Good News On the Salmon Front

Here is something to celebrate in the long battle to restore salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest. It's just one thing--the battle is far from over.

There are some saying that this shows that the "hippies" worrying about "so-called climate change" have been wrong all along. I wish some people would climb out of their little ideological boxes and actually think. Or at least read the whole article.

What this shows is that in the face of unprecedented challenges to the salmon runs--including the effects of climate change--concentrated efforts to, according to the Bonneville Power Administration statement, "balance the needs of salmon with power production, flood control and other river uses" can be successful.

A small victory to build on for people committed to the collaborative spirit that made it possible.

Salmon return to Hanford Reach in record numbers

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Published: Nov 11, 2015 at 12:30 PM PST

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The number of fall chinook salmon returning to the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia River this year is the most since dams were constructed in the 1930s, the Bonneville Power Administration said this week.

Scientists estimate 200,000 chinook are spawning in the Hanford Reach, which is the last free-flowing section of the Columbia in the United States. The Hanford Reach flows past the giant Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the government for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Approximately 50,000 of the fall chinook are spawning in a one-mile section of the Hanford Reach called Vernita Bar, the BPA said. Historically only a small number of salmon spawned at Vernita Bar because that stretch of the river was too shallow, the BPA said. But special efforts have been made to keep salmon spawning grounds submerged there, the BPA said.

Read More.