluent on their way to (and from) their Fraser River spawning grounds, the fish farms may essentially be infecting the Fraser's wild salmon populations, including sockeye and coho, with some of the most deadly diseases salmon suffer. As a result, say activists, the Fraser's salmon runs have crashed catastrophically, with between 10 and 13 million fish missing in the 2009 runs alone.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Among the ailments found in wild salmon that swim near the Johnstone Strait salmon feedlots are the viral diseases Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a highly lethal pathogen often called "salmon flu"; Salmon Alphavirus, which causes pancreatitis; Salmon Leukemia; and Piscine Reovirus, a newly discovered virus linked to a condition called Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation, in which muscles -- including the heart -- lose their tone.

All of the viral diseases can kill wild salmon, and some have been fingered as likely culprits in mass die-offs of Fraser River salmon before the fish can spawn.

U.S. law forbids the importation of salmon infected with ISA, and several fish farms on Canada's Atlantic coast have been affected by the ban. But as the Canadian government has yet to confirm the presence of ISA in Johnstone Strait fish farms, that farmed Atlantic salmon is still being imported by the United States.

The viruses can remain viable even after freezing, and could conceivably enter the water supply of local salmon streams when purchased fish is washed before cooking. Though the majority of wastewater in California is run through sewage treatment plants before discharge into the state's coasts and rivers, such plants are not always very effective at removing viruses from their treated wastewater. ISA causes infected fish to produce virus-laden mucus, which can remain on whole frozen fish and which would almost certainly be rinsed down the drain by meticulous cooks.

Editorial Comments: Meticulous cooks would NEVER serve Atlantic salmon raised in ocean-based salmon feedlots!

Though the movements of salmon during their oceangoing periods are somewhat of a mystery, it's also very likely that salmon that spawn in California rivers intermingle with Fraser River salmon while at sea. Though most salmon do return to their natal spawning rivers, some do end up in the wrong place and can thus offer yet another way for a virus to spread to previously uninfected streams.

It's unlikely that either a small amount of virus load in urban wastewater or chance encounters with oceangoing salmon from Canada will be quite as effective a vector for viral diseases as forcing millions of Fraser River salmon to swim past hundreds of fish farms. But unlike the healthier runs of the Canadian Pacific coast, California's salmon runs are already teetering on the brink. Even a less effective way of spreading disease could prove catastrophic.

It also seems unlikely that Californians worried about the health of their native salmon runs will get any hard data from the Canadian government anytime soon. On Friday, Canada and Mexico joined forces to block an inquiry under the North American Free Trade Agreement into whether Canada was failing to enforce its environmental laws by letting wild salmon be exposed to parasites and pathogens emitted by fish farms.

The petition to NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a dispute resolution body, was filed in February 2012 by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society, the Kwikwasu'tinuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The groups had asked for a fact-finding inquiry into whether Canada was failing to enforce its Fisheries Act by protecting British Columbia's wild salmon.

"This NAFTA process is supposed to shine light on whether environmental laws are being enforced, but the process has become increasingly politicized and it's clear Canada does not want the facts revealed about the damage to wild salmon from industrial fish farms," said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Until we get some straight answers out of Canada -- if we ever do -- it's just one more good reason to buy only wild-caught salmon.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Is there something fishy about the health advice on farmed salmon?

December 18, 2014 “We have to be absolutely certain that the advice we are getting about the safety of fish farming, both to the environment and to our health, is wholly independent, or it will make a mockery of a people who count The Salmon of Knowledge among their founding myths.”

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Fish dying without spawning December 4, 2014 Pink and orange are normal colors for ripe eggs inside female salmon.

Black isn’t.

But, that’s what Doug Stanger and ARMS volunteers Cliff Olson, and Joe Jurcich found this fall as they tallied spawners in Millionaire and Coho creeks, which empty into the Alouette River.

“Something’s definitely wrong,” says Olson. “What really concerns me is the eggs we found. Most of the fish hadn’t spawned (milt and eggs inside). One female’s were black. Normally, there’d be just a few eggs left in them after a week, and they’d be a light pink or orangey color, not black. I’ve never seen this before.”

In another coho, Olson said the eggs were absolutely white.

“You see white eggs sometimes in the water with a distinct black dot on them, almost like it was done with a paintbrush. You can see the alevin in them, which means they’ve been fertilized, but these were just white with a black dot. You shouldn’t see the eyed egg until it was fertilized. It just can’t happen – fertilized, eyed eggs inside a female that hasn’t spawned. That doesn’t make sense. I’m not a scientist, I can’t explain it. I’ve just opened a lot of fish over time.”

Olson wants an expert opinion for the apparent abnormalities, but struggled for who to call in the DFO – the authority for wild salmon. It’s a big problem with staff cuts, habitat offices closed, and DFO’s policy of not monitoring local streams or escapements. There’s no excuse for DFO not to be on spawning streams this fall and sending reports of abnormalities to government laboratories or documenting the scarcity of spawners.

“To put this in perspective,” says Stanger, last year we’d be finding 25-35 live chum weekly. Our largest weekly chum count to date is eight, but most counts have been zero to two, and the dead fish, mostly unspawned, seem to deteriorate very quickly – in the space of a week. I’ve never seen that before.”

Olson was also shocked by the weak returns.

“The numbers this year are horrendous. I’ve never seen such low returns on both chum and coho.”

Weak returns, abnormal eggs. Were they only found on the north side of the Fraser River?

No, says Doug Gosling, a volunteer stream keeper with the Abbotsford Ravine Park Salmon Enhancement Society. Gosling worries about unusually low fish counts on the river’s south side, too.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “I’m concerned about the same things,” says Gosling. “When a volunteer opened a female, she had the red eggs in her, ready to come out, but they all had black dots in them. The fish hadn’t spawned.

It’s a mystery. I don’t understand it.

It’s also disturbing.

“When we find a female that hasn’t spawned it breaks your heart,” says Gosling. He’s also asked DFO for insight unsuccessfully.

Field officers avoid talking for fear of discipline.

They should be answering the questions of stream keepers. They man the front line now in defense of a resource the public wants sustained.

“They didn’t know anything,” says Gosling. “It’s so unfortunate DFO doesn’t have proper funding [to monitor streams, monitor and study trends.] They’re so skinny on staffing and budgeting.”

Like Olson and Stanger, Gosling wonders why fish died without spawning. All want an explanation for low returns, fish that break down and deteriorate as if they had Ebola, and salmon that lack the stamina to get any distance up streams.

Are the immune systems of chum passing fish farms weakened along with sockeye?

DFO is not protecting chum or coho and their streams.

They’re monitored by their real champions: volunteer streamkeepers.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Restoring Rivers Inlet wild salmon – remove open salmon farms

We need this help in River's Inlet, BC. Our Oweekeno Lake is Glacier Water 45 miles long and it had all species of salmon spawning. River's Inlet employed over 10 thousand people in 24 canneries and many fishing fleets from all over, plus we had a hatchery in 1902 which supplied millions of eggs and fry fish to the West Coastal waters right down to the Fraser River up to Alaska.

We need help in restoration and bringing back to life our lake which is a prime incubation basin field for all species of salmon.

This is in our Spring Pool on the Wannock River. We do the work every year. If we all worked together, the wild salmon species will dominate the west coast again. River's Inlet BC was the third largest Salmon Spawning Species next to the Skeena River and the Fraser River.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

For Immediate Release, December 12, 2014 Contact:

E-mail this page More press releases

Alexandra Morton, (250) 974-7086 Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 499-9185

 Canada Blocks NAFTA Investigation Into British Columbia Fish Farm Impacts on Wild Salmon Decision Threatens Salmon Runs Along Entire Pacific Coast MONTRÉAL A petition by tribal, fishing and conservation groups calling for an investigation into Canada’s failure to enforce laws regulating damage to wild salmon caused by aquaculture operations in British Columbia has been wrongly dismissed by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an environmental dispute body established under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico joined Canada in blocking preparation of a factual record on whether Canada is failing to enforce its federal Fisheries Act by allowing wild salmon to be exposed to disease and parasites from industrial fish farms in British Columbia.

The United States supported a NAFTA inquiry, stating that the process was wrongly terminated.

I am very disappointed that Mexico sided with Canada to block international inquiry into whether Canada has violated its Fisheries Act, said Alexandra Morton, an independent biologist who has helped expose Canada’s failure to protect wild salmon from disease and parasites from industrial fish farms. This politicized decision serves to shield the harmful effects of the Norwegian aquaculture industry from scrutiny. I think one day Canadians will be ashamed that they gave up wild salmon for this industry.

