“It’s now time for 21st Century solutions,
To restore the health and beauty of our rivers,
And protect health, safety, and quality of life.”
Rebecca Wodder,
American Rivers
Music: Dance of Tears
The U.S. conservation group, American Rivers
Has released their ‘2009 Endangered River List’
The Sacramento-San Joaquin System, tops the list
Which should not fill any Californians with any bliss
This river system, which flows from the Sierra Nevadas
And after numerous miles empties into San Francisco Bay
Supplies fresh water to over 25 million people in California
And it is a vital spawning ground, for Pacific salmon, today
But this needed river system is in dire trouble, these days
From too many dams, faltering levees, and water pollution
People and Salmon need this river system for their survival
Restoring this river to a pristine condition, needs a solution
Just a few days ago, federal fisheries managers announced that California's commercial Chinook salmon fishing season will be called off again this year, after a record low number of fish returned to spawn here last year.
This decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council marks the second straight year that the council has halted commercial angling for natural and hatchery born Chinook salmon, or ‘King’ salmon, in California.
King salmon populations returning to the Sacramento River System to spawn have horrendously declined in recent years, with the council estimating that only about 66,000 salmon adults returned here in 2008. This estimate was down from 90,000 in 2007. More than 750,000 adult salmon were counted returning to the river back in 2002.
These Chinook salmon hatch in freshwater streams and rivers and then migrate to the ocean where they feed and grow, before returning to spawn in the fresh waters in which they were born.
Overfishing, climate change, faltering levees, and water pollution in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River System, have been blamed for the Chinook salmon’s drastic decline.
According to a recent Associated Press investigation, U.S. manufacturers, including major drug makers, have released nearly 300 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into the waterways that provide our drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked. Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of these discarded drugs are harmful to fish, frogs, and other aquatic species.
The other U.S. waterways on American River’s 2009 Most Endangered List are, in descending order:
The Flint River in Georgia; the Lower Snake River in Idaho, Oregon and Washington State; the Mattawoman Creek in Maryland; the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana; South Carolina's Saluda River; Pennsylvania's Laurel Hill Creek; Arkansas' Beaver Creek; the Pascagoula River in Mississippi; and the Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The last one on the list makes me extremely sad; it was one of the original American river systems designated as a ‘wild river’ back in 1972, and it’s a river where I’ve camped, fished, and wandered its once magnificent wooded shorelines, many times. Today, it is being severely threatened and damaged by our massive urban sprawl and by our modern day pollution.
©2009, Mr. Ed
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To win we will need a true ecologist in the White House sooner or later... and he'll be hated especially by Westerners...
Keep fighting...Michael
Be always safe,
Karen
To restore the health and beauty of our rivers,
And protect health, safety, and quality of life.”
How right she is...our lakes as well!
In BC, Canada, we are fighting the privatization of our rivers to the likes of corporations like General Electric. All of our rivers, creeks, streams - all up for bid to run "clean, renewable energy"
There are many solutions to our global warming problems, but the real problem is who's in control - corporations.
I hope pople will come together worldwide to combat these corporations.
Our rivers , oceans, forests and wildlife cannot withstand much more of it.
In peace, Kristin
What on earth is going on with that? Thanks ED for another excellent write!...TL
(((HUGS))) and love, Karla.
Georg
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :( >tears! <