Wild Salmon in Jeopardy in the Western United States

On Tuesday, the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition announced that Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley of Nevada has signed on as yet another bipartisan supporter of the Salmon Economic Analysis and Planning Act (H.R. 1507).

Introduced by Congressmen Democrat Jim McDermott of Washington state and Republican Tom Petri of Wisconsin, the Act is designed to confront the failing federal recovery of salmon in the Columbia-Snake River Basin, where wild salmon are endangered.

The Columbia-Snake Basin extends through Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, California, and Washington. Once upon a time it housed arguably the world's most prolific salmon runs. But, steadily, the wild salmon as well as the steelhead populations, living legends to Nevada sportsmen and anglers, have fallen off steeply.

Almost 70 federal lawmakers have demonstrated their support for the bill.

There are many factors that have contributed to the demise of the wild salmon populations in the area, and some people fear that they will disappear from the Basin altogether despite the salmon's prowess for breeding. Pollution of the waters, habitat loss, over-fishing, sometimes ill-planned federal dam construction and operation, diversion of water for irrigation, indoor plumbing, and other uses, competition from hatchery-produced salmon, predation by other species, parasites and diseases, and climate change have all contributed to the demise of the wild salmon in the region. In addition to all of that, probably the greatest threat to wipe out the wild salmon without intervention is the huge human population explosion in and around the Basin.