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 in the Seattle Times.

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Seattle is currently ground zero for wild fish

Two weeks ago it was Iron Fly, this week it's a screenng of DamNation to raise awareness around the proposed Susitna dam followed the next night by the Seattle launch of Wild Steelheaders United. 

Both events are FREE, open to the public, and there will be great food and craft beer served. Hit the links below for further details. 

Seattle DamNation Screening and Reception 11/19 @ The Piranha Shop - 6:00 pm 1022 1st Ave S, Seattle

Trout Unlimited Wild Steelhead Initiative Launch 11/20 @ Earl Harper Studio — 6:30p.m. 5531 Airport Way S Seattle

Chinoho ho ho

An update from a friend up north regarding an agency cat fight around some seriously flawed Susitna Dam science. This would be downright comical if it were not for the fact that the agency behind the flawed science wants to build a massive 735-foot, 600-megawatt-capacity dam on the Susitna.

Over the past few weeks there's been some sparing between Alaska Energy Authority (AEA), those who want to build Susitna Dam, and federal agencies. All this lead up to meetings designed to review AEA's first year of research on the Susitna. The fish stuides in particular caused quite a stir. Perhaps  the issues are too many to count. NMFS and USFWS called out AEA for for misidentifying a high percentage fish, failing to properly study salmon spawning locations, and erroneously measuring fish abundance.  In general, NMFS states that AEA did not coordinate between its own various studies or meet its own sampling goals or overall study objectives.

To make a long story short, after spending nearly $200 million of state funds AEA and consultants (many of whom also worked on Pebble) can't tell the difference between a chinook and a coho. They were so confused in their studies that they went so far as to call them "Chinoho."

This matter came up in this week's meetings, with AEA arguing how hard it is to tell the difference between Chinook and coho juveniles. Sue Walker from NMFS replied by saying, "While it is true that it can be difficult at times to distinguish between Chinook and coho juveniles, we all agree that what you are calling a "chinoho" is really a coho. That is pretty clear."

The AEA fired off an outraged response to the federal contention that the project’s salmon science is flawed.

Susitna Dam - Animated Tour

A horror film.

We were so horrified we had to make our own version.