Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the sold-out premiere of A River’s Last Chance, a film by Olympia-based film-maker Shane Anderson, at the 2017 Portland Eco-Film Festival. Watching a documentary was by far the tamest Saturday night I’ve had in a LONG time, but the arguments made and solutions proposed in this film have inspired me to continue my thesis path on salmon conservation in the pacific northwest.
Overall, I learned the story of a real and current salmon conservation effort in California, and most crucially, I listened to the various perspectives of those involved – the native people, fishermen, loggers, conservationists, wine-growers and marijuana enthusiasts. I will absolutely be incorporating parts of this documentary into my thesis as futher proof that salmon are foun
During the showing, I was ferociously scribbling notes on the mass of information thrown at me. While these notes aren’t intended for anyone other than me, here they are regardless:
- Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 1987
- “We can say it’s for the fish, but what is it really for… everything” -Wahoo Films
- The Eel River is a “wild and savage” river, the last of its kind in California. Today, it is ground zero for wine and pot industries. It’s also the best chance for salmon recovery on the west coast, free of hatchery influence.
- Before European arrival, the Wiyot, along with nearly ten other Native American tribes, lived along the Eel’s banks and utilized its abundant and seemingly infinite salmon runs as a primary food resource.
- Brief History
- In the 1850-1930’s, white Americans move into the area and exploit its salmon and redwood reserves. During this era, whites developed increasingly complex and efficient fishing methods.
- The native peoples are massacred by white Americans, with some villages being totally wiped out and others decreased to a small fraction of their original population sizes.
- The Timber & Stone Act of 1878 served as the basis for land grabs of the areas surrounding the Eel River. According to the law, land in the western states that was deemed “unfit for farming” but had other potential uses for timber extraction and mining was sold for $2.50/acre in 160 acre chunks. It didn’t take long before timber companies clear-cut vast swaths of land along the Eel. These areas were virgin old-growth redwood forests.
- Fishermen from all over the west coast and the country flock to the Eel to fish salmon. Photos show fishermen shoulder-to-shoulder along the Eel River.
- By the 20th century, the salmon fishery was exhausted. Hatchery activities fail to sustain healthy salmon runs, with poor hatchery methods and management to blame.
- In more recent times, the Eel River became the agricultural backbone supporting vineyards in the Russian River Valley. Today, the Eel provides a new water-hungry industry: that of weed.
- In the 1850-1930’s, white Americans move into the area and exploit its salmon and redwood reserves. During this era, whites developed increasingly complex and efficient fishing methods.
- The Eel hosts runs of Coho, chinook, winter and fall steelhead
- Explanation of basically the “salmon forest effect” (see Stokes in Bibliography)
- Redwoods and Salmon are dependent on one another; the redwoods provide essential shade and habitat for redds, and the salmon provide essential marine-derived calories and nutrients to an otherwise nutrient-deprived freshwater eco-system. ~300 animal species live off this marine-derived calorie resource, including humans.
- Explanation of basically the “salmon forest effect” (see Stokes in Bibliography)
- When we simplify nature, we desiccate and wipe out the foundation of nature; it’s not about the salmon but about the watershed.
- Aldo Leopold’s definition of eco-system health: a “capacity for self renewal”
- In the Eel, this took the shape of the relationship between redwoods and salmon: one building the ecosystem and the other fueling it
- Post WWII housing boom led to new legislation. Private land with the potential to produce timber now cost more in property taxes to keep un-logged! This contributed to more clear-cutting of the land surrounding the Eel River and a decimation of the redwood-salmon relationship that kept the eco-system functioning as it had for millions of years.
- The Great Flood of 1964 destroyed much infrastructure along the Eel, including many small towns. Lives were lost. After extensive timber harvest, there was no structure left to keep the soil from eroding away in the case of a large storm.
- This flood inspired the proposal of the Dos Rios Dam on the Middle Fork of the Eel. The dam was never constructed
- The Great Flood of 1964 destroyed much infrastructure along the Eel, including many small towns. Lives were lost. After extensive timber harvest, there was no structure left to keep the soil from eroding away in the case of a large storm.
- 1986-2012 Large land grabs by Wall St.
- Liquidation Logging by the Maaxam Corporation
- Restorative efforts today are all-encompassing: headwaters to estuary approach
- Doom/gloom study that predicted the extinction of Eel River salmon published, 2 years later a massive run of chinook appears in the watershed
- Leopold’s “Capacity for Self Renewal”
- Doom/gloom study that predicted the extinction of Eel River salmon published, 2 years later a massive run of chinook appears in the watershed
- 2012-2016 The Green Rush
- Marijuana industry replaces the extractive timber industry as the region’s economic driver
- The majority of 70% of all pot grown in USA are grown in the 3 counties surrounding the Eel
- Large influx of capitalist marijuana growers, both legal and illegal
- The increasing density of marijuana farms are having a similar effect on the area’s forests as the timber industry
- In 2014 during heavy drought, the Eel runs dry.
- Water and salmon return in high numbers in recent years since 2014.
- More and more marijuana growers become stewards of their land via third-party certifications similar to sustainable
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