I am deeply disappointed in Canada continuing to put wild salmon at risk, said Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation Chief Bob Chamberlin. This process may have ended but our struggle to safeguard wild salmon will not falter for a moment.

This NAFTA process is supposed to shine light on whether environmental laws are being enforced, but the process has become increasingly politicized and its clear Canada does not want the facts revealed about the damage to wild salmon from industrial fish farms, said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Canada has permitted more than 100 industrial salmon feedlots in British Columbia to operate along wild salmon migration routes, exposing valuable salmon runs to epidemics of disease, parasites, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste. Salmon feedlots are linked to dramatic declines in wild salmon populations worldwide and the spread of lethal salmon viruses and parasites. Scientific evidence of threats to wild salmon swimming through British Columbia waters from fish feedlots has been mounting, as has public concern that feedlots could spread epidemic diseases. These poor aquaculture practices jeopardize the health of every wild salmon run along the Pacific Coast, since U.S. and Canadian fish stocks mingle in the ocean and estuaries.

Since the NAFTA petition was filed, the Canadian governments own Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River issued a final report concluding that salmon farms have the potential for serious or irreversible harm to wild salmon through disease transfer. The commission recommended a freeze on new salmon farm licenses along part of the Fraser sockeye migration route until 2020. Yet in January 2014, without any response to the commission recommendations, Canada opened the British Columbia coast to more salmon farms. British Columbia tribal groups are now forming the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance to demand that the Canadian government fulfill its duty to safeguard wild salmon and the environment.

Background When a country that is signatory to the North American Free Trade Agreement fails to enforce its environmental laws, any person may petition the Commission for Environmental Cooperation for an investigation. Canada’s Fisheries Act prohibits harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat or addition of deleterious substances. In 2012 tribal, fishing and conservation groups submitted a formal petition asking for investigation into Canada’s failure to enforce the Fisheries Act. The petition documented pollutants, viruses and parasites from open-water industrial fish farms that are harming British Columbia’s wild salmon runs. Earlier this year the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation recommended a formal investigation.

More than half a million Atlantic salmon were culled and quarantined in May 2012 in British Columbia fish farms due to a viral outbreak. Recent research shows that a Norwegian strain of piscine reovirus appears to have entered British Columbia around 2007. This virus, known to spread easily and to be associated with a disease that weakens the heart muscles of salmon, has been identified in nearly all farmed salmon raised and sold in British Columbia. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency also revealed recently that there has been no follow-up testing on the deadly ISA fish virus, despite positive test results in samples of British Columbia farmed salmon.

Canada and Mexico claimed to dismiss the NAFTA matter because of pending judicial proceedings that supposedly address the same issues regarding operations and impacts of salmon farms in British Columbia (Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nation v. British Columbia and Morton v. Minister of Fisheries). The petition before the Commission addressed Canada’s failure to enforce Fisheries Act section 35, which prohibits the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat, and section 36, which prohibits the addition of deleterious substances to fish habitat. The First Nation action filed in 2009 challenges Canada’s failure to protect aboriginal fishing rights under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, a separate matter.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The Morton application for judicial review does not involve any arguments about sections 35 or 36 of the Fisheries Act. Rather, it challenges the legality of aquaculture licenses that allow companies to transfer fish with diseases or viruses into the marine environment. Therefore, neither proceeding addresses the concerns raised in the NAFTA petition

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WARNING! HAZARDOUS CONTENTS Industrial Farmed Atlantic Salmon: 

Artificial color and other chemicals added

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Reduced Omega 3’s and other beneficial nutrients

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Toxin loaded fat

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Human health risks – brain development, etc.

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Environmental, economic and cultural impacts

 It is Time to Advertise!

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters I have worked for 25 years to protect wild salmon from salmon farms, publishing science, attending company AGMs, going to court, activism, I was featured on 60 Minutes and I engaged in every government process on this issue. But Canada opened the door to more salmon farms in January and in December vetoed an inquiry recommended by a NAFTA commission into Canada's record on protecting wild salmon from salmon farms.

Meanwhile controversy is boiling over in Norway on the health risks of eating farmed salmon echoed by the premier US news service Bloomberg.

I am a biologist, but I can see no amount of science is going to inspire this industry to clean up enough to protect wild salmon. Wild salmon are declining everywhere they are exposed to farmed salmon. There is a better way, but global corporate deadlock prevents anyone from going first to stop salmon farmers from pouring industrial feedlot waste over some of the last great runs of wild salmon left on earth.

The industry exists alone in the world of advertising and it is now time that consumers get a different side of the story. I have a pledge of $50,000 if I can raise the rest to make a high impact advertising purchase to run a series of ads.

Aquaculture can mature into a viable industry that could actually make food but this will only happen if the consumer demands it. Please consider a donation, no matter how small, and tell your friends, do not eat farmed salmon.

Wild salmon feed the trees that make the oxygen we breathe; our planet needs them.

The power of one is all we have, but we ALL have it. If we want wild salmon it is up to us.

Alexandra Morton

Please Donate Today

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 PE01547: Conserving Scottish wild salmon Petitioner: Ian Gordon and the Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) Status: Open Closing Date for Online Petition: 26 January 2015 Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government (i) in the interests of salmon conservation, and on a precautionary basis, to request Scottish Ministers to use their powers immediately under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 Act to ensure that no Atlantic salmon are killed in Scotland for a period of five years from 2015 if possible, by 2016 if not - by either nets or rods - before 1st July; and (ii) in the case of fishing for salmon by coastal netting, to take such steps as are necessary to bring to an end the exploitation of wild salmon by Mixed Stock Fisheries at any time of year, in line with Scotland’s international commitments and obligations. 

Read Petition background information

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Previous action taken to resolve issue

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Click here for the petition PDF

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked

 Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen Watch video HERE

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Washington

State Marine & Rail Oil Transportation Study – Preliminary Findings & Recommendations

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The final call on the Keystone XL pipeline ultimately rests with President Barack Obama — following a review led by the State Department, with input from other departments. (LM Otero/File/Associated Press)

 U.S.

cabinet member cites new concern in Keystone XL decision: aboriginal rights Obama administration nears completion of Keystone XL pipeline review December 8, 2014

From within the Obama cabinet, there's a new argument being made against the Keystone XL pipeline — and this one involves aboriginal rights.

A U.S. cabinet member has cited aboriginal lands as a concern as her colleagues in the Obama administration near the completion of a review into the Canadian oil project.

The secretary of the interior laid out that concern in an interview. "I think the fact that tribal nations are standing up saying, 'We're concerned about this. We're concerned about water quality. We're concerned about tribal sovereignty. We're concerned about what this pipeline may do for our lands and our rights,' needs to be heard," Sally Jewell said in an interview with MSNBC.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "In my role as secretary of the interior we will make sure there is a platform for those tribal voices to be heard. And I think they will be able to make a very effective case, because they know their lands better than we do."

Last month, a South Dakota tribal leader warned that approving the pipeline would be an act of war.

Sioux Rosebud president Cyril Scott said the pipeline would cross treaty lands and that his people weren't consulted as a sovereign nation.

Pipeline opponents celebrate Jewell's words A Nebraska activist who helped organize the initial campaign against the pipeline described it as a first in the years-long debate -- since the conversation hasn't dwelled much on aboriginal concerns, as opposed to the economic effects, climate concerns, and even ranchers' rights, which have driven the discussion.

"For the past five years, the voices of Native Nations have not been acknowledged in a public and high-level way," Jane Kleeb said in an email Thursday. "They just were."

Shane Red Hawk of the Sioux Tribe from South Dakota, center, rides a horse with other Native Americans, farmers, ranchers and cowboys during the 'Reject and Protect' rally to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline last April. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press) She said the White House has now acknowledged the opposition of both ranchers and tribes, which she called key to stopping the pipeline.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The White House has previously cited a lawsuit involving ranchers as one reason it can't yet make a decision on the route. A small fraction of landowners on the route in Nebraska are still fighting the project, and a decision is expected within weeks by the state Supreme Court.

Final call rests with Obama A decision by the administration could come any time thereafter. The final call ultimately rests with President Barack Obama — following a review led by the State Department, with input from other departments.

The pipeline company, meanwhile, said it was going above and beyond legal requirements to work with aboriginal communities. "Keystone XL does not cross any reservation lands or lands held in trust," said a statement from Mark Cooper, a spokesman at TransCanada Corp.

