State's salmon strategy puts focus on Marin

Salmon are among nature's proverbial canaries in the coal mine.

Their disappearance from rivers and streams is an indication that their spawning grounds and the environmental health of the waterways have been altered, most often by humans.

Reversing decades of manmade changes in hopes of restoring salmon spawning grounds is the aim of Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest environmental initiative — the “California Salmon Strategy.”

Many of its measures have long been in place in Marin, where steady progress has been seen in restoring habitat and the number of salmon returning to spawn.

Locally, efforts have focused on helping rebuild the coho population, a salmon protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

Newsom's initiatives largely focus on chinook salmon, which is fished commercially and is important to the economy, especially up and down the state's central and north coast.

Local fisheries experts are hopeful that Newsom's initiative will open opportunities to expand the use of technology to help track the health of salmon populations and to provide support needed to remove obstacles blocking salmon from reaching spawning grounds and improving gravely habitat where the salmon lay their eggs.

For instance, Eric Ettlinger, an aquatic ecologist with the Marin Municipal Water District, said Newsom's plan could lead to the district expanding its use of antennas and tagging to track local salmon populations. He said some stray chinook salmon have been spotted and tagging those fish will help biologists understand where they are coming from. That information could also help the state target its release of fisheries-raised chinook.

Statewide, salmon populations have been caught in the middle of political decisions, from suspending required releases from reservoirs because of the drought and the need to conserve the state's water supply to decisions regarding salmon fishing and the effects suspending it has on the economy.

Newsom has played a role in some of those decisions.

His plan, released last month, says: “After 10 years of rapidly intensifying drought with episodic bouts of rain and snow events, salmon are not doing well.”

“We're doubling down to make sure this species not only adapts in the face of extreme weather but remains a fixture of California's natural beauty and ecosystems for generations to come,” Newsom said in his office's press release.

Today, that future remains in question.

A recent report released by California Trout and the University of California, Davis Center for Watershed Sciences — “SOS ll: Fish in Hot Water” — predicts that, over the next 50 years, the state will lose nearly half of its native salmon and trout species if there's no change in conditions.

Salmon fishing was canceled in California and much of Oregon last year due to projections that lower numbers would be returning from the Pacific.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area fisheries biologist Michael Reichmuth said he's encouraged by the governor's plan calling for expanding the state's conservation hatcheries focused on rebuilding native populations, as opposed to those focused on providing salmon for fishing.

The health of California's salmon population is part of rebuilding a big link in the ecological chain that makes up California's bountiful nature.

For Marin, Newsom's plan offers hope that the state will focus more energy and funding on rebuilding and restoring habitat for salmon, from creating more gravely areas to, where possible and practical, removing man-made obstacles, in some cases removing dams that are no longer needed.

There are a lot of decisions and policies that may either benefit or stall the governor's plan, but making the rebuilding of California's salmon population a higher state priority should help steer funding, science and work toward that important environmental objective.