Published in the San Jose Mercury News
Posted on the San Jose Mercury News website:
6:42 p.m. PDT Saturday, April 24, 1999
Jammin' for the salmon
wood, critical to survival of fish,
is being put back into rivers
Jan. 26, 1999
BY GLENNDA CHUI
Mercury News Science Writer
ON THE NORTH FORK OF THE STILLAGUAMISH RIVER,
Wash.
PEOPLE spent millions of dollars and most of the past century
stripping driftwood, snags and fallen trees out of nearly every major
river and stream on the West Coast -- at first to make way for boats,
and later because they thought it was good for the fish.
Now, in a stunning reversal, they're throwing the wood back in.
Once thought a nuisance and a barrier to migrating salmon, wood
turns out to be an essential part of the ecological mix that allows the
fish to thrive.
It creates shade, cools the water and feeds the bugs and small fish
that salmon like to eat. And where it piles up in log jams, it shapes
currents so they scour deep pools -- ideal places for salmon to rest
and hide from their enemies.
''It was a really good lesson in humility,'' said Aldaron Laird of
Arcata, an environmental planner who spent many years ripping wood
out of California rivers before he and his fellow restorationists realized
their mistake.
''The salmon and steelhead were in dire straits, and we were running
around trying to do whatever we could,'' he said. ''We thought we
were doing a good thing by getting logging debris out of rivers. What