"However, as part of TransCanada's Native American Policy — and despite the pipeline not crossing any reservation lands or lands held in trust -- we do offer to provide community investment funding to tribal communities for various training programs, education programs, scholarships and work opportunities in their communities."

A bid to force approval of the pipeline made it halfway through Congress, before a bill stalled last month in the Senate.

The issue will resurface in the new year — either through a new piece of legislation when a new Republican majority takes control of the Senate, or through a decision to approve the project by the Obama administration.

In either case, however, the final decision is still Obama's. That's because even a bill on the pipeline, passed by Congress, couldn't become law without his signature.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 The Facts about Kinder Morgan December 9, 2014 Energy giant Kinder Morgan has big ambitions. Best known for its empire of oil and natural gas pipelines, the firm aspires to enlarge its role in coal transport too. Expanding its export terminals in Louisiana and Texas would increase Kinder Morgan’s coal export capacity in the Gulf Coast region from roughly 5 million tons annually in recent years to nearly 29 million tons.

These coal terminal expansions could boost Kinder Morgan’s profits, but they also raise questions about what the projects might cost neighboring communities. The company’s existing coal export operations are well known for blighting neighborhoods and fouling rivers. In fact the company’s track record is one of pollution, law-breaking, and cover-ups.

Download Report Kinder Morgan has been found guilty of numerous violations: 

Kinder Morgan has been fined numerous times by the US government for stealing coal from customers’ stockpiles, lying to air pollution regulators, illegally mixing hazardous waste into gasoline, and many other crimes.

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Kinder Morgan’s pipelines are plagued by leaks and explosions, including two large and dangerous spills in residential neighborhoods in Canada. One hedge fund analyst has accused the firm of “starving” its pipelines of maintenance spending.

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Kinder Morgan was convicted on six felony counts after one of its pipelines in California exploded, killing five workers.

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In Louisiana, Kinder Morgan’s terminal spills coal directly into the Mississippi River and nearby wetlands. The pollution is so heavy that satellite photos show coal-polluted water spreading from the facility in black plumes. The same site generates so much wind-blown coal dust that nearby residents won a class action lawsuit because their homes and belongings are so often covered in coal dust.

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In South Carolina, coal dust from Kinder Morgan’s terminal contaminates the bay’s oysters, pilings, and boats. Locals have videotaped the company washing coal directly into sensitive waterways.

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In Houston, Kinder Morgan’s terminal operators leave coal and petcoke, a highly toxic byproduct of oil refining, piled several stories high on its properties. The company’s petcoke operations are so dirty that even the firm’s promotional literature shows plumes of black dust blowing off its equipment.

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In Virginia, Kinder Morgan’s coal export terminal is an open sore on the neighborhood, coating nearby homes in dust so frequently that the mayor has spoken out about the problem.

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In Oregon, Kinder Morgan officials bribed a ship captain to illegally dump contaminated material at sea, and the firm’s operations have repeatedly polluted the Willamette River.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Coal

 Train carrying coal derails in downtown Paris December 16, 2014 PARIS, Ky. (WKYT) - Crews say it will take months to completely clean up after a train derailment. It caused some train cars carrying coal to fall into a Bourbon County creek.

Paris police think the ground gave way beneath the tracks, causing the derailment in downtown Paris Monday morning. But CSX officials say the cause of the derailment has not yet been determined.

It was a 100-car coal train, but the CSX train lost three of its cars when four of them derailed. As of 6 p.m., one of the cars was still in Stoner Creek and two of them had been removed. The CSX train was traveling from Toledo to Virginia.

"The track is built on what's called a high wall," said Bourbon County Sheriff Mark Matthews. "And it's probably 100 years old or older and just gave way."

Crews say it could take months to rebuild that wall. Officials from CSX, R.J. Corman, emergency management, Environmental Protection Agency and emergency response teams along with first responders have been out there for hours and hours since the train derailment happened at about 3:30 a.m. on Monday.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters After learning two people were on the train at the time but no one was hurt, their focus has been the clean-up process.

"One car is in the creek. They're going to try to drag it across the creek and bring it out on the other side at some point," said Sheriff Matthews. "That seems to be what their plan is."

The sheriff says they won't know how much damage there is to the sewer line below the cars until they are moved.

Crews were initially worried that raw sewage was possibly dumping into Stoner Creek. They say there is now a temporary fix and no sewage was leaked For the EPA, coal is not a concern, but it is a water quality violation so it will be removed.

The R.J. Corman Railroad Group has been heavily involved in removing the cars and coal from the creek. Two divisions are working on scene out of Columbus, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia.

"The biggest concern is two things. The first being the coal that has gone into the water. The Kentucky Department of Water will be able to take care of any concerns with that as far as what needs to be done with it. We also have a main sewer line that has possibly been compromised on the cliff side," said Paris Fire Department Battalion Chief Jeff McFarland.

The sheriff tells WKYT no drinking water has been contaminated in Paris because it is up stream.

There are worries of the spill contaminating places downstream like Cynthiana, but that has not yet been determined.

Police tell us the Main Street bridge over Stoner Creek has been closed for now so crews can move equipment in and out.

Officials with CSX say they are still assessing the damage. They also added that they regret any impact this event may have on the city of Paris and appreciate the quick reaction of first responders.

On Tuesday, four trains were able to come through on other tracks. Over the next three days crews are going to build a road to remove the coal from Stoner Creek. Traffic will not be delayed in anyway.

Officer Don Evans flew over Central Kentucky Monday in SKYFIRST to get a bird's eye view of the train derailment.

Editorial Comment: From the video and photos associated with this article, it appears that: 

the water pressure behind the dam (for drinking water?) could have undermined the bank that support the rail line for approximately 100 years.

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the coal in the creek was being distributed to downstream communities who rely on this water as their source of drinking water

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the impacted communities are fortunate that the train was not transporting Bakken oil, Tar Sands dilbit or other very explosive or otherwise hazardous material.

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it’s fortunate that fishermen were not below this derailment

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Hydropower

 DON'T LET ORCAS BE DAMMED! In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, dams have cut off the main source of food for the remaining, critically endangered Southern Resident orcas who live in the ocean nearby. Since this summer we have lost one baby orca and one pregnant orca, bringing the Southern Resident orca population down to 77. The salmon stocks they eat are falling fast. But it’s not too late.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters YOU can do something about it Please join WDC in acknowledging PacifiCorp for making the right choice to remove four of its dams along the Klamath River, and sign our Letter of Support. We are thanking PacifiCorp for cooperating in the effort to take down these dams, but also urging them to continue to push Congress to pass the Klamath Basin Water Recovery and Economic Restoration Act of 2014 (S.2379), which approves and helps fund the dam removal project.

As has been the case with previous dam removals, taking down these four dams will help the salmon population recover, providing the Southern Resident orcas with a more abundant source of food.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 California dam being removed The built-up sludge behind the dam is going to be left in place, planted with native trees and grasses, and surrounded with a rock berm, which should allow the reservoir to revert to nature once the dam is removed next year.

December 16, 2014 CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — The largest dam removal project in California history hit an important milestone last week with the successful diversion of the Carmel River into a man-made river bed, an engineering feat that experts said was the first of its kind.

The 93-year-old San Clemente Dam has to come down because it was built on an earthquake fault and because the reservoir behind it is 95 percent packed with mud, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

State regulators worried that if the privately owned dam collapsed, homes and businesses downstream would be inundated. But just taking down the dam without removing the built-up muck posed a threat to both property and the 36-mile-long river’s ecosystem, the newspaper said.

With approval from the state and conservation groups, California American Water, the dam’s owner, instead decided to build a half-mile-long channel upstream from the dam so the river could be rerouted around the reservoir and into a creek, a task completed last week.

The built-up sludge is going to be left in place, planted with native trees and grasses, and surrounded with a rock berm, which should allow the reservoir to revert to nature once the dam is removed next year.

“We are playing Mother Nature a little bit,” Bill McGowan, who is managing the $83 million project, told the Chronicle. “We’re moving the river around and essentially building a new river. It’s uncharted waters.”

The land where the 106-foot-tall dam now stands and 928 acres of forest around it is going to be donated to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said California American Water spokeswoman Catherine Stedman.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The Chronicle said the project may become a model for other dam removals in California, which has 1,400 dams that are either no longer needed or in poor condition.

The Carmel River was featured in John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel “Cannery Row,” in which Steinbeck wrote that “the Carmel is a lovely little river. It isn’t very long but in its course it has everything a river should have.”

