Why Save Salmon?

Because their habitat ranges from stream to ocean and from mountain to coast, salmon are a bellwether of regional environmental health. Salmon enhance local communities and economies and are the linchpin of an $854 million annual recreational fishing economy in Washington State (the eighth largest in the nation). Salmon remain at the center of Tribal culture, in which First Salmon ceremonies celebrate the return of the earliest arriving member of a run.

Salmon bring the bounty of the ocean inland, where river and forest creatures feed on them. Their decomposing bodies import valuable marine nutrients that find their way into forest soils, trees, and other plants. Perhaps most importantly, salmon inspire us with their complex and compelling life cycle. How salmon return to spawn in their birth waters, for example, is an enduring mystery.

In his 1990 book The Good Rain, author Timothy Egan sums it up this way: "The Pacific Northwest is simply this: wherever the salmon can get to." If that's the case, the region is shrinking fast. Indeed, as salmon runs dwindle, we risk losing the very qualities that make the Northwest a special place to live.