With new targets, plan aims to de-list salmon

Published 1:15 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE VALLEY – They’ve got a destination, and they’re working on a road map. The challenge is that at its present state, it gets them less than halfway there.

Since chinook salmon were listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), work has been under way to remove them from that list. Local efforts have focused on the Snoqualmie River – along which the Valley’s serpentine network of cities, parks, farms and roads are ordered.

Every year, they come back home. From the salt water, through the estuary formed where the Snohomish River meets the Puget Sound, upstream to the Snoqualmie River and its tributaries, the salmon return in the late summer and fall to lay their eggs, then die.

But there aren’t enough of them. Rivers that long ago seemed to contain more fish than water now only see handfuls of chinook salmon returning to spawn.

As early as the 1970s, local, county and state officials have tried to bolster their numbers; but it wasn’t until this year that they came up with an actual target – a number to shoot for to make chinook salmon runs self-sustaining.

For the complete story, pick up a copy of this weeks Valley Record