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dikes and dams not always the answer December 18, 2014 While working for the Skokomish Tribe, I have been involved with the restoration of the Skokomish River Estuary and flood plain. I was fortunate to work with many good people that made the restoration work a reality. It took a broad array of agencies, the Skokomish Tribe, Tacoma Power and Mason County to make an impact on flooding on the Skokomish while restoring the lower watershed.

Taking dikes down, removing culverts, restoring the flood plain were all part of the work.

Key projects included: • Removal of a culvert under Highway 106 with a new bridge span, which reduced upstream floodwater backup into wetlands.

• The complete removal of three miles of dikes and the restoration of 350 acres of estuary in the Skokomish River delta.

• The abandonment and removal of culverts on River Road, which was acting like a dike across the valley, restricting flood flow through a large wetland complex.

• The construction of the Purdy Creek Bridge, an elevated span on Hwy 101 allowed floodwaters to flow underneath it instead of backing up into the mid-Skokomish river valley.

• The removal of the East Bourgault Bridge and road to allow floodwater to flow across and into wetlands.

Combined, these projects resulted in major decreased flood impacts on the Skokomish river valley, all the while increasing fish habitat. In addition, the annual closure of Highway 101 during flood events at Purdy Creek canyon has stopped!

Why am I bringing this up?

Last week’s rainfall in the upper Skokomish watershed was significant and created a large flood in the Skokomish River Valley (only slightly below a major flood). Yet, there was minimal damage. The flooding closed the usual rural valley roads, and surrounded the usual homes, but major damage did not occur. Moreover, within 12 hours, floodwaters mostly drained from the valley. For a flood of this magnitude, in the past, it would have taken three to five days for floodwaters to subside, not 12 hours.

The restoration of the Skokomish Estuary and floodplain has had a significant impact on flooding in the valley. The scope and magnitude of flooding on the Skokomish River needs to be understood in context. Think of all of the rivers in the state and the millions of dollars spent on damages due to flooding. Trying to control flooding with flood control structures, such as dikes and dams, is not always the best option. Working with nature can work just as well.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Reducing constrictions and allowing water to flow in its flood plain has benefited the Skokomish Valley and estuary. As the state ponders the Chehalis dams and setback levies, one has to wonder about the wisdom of trying to control a river that naturally wants to flow.

Opening up the flood plain of the Chehalis River might be a better answer.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 How Alaska bucked the trend of salmon loss — but that’s in jeopardy At a time of wild salmon recovery, Alaskans should heed history as they contemplate the prospect of a Susitna River dam, writes guest columnist David R. Montgomery.

November 23, 2014 THE rivers of the Northwest once teemed with wild salmon, providing nourishment for humans and ecosystems as far inland as the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho and even into Nevada. Today, we see salmon everywhere in Seattle. They are an iconic touchstone of our culture and way of life. But our rivers retain the impoverished legacy of decades of dam construction, habitat loss, excessive harvest and backfired attempts to sustain runs with hatcheries.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Recently, however, successful dam removals on the Elwha, White Salmon and Cedar rivers have resulted in near immediate recolonization by wild salmon in streams they have not inhabited for decades. This has given us all hope for recovery and highlighted opportunities to restore more rivers where obsolete dams block salmon from their habitat.

But a hard lesson to learn has been that it is cheaper in the long run not to destroy salmon runs in the first place. Large hydropower dams, often considered a sustainable source of clean energy, have eliminated habitat in more than 40 percent of the Columbia-Snake River Basin. The remaining salmon run a gantlet of dams, and the fish are routinely loaded into trucks and barges for transport around them.

This hasn’t worked out very well for the fish. The Columbia-Snake Basin is our nation’s most expensive endangered-species recovery program. Federal agencies have spent more than $13 billion in taxpayer and ratepayer dollars and not one of the basin’s endangered fish species has been recovered.

As the final holdout for wild salmon in the United States, Alaska has successfully managed its salmon habitat and fisheries, feeding and providing jobs for communities throughout the region. However, even Alaskan salmon are not immune to threats from new dams. In 2011, the state proposed construction of the first new mega-dam in the U.S. in more than 40 years in the heart of the Denali wilderness on the Susitna River. If built, the Susitna dam would be the second tallest dam in the U.S. and threaten wild salmon, wildlife and a way of life.

In the last three years, the state spent nearly $200 million in public funds supporting this proposed dam, with an estimated price tag of more than $5 billion. I am not an economist, and I don’t have a stake in Alaska’s current fiscal crisis, but as a Pacific Northwest scientist, I am all too familiar with the disappearance of salmon runs following construction of large dams — and how it has played out one dam at a time.

It is a story society is re-creating for the third time. The first was in the 1700s in Europe where overfishing and pollution, combined with dam construction, caused the demise of Atlantic salmon.

Then, in the 1800s on North America’s east coast, dam construction and overfishing reduced onceannual runs of millions of Atlantic salmon, and thriving commercial harvests, down to almost nothing.

Over the past century, we have seen the same pattern of habitat loss and diminishing salmon returns march steadily northward, up our continent’s west coast where salmon are now estimated at just 7 percent of their historic abundance.

So far, Alaska has managed to buck this trend, leaving Alaskan decision-makers and the public that funds them the rare opportunity to maintain profitable and sustainable salmon returns. Currently, the Susitna supports five Pacific salmon species, including the state’s fourth largest run of chinook salmon. While some in the lower 48 states may have never heard of the Susitna River, one thing I know for sure, as we grapple with our own challenge of restoration and recovery, is that wild salmon is a resource worth protecting for future generations.

In an age when dams are coming down, and new, truly renewable energy sources are emerging, will Alaskans repeat the dismal history of salmon elsewhere in the world? Or will they make the difficult, but wise, decisions to balance the forward march of progress with the natural requirements of sustainable salmon runs?

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Artist's rendering of the proposed Site C dam.

 B.C. government approves Site C dam December 16, 2014 Related article

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters VICTORIA – The B.C. government has given final approval to build the massive Site C hydroelectric dam in the province’s northeast.

The decision, announced Tuesday by Premier Christy Clark and Energy Minister Bill Bennett, gives the green light to the largest project in the province’s history at a cost of $8.775 billion dollars, and sets the stage for a series of legal showdowns with First Nations and opposed local landowners.

“The government has made a decision to proceed with building the Site C project,” said Bennett.

“What has driven me as the energy minister over this last year and half is what’s best for the ratepayer of British Columbia, how can we acquire the power we need at the least cost possible? And the answer turned out to be the Site C project.”

The announcement came with confirmation the project’s costs have already escalated more than $800 million above the 2010 $7.9 billion budget. Government attributed the cost increases to reverting from the harmonized sales tax to a provincial sales tax, as well as larger inflation and interest costs due to a decision to delay construction to summer 2015.

The project’s core budget is now $8.335 billion, with an additional $440 million “project reserve” account for unexpected costs during the eight-year construction schedule.

The Site C dam will be located on the Peace River near Fort St. John. It’s expected to generate 1,100 megawatts, or enough clean electricity to power 450,000 homes annually, and have an operational lifespan of more than 100 years.

Editorial Comment: Electricity produced via generators in dams sited in rivers is not environmentally “clean”

“It’s big, it’s expensive, it’s a huge project, but it’s eight per cent of the total electricity needs required in the province,” said Bennett.

BC Hydro has said the new dam will play a crucial part in meeting a forecast 40 per cent increase in the demand in electricity over the next 20 years.

“We’re using a whole lot more electricity today than we did even five years ago with PVRs, big screen TVs, cell phones and everything we tend to charge up on a regular basis,” said Bennett.

B.C. has some of the lowest residential and commercial rates in North America, but it needs to make investments in clean energy to continue that “competitive advantage” and keep rates low, said Bennett.

The government’s plan to raise residential Hydro as much as 28 per cent over the next five years remains unchanged by the decision to build Site C, because the dam’s costs won’t be recovered through electricity rate hikes until construction is finished in 2024.

A joint environmental review panel in May concluded Site C was the best and cheapest alternative for new energy in the province, but also warned of significant environmental impacts and cautioned that BC Hydro hadn’t adequately proven the project should proceed at this time.

The reaction to the Site C announcement from First Nations was swift.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “This is an ill-advised and incredibly stupid decision the province has made regarding the Site C Project,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.

"BC Hydro has failed to make its case in terms of future energy demands and have not adequately outlined an economic business case for construction and repayment of the most expensive capital project in the history of BC.,” he said.

