The Powerful Partnership of Science and Activism

by Jim Yuskavitch

"Science without activism is dead science.”

—Yvon Chouinard

There has been big news in the world of wild Pacific salmon and steelhead conservation lately. Just a couple of days before writing this column, the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region over concerns about violating the Clean Water Act. Although the Canada-based company, Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd., that proposed the mine is threatening to bring a lawsuit against the US federal government, most wild fish advocates believe the mine’s fate is sealed.

This action protects the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run (56.5 million in 2019) and a fishery that is worth $1.5 billion and creates some 14,000 jobs, as well a supporting indigenous culture that relies on salmon.

The operation would have occupied 20 square miles, a milelong, 1,700-foot-deep mine, and a 10-square-mile containment pond filled with 10 billion tons of mining waste.

Arguably, the biggest news for wild fish was the recent sealing of a deal to finally remove four dams on the Klamath River — Iron Gate, COPCO 1 and 2, and J.C. Boyle — by the end of 2024. This opens 400 miles of the river’s best spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead previously blocked by the dams. It will be the largest dam removal project in the world to date. With the dams out, the Klamath’s long-absent wild salmon and steelhead will eventually return to the upper basin.

What these two great victories for wild fish have in common is the application of scientific data in combination with unyielding activism against powerful corporate forces and bureaucracies.

Equally significant is the fact that a diverse group of people came together, with different views and values for wild fish, but recognizing their importance to everyone in their own way.

The coalition that worked to broker the Klamath dams removal agreement included scientists, wild fish advocates, commercial and recreational fishers, the Klamath River tribes and unaffiliated members of the general public.

That combination — of science, people and advocacy who vowed to never give up — proved to ultimately be unstoppable.

How The Osprey Helps Wild Fish

The Osprey has been bringing the latest science, policy, opinion and news stories to its readers supporting wild Pacific salmon and steelhead conservation and management for 35 years. But we are much more than a publication that you subscribe to because of your own interest in wild fish conservation. The funds we receive from our subscribers allows us to send The Osprey to wild fish conservation decision-makers and influencers including scientists, fisheries managers, politicians and wild fish advocates.

So when you subscribe/donate to The Osprey, you not only receive a subscription yourself, but you also help us put The Osprey into the hands of the people we need bring to our side to save our wild fish.

Please go to the subscription/donation form on page 23 or on-line at www.ospreysteelhead.org/donation and donate whatever you are able. Thank you.

Jim Yuskavitch Editor, The Osprey