Steelhead Film Shoot

The goal was simple: Travel to nearly untouched, far-northern waters to make a conservation film centered around steelhead.

LINK (via:Dylan Tomine)

Take Action for Wild Steelhead

Runs were so depleted, Brian O'Keefe convinced his Mom to move the family to Oregon.

TAKE ACTION HERE

Please help support the Puget Sound wild steelhead gene bank election process

Click to see image full size

On Tuesday night a coalition of wild fish advocates testified in front of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of a strategy to conserve and recover wild steelhead by establishing a network of wild stock gene banks across the state. Of all the watersheds under consideration the overwhelming percentage of attendees testified in favor of designating the three watersheds shown above.

For those of you who are unable to attend the remaining public hearings, and those of you who from outside the region who care about wild steelhead, please submit your comments in support of the same three watersheds.

Submit your comments HERE.

Plan to ease steelhead barriers stirs concerns about frogs

Image: USFWS/Rick Kuyper

Faster than a frog can hop over a drought-shrunken creek, San Francisco water officials' plan to help restore wild fish has spiraled into a regulatory debate highlighting the difficulty of trying to undo damage to one species without hurting others.

LINK (via: Contra Costa Times)

TAKE ACTION: Help Create Wild Steelhead Sanctuaries in Washington

A VERY important action alert from the Wild Steelhead Coalition

Help protect and recover threatened populations of wild steelhead in once prolific Puget Sound rivers by telling Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to establish strong, effective wild steelhead gene banks.

Among other culprits of steelhead decline, hatcheries are a contributing factor to why Puget Sound steelhead populations have plummeted to roughly three percent of their historical abundance. Decades of management that prioritized hatchery plants at the expense of wild steelhead returns are part of why these incredible fish are now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  

Recognizing this problem, the Wild Steelhead Coalition and its members have worked tirelessly since its founding to mitigate the negative impact that hatchery steelhead have on their wild counterparts, including seeking to reduce or revise hatchery plants in watersheds with sufficient potential for wild steelhead recovery. But now more than ever before, we need to take action.

Through years of hard work and extensive collaboration with Native Fish Society, Wild Fish Conservancy, and the Conservation Angler, we have been able to take important, incremental steps to help reduce the negative impacts of steelhead hatcheries. However, in all of our years of work, we have never before had an opportunity like this in Puget Sound to use public input and the best available science to transform rivers into wild steelhead gene banks where the harm of hatchery steelhead will be forever eliminated.

While the creation of at least three wild steelhead gene banks is required under Washington’s State Steelhead Management Plan, WDFW has significant latitude over how many rivers and which rivers they designate as gene banks. With hatchery proponents working furiously to limit these designations to three smaller tributaries, it is critical that wild steelhead advocates make their voices heard and establish river basins that have diversity, abundance and will provide refuge through a changing climate.

Over the next two weeks, WDFW will be hosting three meetings for citizens to express their opinions publicly on the designation of Wild Steelhead Gene Banks. Please attend one of these meetings and make your voice heard.  

• Public Comment Meeting – Tuesday, July 21 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Seattle at the Phinney Center: Room 7 (6532 Phinney Ave N)  
• Public Comment Meeting – Monday, July 27 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Mount Vernon at Skagit PUD (1415 Freeway Dr.)
• Public Comment Meeting – Tuesday, July 28 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Sequim at Trinity Methodist Church (100 S Blake Ave) 

A comment form is also available online for those of you unable to attend the meeting but wishing to submit comments.

Tell NOAA Not to Compromise on Wild Steelhead Protection

Submit your comments: Tell NOAA you will not stand for them undermining federal environmental protections for threatened steelhead

Steelhead are a wonder of nature. Their daunting journey from the river of their birth to the ocean and back is awe-inspiring. Their sheer strength and ability to traverse seemingly impassable waters is nothing short of remarkable. And they have exceptional power, size, and beauty. These attributes as well as their indelible mystique combine to make steelhead the pinnacle of freshwater fishing.
 
Legend has it that there were once so many steelhead and salmon in Washington’s rivers that you could walk across the water on the backs of fish. But gross mismanagement of these rivers for the last century has decimated these steelhead and salmon populations, relegating the stirring images of rivers full of fish to a distant memory. Now wild steelhead populations represent a dismal 3% of their historic numbers in Puget Sound, yet 66% of their historical habitat remains. As a result, these fish are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
 
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the federal agency charged with protecting these imperiled fish – government-operated steelhead hatcheries are one of the four known causes for the precipitous decline of wild steelhead populations. Despite this understanding, NOAA is currently undermining critical federal regulations in a politically motivated effort to expedite approval of Puget Sound hatchery programs.  
 
This undercutting of federal procedures represents a significant departure for NOAA, which spent the last 11 years rigorously developing a comprehensive environmental review of hatchery program’s impact in Puget Sound. NOAA was expected to release the review’s findings this spring but at the last minute suddenly abandoned this 11-year comprehensive review. In its place, NOAA is now conducting a cursory environmental assessment for three hatcheries in three different watersheds.
 
NOAA is trying to justify this approach as simply a strategy adjustment. However, this dramatic reversal is much more than that. In reality, it is a precedent setting approach that has the potential to undercut critical protections for not just steelhead but all endangered species, including orca whales, wolves, and salmon. Left unchecked, this decision could have far-reaching implications as it could make federal approval easier for destructive projects across the United States.
 
Time is running out, but we still have the potential to stop NOAA from setting this dangerous precedent that will imperil threatened steelhead populations and all ESA-listed species. Please submit a comment below and tell NOAA you will not stand for them undermining federal environmental protections for threatened steelhead.
 
To learn more about the environmental protections NOAA is undermining and the specifics of this environmental review process, please see below:
 
1. NOAA’s proposed Environmental Assessment (EA) is insufficient and violates the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)

• An environmental impact statement (EIS) is needed to fully evaluate the cumulative effects of all Puget Sound hatchery programs on threatened & endangered species—including steelhead—throughout Puget Sound.
• Puget Sound hatchery programs can have significant adverse impacts on ESA-listed wild salmon and steelhead, making the proposed approval of the three steelhead hatcheries controversial, thus meeting two of NEPA’s thresholds for an EIS.
 
2. NOAA has not provided adequate time to review the EA and associated technical documents

• NOAA released the EA on 3/26 with a due date for comments on 4/27, which amounted to 33 days.  According to NOAA, all comments submitted from 3/26-4/13 were lost because of NOAA technical difficulties, with no way to contact those that submitted comments.  A new due date was set for 5/4.  This new due date results in a total of only 21 days to submit comments on over 1,400 pages included in the EA, Hatchery & Genetic Management Plans, and referenced literature.
 
3. NOAA has not completed a Puget Sound Steelhead Recovery Plan

• A recovery plan is required by law under the ESA; Puget Sound steelhead were ESA-listed eight years ago in 2007.
• A recovery plan is fundamental to an appropriate EA or EIS.  It is needed in order to determine what levels of hatchery impacts to each Puget Sound steelhead population, if any, are compatible with recovery.
 
Submit your comments: Tell NOAA you will not stand for them undermining federal environmental protections for threatened steelhead

Please submit your comments no later than 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on May 4, 2015.