Phillip also stressed the government was moving ahead without Treaty 8 First Nations free, prior and informed consent.

The Doig River, Prophet River, West Moberly and McLeod Lake bands — all members of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association — have already launched federal court action to quash Ottawa’s approval of the project.

The First Nations have said they also plan a similar move in B.C. Supreme Court against the provincial government.

The First Nations Summit also denounced the Site-C decision.

“As we have said time and time again, to both government and industry, the necessary consultation standard for any development project in B.C., especially those with such a high potential for negative impacts, such as Site-C, must be to seek the free, prior and informed consent of each and every First Nation whose Aboriginal title and rights will be impacted”, said Grand Chief Edward John, a member of the FNS political executive.

Construction will require flooding almost 5,500 hectares of land in the Peace Valley, over 83 kilometres, from Fort St. John to Hudson’s Hope. Local landowners, whose property would be displaced by the flooding, have challenged Ottawa’s environmental approval project in federal court and argued the project will destroy valuable agricultural land.

Bennett said none of the local nations have accepted government offers but he remains hopeful they will see benefits to participating in the project.

Site C has a “unique advantage” in being the third dam on the Peace River, because it can take advantage of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam’s much larger reservoir to hold additional water and generate 35 per cent of the that dam’s power with only five per cent the footprint at Site C, said Bennett.

“It puts Site C in a position, from a competitive view, that it is next to impossible for any other option to compete with it,” said Bennett.

“But it is the last one and we don’t have any other shelf ready Site Cs hanging around out there where you have a river already dammed up and the opportunity to avail yourself of such a large reservoir.”

The government’s approval of Site C effectively rejects a push by B.C.’s private power producers, who had argued they could provide the same capacity as Site C for less cost by using several smallscale independent power projects throughout the province, such as wind farms, run-of-river hydro and biomass. That approach would have required BC Hydro to enter into numerous multi-year independent power pricing deals.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Site C will save an average of $650 million to $900 million per year compared to independent power projects during the first 50 years of the dam’s life, the government said Tuesday.

Bennett said private power will still provide a “very significant” role in future BC Hydro power needs, because the province will not be building any new hydroelectric dams in the future after Site C is complete.

“There won’t be any other major dams constructed in this province, there will have to be other ways to supply new electricity and that’s where the renewable sector will come in,” he said.

Simply using natural gas to power electrical plants is not acceptable because even though gas is cheap now the long-term price is unknown and the public would prefer a clean green option like hydroelectric dam, said Bennett.

IPPs aren’t as reliable as a dam, said Bennett. “Even on the coldest darkest days and nights and even… somewhere else in the province where they need their air conditioners running, that power will come from Site C,” he said.

The cost of Site C’s power is expected to be as high as $67 a megawatt hour compared to $130 per megawatt hour for independent power projects, said Bennett.

“The cost of electricity from Site C is still far below what any other option showed us in our deliberations over the past year,” said Bennett.

B.C. Hydro currently generates more than 43,000 gigawatt hours of electricity each year to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Almost 90 per cent of the Crown power corporation’s electricity comes from hydroelectric plants.

Paul Kariya, executive director of Clean Energy BC, called the Site C approval a "very difficult decision" for the provincial government and said it took courage.

However, he added he was disappointed clean energy was not chosen as an alternative to Site C, and was eager to find out what role clean energy players would play in B.C.’s future energy plans.

Clean energy producers include run-of-the-river hydro projects, wind and plants that burn wood waste to produce electricity.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Chehalis

Basin Strategy: Reducing Flood Damage and Enhancing Aquatic

Species

Editorial Comment: This report is obviously biased in favor of building a multipurpose dam in the headwaters of the Chehalis River (just upstream from Pe Ell).

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Governor’s Chehalis Basin Work Group – 2014 Recommendation Report Our Recommendations: The Governor’s Work Group, in consultation with the state agencies and the Flood Authority, recommends an integrated package of flood-damage reduction and aquatic species restoration including: 1. Initiation of the permitting process for a concrete flood retention structure on the upper Chehalis River, paired with improvements to the Chehalis-Centralia Municipal Airport Levee.

This will include development of a project-specific mitigation plan to address impacts from a dam, with a recommendation about whether this structure should also include the ability for flow augmentation to be made in 2015.

2. An unprecedented Basin-wide effort to restore aquatic species and reverse the decline of Spring Chinook, including restoration of over 100 miles of Spring Chinook spawning and rearing habitat, repair of priority fish passage barriers, restoration of off-channel habitat for aquatic species, and a comprehensive strategy to address bank erosion. The restoration effort needs to start immediately and be completed within 15–20 years, and maintained adaptively over the long-term, to ensure effective restoration for aquatic species in the Basin.

3. Continued investment in the highest-priority, smaller-scale flood-damage reduction projects including raising homes, and floodproofing businesses and public structures, with an emphasis on projects with multiple benefits.

4. Local governments’ land use management actions to protect remaining floodplain function, alongside floodproofing to provide additional protection for residents and structures that are already located in harm’s way.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Governor Inslee’s response to Chehalis Basin Work Group

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A calm and low South Fork of the Chehalis River flows past farmland in Lewis County, Wash., Dec. 2. Seven years ago on the date, the river was flooding, drowning scores of livestock. A panel says a dam is the only way to prevent another disastrous flood.

 Panel: Dam needed to prevent Washington farmland flooding A group appointed by the governor says a dam is the only way to control flooding on the Chehalis River in southwest Washington.

December 2, 2014 A new dam on the Chehalis River is the only way to guard against another massive flood, like the one in 2007 that drowned scores of livestock and washed at least two southwest Washington dairies out of business, according to a governor’s study group.

Washington State Dairy Federation executive director Jay Gordon, a group member, said the sixmember panel searched for alternatives to a dam, which has already drawn opposition.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “If anybody’s got any other options, we’d like to hear from them,” said Gordon, an Elma dairyman whose own farm was one of 19 dairies that flooded seven years ago.

The Chehalis Basin Work Group submitted a report Nov. 25 to Gov. Jay Inslee recommending the state fund more environmental and engineering studies on building a flood-control dam 3 miles south of Pe Ell in Lewis County.

The work group also recommends restoring fish habitat, and replacing culverts and other barriers to enhance fish runs. The group asserts the river could have more fish than ever, even with a dam.

The work group has requested $52.8 million to keep studies and relatively small flood-control and fish-enhancement projects going for the next two years.

The work group estimates that a dam and fish projects could eventually cost $500 million to $600 million.

In a letter back to the work group, Inslee said he supports small flood-control and fish enhancement projects while a dam is studied. He stopped short of endorsing a dam or pledging to include funding in his 2015-17 budget proposal.

A governor’s spokeswoman said Inslee is still considering the work group’s funding request.

Gordon said more studies need to be done before anyone can commit to supporting a dam. “I don’t think any of us are endorsing a dam. We don’t have enough information,” he said.

The Quinault Indian Nation has vowed in the past to oppose a dam on the Chehalis River, arguing it would block salmon and damage spawning habitat. Calls to tribe officials for this story were not returned.

The 125-mile Chehalis River originates in the Willapa Hills and flows north, east to Chehalis and north again before turning west and emptying into Grays Harbor.

The river has often flooded farmland. Gordon said his grandfather coped with flooding on the family farm in the 1930s.

The flood of 2007 was particularly devastating. The waters rose quickly and reached levels never before recorded. Interstate 5 was underwater.

Flooding was most severe on the upper Chehalis River. Gordon said at least two dairies never recovered. Two others survived thanks to cows donated from other dairies.

Even if Inslee and state lawmakers support more studies, a dam could be five to eight years away from being finished, according to the work group.

According to the study, one option would be to build a dam that has one function: hold back the river when there is a danger of flooding.

Another option would be a dam that creates a reservoir and releases water in the summer to help fish.

Gordon said a dam, whatever the type, would have to be built in tandem with improving fish runs.

“This isn’t going to be your grandpa’s dam. It can’t be,” he said.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A $10-million BC Hydro study that helps better understand risks from a major earthquake has increased the hazard level of dams on Vancouver Island. The John Hart dam on the Campbell River system is among those dams.

 Seismic risk rises at some B.C. dams Six-year BC Hydro study gives better understanding of earthquake impact December 5, 2014 BC Hydro will draw down the water level at an Interior dam and offer to buy 11 homes in the path of a Vancouver Island dam in response to a $10-million study that has better identified major earthquake hazards.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The study, which took six years and involved 25 international experts, used the latest scientific information on earthquakes and applied methods created by the U.S. nuclear industry to determine seismic risks.

