If you’ve ever been to the interior of Idaho, you know that it feels every bit the many hundreds of miles away from the Pacific Ocean that it is. Yet, wild salmon, for thousands of years, have made their way nearly 1,000 miles from the coast to waterways in Idaho’s Sawtooth mountains, where they spawn, then die. A near-miraculous infusion of oceanic life and nutrients delivered to the middle of an alpine wilderness.
But in the face of pressures from dams, competition from farm and hatchery-raised fish, and ever-increasing water demands from ag business, how much longer can this migration continue? What is being done to preserve these tremendous fish, both in places like the interior of Idaho, as well as the more familiar salmon fisheries in the Pacific Northwest?
These questions are at the heart of Langdon Cook’s wonderful new book, “Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon from River to Table.”
LINK (via Adventure Journal)
