For the first time in more than a century, salmon have reached the headwaters of the Klamath River Basin, a milestone made possible by the removal of four major dams along the California–Oregon border. The event marks a defining moment for both environmental restoration and the communities of southern Oregon that depend on the river’s health for ecological and cultural vitality.
jfleck at inkstain
A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico
Glad there’s some good news!
Ongoing salmon recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere are hopeful demonstrations of the impressive adaptive resilience of the wild world when given a chance. Analogously, if people managed the Rio Grande basin (quite) differently, we can imagine seeing American eels return to their historical range all the way up to the upper Rio Grande in northern New Mexico, where not so long ago eels apparently were a food source for local Puebloan peoples, before dams blocked their migrations up the Rio Grande from the Gulf of Mexico.
See p.56 in: Ethnozoology of the Tewa Indians, 1914, J. Henderson and JP Harrington, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 56.
https://www.fws.gov/species/american-eel-anguilla-rostrata
Judith – Thanks for that framing. This post was motivated by exactly that. I’m wallowing too much right now, and there is, in fact, a lot of great stuff happening!