The 3,500-page, four-volume report, Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis, determined the hazard from a major earthquake was the same or lower than previously understood at power dams on the Peace River system in northern B.C. and the Columbia River system in the Southern Interior.

But it also found an increase in seismic hazard risks on the Campbell River system and the Jordan River system near Sooke, both on Vancouver Island. The seismic hazard has also increased on the Bridge River system near Lillooet in the Interior.

BC Hydro officials stressed the province's hydro dams are safe given the new information, but it is important to prepare for the possibility of a major earthquake, the kind that could happen once in 1,000 years.

Officials also said the study will help them better prioritize spending of $1.9 billion earmarked for seismic and safety upgrades in the next decade, $700 million of that targeted for Vancouver Island.

The new information does not affect Hydro's existing plan for electricity rates to homeowners, businesses and industrial users.

BC Hydro also plans to make a major effort to reach out to the public and First Nations about how to prepare for the consequence of a dam break in the event of a major earthquake, which includes having a plan to get out of the path of the ensuing flood or to high ground. "It's pretty much a landmark study ... It's excellent, world leading work. It's been all scientifically peer-reviewed, poked at and prodded, so we are sure we have the best possible science to support decision making going forward," said Chris O'Riley, BC Hydro's executive vice-president of generation.

"We see this as an opportunity to have a larger conversation with the public around emergency preparedness, particularly on Vancouver Island. The seismic risk is real. It's something we live with every day," he noted.

The study found the Jordan River system on Vancouver Island near Sooke has the highest seismic hazard in B.C., possibly in Canada.

BC Hydro has concluded it is not feasible to reduce the reservoir level because the water is needed to produce power at peak times for the Victoria area. Nor was it deemed practical to rebuild the dam system, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

That's why Hydro decided it would offer to buy the 11 homes in the flood path of the dam, to reduce the consequence of a failure, said O'Riley.

The Crown corporation's plan also includes lowering the maximum reservoir level by 16 metres at the LaJoie dam on the Bridge River system near Lillooet in the Interior. That will take the load off the dam and diminish seismic risks to an acceptable level, said O'Riley.

The lower reservoir level will affect Hydro's generation capacity, but not significantly.

BC Hydro already has an upgrade plan underway on the Campbell River system, where an increase in seismic hazard was found.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The first stage, which broke ground this fall, is the $1-billion replacement of the John Hart generating station. That project will take three to four years, but will allow the reservoir level to be lowered and more detailed seismic upgrades to take place on the system in the next 10 to 20 years.

The new study allowed BC Hydro officials to decrease the uncertainty of their modelling results and better understand the level of ground motion that would take place at dam sites throughout the province when a major earthquake takes place.

A key finding of the study was that a major earthquake triggered at the Cascadia subduction zone off B.C's coast - where the ocean plate is pushing underneath North America's continental plate - will cause longer ground shaking than understood previously.

A 2013 study by Royal Roads University, the Geological Survey of Canada, the University of B.C. and the University of California concluded the Pacific coast has experienced 22 major earthquakes over the past 11,000 years and is due for another.

Researchers said there is evidence the last major earthquake from this zone took place around 1700.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Solar

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Wild Game Fish Management

ď ś Oregon

license plate money, meant for endangered salmon, instead funds Salem bureaucrat's salary December 2, 2014

Spend a little more to put an Oregon salmon license plate on your vehicle, and your money is supposed to directly benefit the iconic fish.

One state agency promised to use the money exclusively to undo roadblocks impairing salmon streams across Oregon. Culverts, the drains that carry creeks beneath roads, frequently stop salmon migration to rearing habitat.

But that promise is being broken, The Oregonian found.

Since 2013, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board hasn't spent a cent of salmon plate money on fixing road impacts.

Instead, drivers have paid the salary and office expenses of OWEB's small grants administrator in Salem. Drivers are also set to pay for a $150,000 website improvement to make it possible to apply online for grants from OWEB, another project that won't retrofit a single culvert.

Across Oregon, nearly 32,000 people have salmon plates on their cars and trucks. They pay an extra $30 every two years to buy or renew them. When the plate was created in the late 1990s, the state had just begun developing plans to help salmon recover from the brink of extinction. The plate was a small way for drivers to help.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Since then, plate fees have raised more than $9.5 million, divided equally between OWEB and state parks.

State parks have used the money on dozens of restoration projects.

State law allows OWEB to spend the money on a range of watershed conservation activities. But online, drivers considering which plate to buy were promised that OWEB would send their money "directly to projects that address road-related impacts to salmon and trout streams."

That hasn't been happening.

Renee Davis, OWEB's deputy director, said the idea to fund staff salaries with salmon plate money didn't come from her agency but from the state Legislative Fiscal Office, which advises the state Legislature on budgeting.

Even if the money isn't going to projects in the field, Davis said: "I think that it is doing good and it's directly related to the expectation of those investments around conserving water quality and habitat."

Davis said the online reference hadn't been written by her agency and would be corrected after The Oregonian's inquiry. It has since been changed, now promising the money will be "granted by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to activities that support the restoration and protection of watersheds, native fish and wildlife, and water quality."

But even that new promise is misleading, suggesting that drivers' money will be awarded as grants when it's being used for staff salaries and a website project.

Terry Thompson, a former state legislator from Lincoln County who authored the 1997 bill creating the salmon plate, said the money was meant for projects on the ground, not a Salem bureaucrat's salary. He was infuriated to hear how the money was now being spent.

"That wasn't what it was designed to do at all," Thompson said. "If they're going to do that, I'll go to the Legislature and get them to fix it."

There are signs the plate's popularity is waning. Of the 11 percent of Oregon drivers with specialty plates, far more now choose the state's Crater Lake plate, which benefits the national park. That plate requires drivers to pay only a one-time $20 surcharge, not the recurring $30 fee for salmon plates.

Thompson said he's proud to have a salmon plate – COHO 1 – on his pickup. But not all fish advocates are as enthusiastic.

Jim Myron, a Native Fish Society lobbyist, doesn't have one. He said he'd rather spend the money supporting environmental groups. "There are more important things for me to be spending my money on," he said.

Steve Pedery, conservation director at Oregon Wild, doesn't have one, either. He said it's well known that the state was using salmon plate revenue to paper over declining lottery revenue instead of finding a new source, a practice known as back-filling.

"There's this hocus pocus in the budget," he said. "It's something anyone who cares about salmon should be frustrated by."

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A runner circles Capitol Lake

 Lake-estuary impasse will be tough to break December 11, 2014 Capitol Lake sits at the center of a years-long debate over a complex public policy issue in Olympia: Should it remain a lake, or be restored as an estuary?

A new report says collaboration among key players is the best way to find a solution for managing the 260-acre man-made reservoir.

However, collaboration will be difficult at best with the estuary camp wanting the Fifth Avenue Dam removed and the lake supporters wanting it to stay, the report went on to say.

The two groups’ dueling science and financial cost estimates for the lake-estuary options are other barriers to collaboration.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A neutral facilitator respected by both lake and estuary advocates will be needed, if talks between the key parties are to bear any fruit, the report added.

Capitol Lake was created in 1951 as a reflecting pool for the Capitol. However, the lake keeps filling up with sediment from the Deschutes River at a rate of about 35,000 cubic yards a year. The sediment accumulates at the Fifth Avenue Dam and causes problems with water quality, flood risks and invasive species. The area was previously an estuary where fresh water from the river mixed with the saltwater of Budd Inlet.

The lake is owned and maintained by the state. Dredging has been proposed as one way to restore the lake’s health and prevent it from becoming a freshwater marsh.

However, Olympia leaders want more authority and input to address the lake’s impact on the environment and local economy.

To help break the impasse, the state Department of Enterprise Services hired the William D. Ruckelshaus Center to conduct an assessment of the lake’s management. The center bills itself as “a neutral resource for collaborative problem solving” and is a joint effort between University of Washington and Washington State University.

The center presented its findings at a meeting Thursday on the Capitol Campus between the State Capitol Committee and the Capitol Campus Design Advisory Committee.

From August through November, the center’s staff interviewed 44 people from a range of backgrounds. Participants included local and state elected officials, city staff, everyday citizens and leaders of non-profit organizations.

Chris Page, project leader with the center, said interview participants generally agreed on upholding environmental values such as good water quality, healthy fish and wildlife habitat, long-term sediment management and cost-sharing measures.

The center recommends that stakeholders develop a “hybrid solution” that incorporates lake and estuary features into its design.

