More whistling past the graveyard.
A new proposed recovery plan for Puget Sound steelhead, says NOAA Fisheries, “highlights culverts and other threats, and outlines a roadmap for recovery of the native fish into a self-sustaining population and resume their place as a keystone of Puget Sound’s marine environment.”
The Recovery Team identified 10 main pressures that are limiting steelhead recovery: fish passage barriers at road crossings; dams, including fish passage and flood control; degraded floodplains; residential, commercial, industrial development (including impervious runoff); timber management activities; water withdrawals and altered flows; ecological and genetic interactions between hatchery and wild fish; harvest pressures (including selective harvest) on wild fish; juvenile mortality in estuary and marine waters; and climate change.
The proposed recovery plan is now open for public comment through March 28 at www.regulations.gov. The recovery plan is not regulatory, but rather provides a roadmap for agencies, organizations, tribes, and others working toward recovery of Puget Sound steelhead.
LINK (via: CBB Bulletin)
Let’s not forget that for 17 years the State of Washington appealed multiple court rulings requiring the state to remove hundreds of culverts that were barriers to fish migration. The case ultimately ended up in the Supreme Court where a 4-4 vote upheld a lower-court decision ordering the barriers to be removed.
Do you think it’s simply too late? I know it’s a shame it’s taken a 90% decline in numbers for a plan to be developed…..but I’d say we can’t hold the opinion that it’s a lost cause and do nothing. It looks like a start.
It very well could be too late. Something needs to change.