Steelhead net pens could have major repercussions on WashingtonвЂ™s wild steelhead populations. The Wild Steelhead Coalition is deeply concerned about this effort and is working with our partners in the fishing, conservation, and tribal communities to convince state agencies and elected officials to deny CookeвЂ™s application. However, the law left a small loophole open that Cooke Aquaculture is now trying to drive a mack truck through.Д¬urrently, Cooke is in the process of trying to transition their existing Atlantic salmon net pens to farmed triploid rainbow trout (steelhead), and they have unfortunately already received approval from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Considering that California, Oregon, and Alaska had long ago banned these destructive net pens from operating in their marine waters, WashingtonвЂ™s decision to outlaw Atlantic salmon farming was a long-overdue step. In the aftermath of this environmental disaster, Governor Inslee signed HB 2957 into law, a bill banning non-native finfish farming in WashingtonвЂ™s waters.

This escape was one of the largest environmental disasters in WashingtonвЂ™s recent history, and for months following the breach Atlantic salmon were being caught by recreational anglers as far north as British Columbia and 40 miles up the Skagit River. In August of 2017, Cooke AquacultureвЂ™s Cypress Island Net Pen operation collapsed and more than 300,000 farmed Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound. Learn more about The Effort to Protect the Chehalis River and Its Wild Steelhead As members of the Chehalis River Alliance, we are also working with the Chehalis Basin Board to assemble, in partnership with stakeholders, local action alternatives that accomplish the dual goal of reducing flood impacts and restoring aquatic ecosystems. To that end, the Wild Steelhead Coalition is working tirelessly to stop this destructive dam and is advocating for a sizable investment in salmonid recovery as well as flood mitigation. The Chehalis Basin needs a comprehensive strategy for addressing both severe flooding and dramatic salmonid declines, and the state needs the funding to implement this strategy. This proposed dam is far from dead, and merely stopping this dam is not enough. This announcement is a big victory for wild steelhead and a substantial step forward in the longstanding effort to effectively mitigate flood damage and recover struggling wild fish populations in the Chehalis Basin.Дespite this positive development, the fight to defeat this dam and create a better future for the ChehalisвЂ™s communities and wild fish is not over. In fact, the review demonstrated that the proposed dam would cause irreparable harm to the basinвЂ™s entire ecosystem, push the Chehalis's spring Chinook salmon population to the brink of extinction, and further decimate the basin's struggling steelhead population.ДЄs a result of this review and pressure from concerned citizens, WashingtonвЂ™s governor recently stepped in and directed state agencies to cease planning efforts for the proposed Chehalis River dam and instead develop a basin-wide, non-dam alternative to flood reduction. However, the draft environmental review of the dam makes it abundantly clear that the dam will not adequately address flooding problems and will further endanger struggling steelhead and salmon. The proposed Chehalis dam is intended to mitigate major flood events that have become more frequent and destructive in this historically flood-prone basin. That said, before we bring out the shovels, we must first roll up our sleeves and beat back a dangerous flood mitigation dam being proposed in the upper Chehalis watershed. We have the opportunity to reverse this decline by investing in important habitat restoration in a basin that has been marred by decades of destructive logging practices, farming operations, and flood control measures that have severely altered the natural operations of this dynamic ecosystem. In fact, 2020 was the fourth year in a row - and the ninth in the last fifteen years - that the wild steelhead run has failed to meet escapement, which led to the fishery being shuttered this spring. But much like many of its sister steelhead rivers, the Chehalis has been experiencing a steady decline of returning steelhead in recent years. As recently as 2004, the Chehalis had 19,000 wild winter steelhead return to its waters. While the Chehalis River lacks the fame and notoriety of WashingtonвЂ™s more iconic rivers like the Skagit and Hoh, most years the Chehalis boasts a run of wild steelhead larger than any river in Washington state.

Clearwater news snake escape