“Most expressed some optimism for a collaborative process,” said Page, noting that the assessment is only a guide for moving forward. “One theme we heard over and over again is that someone needs to step up and make a decision.”

Another recommendation calls for a third-party, scientific review of a state Department of Ecology computer model that concludes the dam and lake impair Budd Inlet water quality. Lake advocates have challenged Ecology’s findings, but Ecology officials have stood by their study.

Respondents offered varying views on how to best maintain the lake’s aesthetics while boosting its recreational value, Page said. However, the center reports that people are still polarized over topics including dam removal, long-term management costs and the effect on downtown businesses.

Money is also an issue. Some interviewees expressed support for establishing a tax district or local funding mechanism for lake management, Page said.

“Whatever long-term management option is chosen will cost money that is not available,” Page said.

“Federal funding may be available depending on the path forward.”

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Names on the assessment’s interview list included Olympia Mayor Stephen Buxbaum, Tumwater Mayor Pete Kmet, Thurston County Commissioners Sandra Romero and Karen Valenzuela, Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, District 22 State Reps. Sam Hunt and Chris Reykdal and District 22 State Sen. Karen Fraser.

Buxbaum said the long-term solution should be based on long-term management of the entire Deschutes Watershed, and not just Capitol Lake.

“My own personal imperative is to try to bring people together,” Buxbaum told The Olympian. “The city of Olympia has some limited influence, but no authority over what happens with the lake. That’s why it’s really important for me to try and focus on solutions that are going to be the most durable.”

The center’s report will be fact-checked and finalized by Dec. 19, according to staff. The Department of Enterprise Services will then post the report online. The department has also requested $350,000 for the next biennium to pursue recommendations from the center’s report.

Michael Kern, director of the Ruckelshaus Center, said Thursday that any type of timeline for progress is difficult to narrow down. Kern referred to a quote about such projects where the desired criteria is “fast, cheap and good” and you can pick two of those criteria, “but you can’t have all three.”

Editorial Comments: Capitol Lake reservoir has a long history of providing local and regional recreational opportunities – these are no longer available due to pollution, diseases, invasive species, sediment load and more.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 3 ANGLERS BUSTED ON TAHUYA FOR SNAGGING, WASTING WILD COHO October 24, 2014

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Three men are in trouble — apparently yet again — after being caught with dozens of skeins of eggs allegedly stripped from bright wild coho they snagged out of a closed stretch of a Hood Canal river.

And then left the fish to waste.

Washington game wardens say they cited the trio on the Tahuya River, which at the time was running very low but full of nice fish, creating ideal conditions for snaggers to take advantage of holed-up salmon.

If WDFW’s allegations are true, it appears they thought they could collect a stash of eggs for winterrun steelhead fishing later this year, but with poor angler behavior on the Tahuya in recent falls — not to mention a slowly recovering salmon run — officers have been monitoring the river more closely.

Last week trail cam images told Officer Jeff Summit that three men had headed into a section of the southwest Kitsap Peninsula river open for fishing but closed to retention, according to a WDFW post on Facebook, so he waited for them to return.

Half an hour later they came out with rods rigged for salmon, and when asked what they had been up to, said they’d been catching and releasing fish, according to the agency’s writeup.

The Tahuya from the North Shore Road Bridge upstream 1 mile to what’s known as the Steel Bridge is open in October for up two coho a day in October, but the waters above the Steel Bridge aren’t.

Summit wasn’t quite convinced it had been a C&R outing. The officer asked one to open his backpack for an inspection.

“The subject became very nervous and attempted to conceal the contents multiple times, unzipping the same compartment repeatedly,” WDFW reported.

When the angler was finally able to figure out how to operate his pack correctly, Summit allegedly discovered three gallon-sized ziplock bags full of salmon eggs.

He marched the men back to the Tahuya and had them retrieve 16 of 20 coho carcasses allegedly tossed into the forest and log jams in the river.

“In my 20 years as a game warden, I don’t recall anyone taking eggs and discarding the carcasses like that,” said Summit’s sergeant, Ted Jackson.

The thing is, if they snagged 20 coho hens, how many bucks did they also hook in the back, tail, side?

As if somehow it could explain away the sickening wastage, the three claimed to be “avid” steelheaders who were just going to use the eggs for bait, according to WDFW. As an editorial aside, an “avid” angler is one who actually cares about the resource, who doesn’t waste fish, who only takes what they’re going to eat, who gives back to the fish and habitat, who packs out litter, who pays attention to a water’s issues, who educates others.

And who doesn’t break fishing laws.

That doesn’t appear to be the case here. The trio are frequent customers of local game wardens’ citation books, having been written up “multiple times for numerous fish and wildlife violations,” according to WDFW.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters This episode added several more to their rap sheet — second-degree trespassing, failure to submit to a field inspection, possessing salmon eggs without the carcass of the fish, first-degree overlimits, retention in a closed area, snagging and wastage.

I’d add the word wanton in front of wastage.

“I was surprised — discarding such good meat,” said Jackson of the still-fresh-from-the-salt coho.

Sadly, there was no food bank in the area to take the fish, he said, so they had to be disposed of.

No doubt the trio have more rods, but at least those used in this alleged crime were seized.

Besides issues of littering and trespassing, which led to a landowner on the river shutting down access to their property, WDFW is also focusing law enforcement on the Tahuya because it is home to federally listed summer chum salmon. Once extinct in the stream, the run is slowly recovering thanks to a unique hatchery program using eggs from fish collected on the nearby Union River.

Summit’s work drew widespread praise on WDFW’s Facebook page, and the case was noted on several local fishing forums.

Jackson hopes the Mason County Prosecutors Office follows through on charges.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Should U.S. Government Kill Thousands of Birds to Save Salmon?

A growing trend in killing some species to protect others is drawing opponents.

November 18, 2014 EAST SAND ISLAND, Oregon—Alexa Piggott is crawling through a dark, dusty, narrow tunnel on this 62-acre island at the mouth of the Columbia River. On the ground above her head sit thousands of seabirds. Piggott, a crew leader with Bird Research Northwest, is headed for an observation blind from which she'll be able to count them.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters It's September, and the low-lying island is relatively quiet. Most of the fledglings and their parents have left, and only a few thousand pelicans and cormorants remain. But in the spring, 60,000 birds come here to nest. East Sand Island is home to the largest breeding colony of Caspian terns in the world and the largest colony of double-crested cormorants in North America—nearly 15,000 pairs.

That's too many cormorants, says the U.S. government. Starting next spring, it proposes to shoot more than half of the iridescent black birds, on the grounds that they're eating too many fish.

The cormorants eat mostly anchovies—but they also dispatch as many as 20 million salmon and steelhead trout smolts every year. The nesting season of double-crested cormorants on East Sand happens to overlap with the migration of the juvenile fish down the Columbia to the Pacific.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "They're eating over 6 percent of all the wild steelhead that are passing through the lower Columbia River," says Ritchie Graves, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They also consume more than 2 percent of the yearling chinook salmon.

Besides being commercially valuable, both fish are on the Endangered Species List, and that's what's forcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to act. The corps owns and manages East Sand Island; indeed, it created the bird colony when it expanded the island with dredging spoils back in the 1980s.

Last summer the corps announced a proposal to kill 16,000 double-crested cormorants on the island over a period of four years. It also proposes to remove enough sand to inundate the nesting area of the cormorants, so that birds that leave won't come back. The goal is to reduce the double-crested cormorant population on East Sand Island to about 5,600 breeding pairs.

The move is part of a growing trend toward what wildlife managers sometimes call "lethal control"— killing one species of animal to protect another.

Lethal control of natural predators "is slowly becoming a dominant conservation strategy," says Michael Nelson, a professor of environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University, in Corvallis. "We are embracing this as the first line of defense."

As the strategy is playing out at local levels, it is drawing opponents. That includes Piggott, who is dismayed by the corps' plan to shoot cormorants.

"We have built a level of trust between the researchers and the birds that nest around the blinds," she says. "It makes me sad and angry that we are breaking this relationship and using the blinds against the birds. They have no idea what's coming."

This juvenile double-crested cormorant lives on East Sand Island.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Picking Species to Save For most wildlife managers, lethal control is probably an uncomfortable choice, but it's one they're finding themselves forced into more often these days—forced by humanity's expanding impact on nature to meddle with it some more. "With society having a bigger and bigger footprint, [the practice of lethal control] can only increase," says Michael Scott, an ecologist at the University of Idaho, in Moscow.

Climate change, which causes animals to move into new ranges and interfere with one another in new ways, can only exacerbate the dilemma, says Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland. "How much manipulation of these species do we want to do to protect one from another?" Sallinger asks.

We already do quite a lot. Starting in the 1970s, thousands of brown-headed cowbirds were killed in Michigan to keep them from invading the nests of endangered Kirtland's warblers. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began killing up to 3,600 barred owls in Washington, Oregon, and northern California to save northern spotted owls.

In Idaho and Nevada, meanwhile, human encroachment on sagebrush habitat has boosted populations of the common raven at the expense of the imperiled greater sage-grouse. In a landscape devoid of tall trees, power line and communication towers now provide perches from which ravens can swoop down on sage-grouse nests and eat the eggs.

"When you put a tall structure in the environment, you have just provided a very strong advantage to that predator in finding its prey," says Peter Coates, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The state of Idaho is now considering poisoning thousands of ravens to reduce the pressure on the sage-grouse.

In Alberta, woodland caribou and wolves rarely crossed paths until pipelines and logging roads made it easier for wolves to infiltrate caribou country. Since then, most of the caribou herds in the province have dramatically declined.

"We are at a turning point, where without some aggressive help in the next few years, we don't have much hope of keeping any of the herds around," warns biologist Stan Boutin of the University of Alberta, in Edmonton. In the past five years, hundreds of wolves have been killed to save one of the Alberta herds, known as Little Smoky.

Wolves themselves were almost eliminated from the United States until they received protection under the Endangered Species Act. As wolf populations recover and create new conflicts with human activities, says the University of Idaho's Scott, the animals have been allowed to occupy less than 5 percent of their historical range.

"That is the story that is playing out," Scott says. "How much is enough? How much are we willing to give up to nature?"

Scapegoat Bird?

In the case of cormorants, it seems, not so much. In the eastern United States, double-crested cormorants have often been blamed for declines in fish populations.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters More than a half million birds have been destroyed under two different "depredation" orders since 1998, reports Linda Wires, author of The Double-Crested Cormorant: Plight of a Feathered Pariah.

In Oregon, the conflict between double-crested cormorants and salmon goes back to the hydropower dams on the Columbia, which interfered with fish migration.

"The cormorants were there long before the dams were, and they coexisted perfectly fine with the fish," says Sallinger. "It's the dams and the habitat destruction that have truly brought things out of whack. " The Army Corps of Engineers has a long history with the problem on the Columbia-and not just with cormorants. Caspian terns also eat a lot of young salmon. In the 1980s the corps actually relocated an entire colony of terns to East Sand Island from Rice Island, another dredge—spoil island 16 miles (26 kilometers) upriver.

The expectation was that the birds would eat fewer salmon at the downriver location. That's not what happened, and the corps has since tried to move part of the East Sand tern colony to newer manmade islands in Oregon and northeastern California.

Why not move the cormorants too, opponents of the culling plan ask? "We don't want to just move the problem somewhere else in the region where the cormorants would begin to prey on other endangered fish," says Joyce Casey, chief of the corps' environmental resources branch in Portland.

The Caspian terns, she explains, are "more amenable to our manipulation," whereas with cormorants, "we can't tell the birds where to go."

Faced with that uncertainty, the corps considers killing the cormorants the least risky solution—as well as the cheapest and quickest one.

Daniel Roby of Oregon State University, who has studied the impact of birds on salmon around East Sand Island for the past 18 years, disagrees: "We know enough about cormorant behavior that we think we can predict where the birds would show up."

Roby thinks the East Sand cormorants could be dispersed by restricting their nesting habitat. He and his team have done experiments in which they allowed cormorants to nest only in a fenced area and actively hazed and destroyed the nests of birds that settled outside the fence. "There are ways of resolving this issue that don't involve scapegoating the birds," he says.

An observation blind on East Sand Island may become a hunting blind—a good spot from which to cull double-crested cormorants—next spring.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A Beleaguered Population Though the East Sand Island colony of double-crested cormorants has grown exponentially in recent years, the overall population in western North America is an order of magnitude smaller than the ones in the interior and eastern United States. From British Columbia to southern California there are only 31,200 breeding pairs. The proposed culling on East Sand Island would reduce the entire western population by 25 percent.

Other cormorant colonies in coastal Washington and British Columbia have been declining due to habitat loss, human disturbance, and predation by eagles. In British Columbia, double-crested cormorants have been designated a species of special concern. In California, the Salton Sea cormorant colony, the second largest in western North America, collapsed last year. "If you look at the current status of cormorant colonies in western North America, the future is not so bright," says Roby.

It's also not clear, opponents argue, that the culling would help the salmon and steelhead much.

Other lethal removal programs in the region have yet to demonstrate success.

In recent years, for instance, California sea lions have been swimming 145 miles up the Columbia River to the Bonneville Dam, where they prey on chinook salmon that crowd around the fish ladder on their way upstream to spawn. Wildlife managers first tried to scare away the sea lions. But since 2008 they've killed 70 of the animals.

Now fewer California sea lions are showing up at the dam—but more Steller sea lions, which also eat salmon, are coming in. "Things would probably be worse without the program, but it is not the silver bullet," says Robert Stansell, a fish biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers. This particular population of Steller sea lions was taken off the Endangered Species List just last year. So far no one has proposed killing any of the ones at Bonneville.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Wildlife Artists:

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Derek DeYoung Art: “Dream Double 2” (SOLD)

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Diane Michelin - Fly Fishing Fine Art: "GET’EM" Original watercolor 10" x 13"

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dan Wallace: Passion for Authenticity

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

 Kingfish West Coast Adventure Tours

Trophy Salmon and Steelhead fishing on the Kitimat River with driftboat, riverraft or pontoonboat, we offer as well remote streamside wading. We are specialized in fly-fishing and conventional fishing techniques for silver chrome aggressive steelhead and salmon. We give our clients the opportunity to fish our headwaters, tributaries and mainstream Kitimat River. The lower section of the Kitimat River we target with the jet boat and is considered tidal and can offer phenomenal fishing for salmon as they migrate upriver.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing Booking Now Montana: (406) 665-3489 Alaska: (907) 842-5480

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Spirit Bear Coffee Company

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Hidden Paths - Slovenia

We guide on Slovenia’s rivers for Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Marble Trout, Grayling and Danubian Salmon.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 ProFishGuide: Coastal Fishing at its Best

I focus on Tillamook Bay and its surrounding areas because its known for huge Salmon and acrobatic Steelhead. All of the bait, tackle and rods are top quality so when you hook a trophy it won't be out of reach. All you need to bring is your fishing license, rain gear and camera. Lunches can be provided at extra cost and come highly recommended. Not only will I ensure a great trip, it is also highly educational and fun for the whole family.

I currently guide in Oregon & Alaska for Salmon & Steelhead. I also have experience guiding in Idaho for trout as well as teaching Fly fishing & Fly casting. My certifications include US Coast Guard Certified license, CPR/1st aide, I also hold an Oregon & Alaska guide license, and I am fully insured.

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Silversides Fishing Adventures

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 UWET "STAY-DRY" UNDERWATER TOURS UWET "STAY-DRY" UNDERWATER TOURS

THE WORLD'S ULTIMATE ECO-TOUR UNDERWATER EXPLORATIONS of

SEATTLE'S PUGET SOUND

 You, Your Family, Couples, Friends, Parents/Grandparents with Children, and Groups...

Anyone can become a UWET Explorer!

 Individuals (ages 6/up) seeking interactive small group experiences...

UWET Tours are very small group (4 Explorers maximum per tour)!

 Travelers and Cruisers seeking pleasant low-stress tour experiences...

UWET Tours are 100% "Stay-Dry" underwater investigations (explorers do not even get their feet wet)!

 Everyday People who fantasize about being a "real" explorer sharing the excitement

and glory of discovery with others...

UWET Discovery Tours transform ordinary people into Genuine Underwater Eco-Explorers who have a DVD of their discoveries to share with others!

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” Reserve your Pacific Ocean fishing adventures on Slammer through Deep Sea Charters – Westport, Washington

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Riverman Guide Service – since 1969

Kim Malcom – Owner, Operator Licensed and Insured Guide Quality Float Trips – Western Washington Rivers – Steelhead, Salmon, Trout

K Kiim mM Maallccoom m’’ss

Riverman Guide Service ((336600)) 445566--88442244

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors View our six-panel, information brochure HERE

Legacy – January 2015 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters