Sigh. Time for some more jealousy fodder from Washington state, this time from Everett and the Herald.

For tribes, climate change fight is about saving culture

If salmon can’t survive, what will happen to a Native culture based on a plentiful supply?

That question is one that drives the Tulalip Tribes’ intense interest in adapting to and slowing climate change. Williams, 72, helped lead the fight for four decades until his retirement in July as head of the Tulalips’ Treaty Rights Office, which he founded. He passed the torch to Ryan Miller, 33.

“If we lose these species that are so intrinsically connected to who we are, we lose part of ourselves,” said Miller, who as a teenager worked at the tribal fish hatchery where his father, Richard, ran the water quality lab. “It’s already difficult to pass on these traditions in modern societies. As these resources get more scarce, it becomes more and more difficult.”

So we are very concerned about our salmon. That means we are going to care a great deal about anything that can help sustain them. Any ideas?

Off-reservation forests include millions of acres of wildlife habitat, salmon-bearing streams and plant resources that are at risk from a changing global environment. This is where tribal rights afforded under the 1855 Treaty of Port Elliott come into play. 

Stewardship includes rebuilding landscapes so they will bounce back from fires and floods. Resiliency is a goal of many Tulalip projects. The tribes work with farmers to keep manure out of waterways, creating clean energy in the process. Staff have relocated nuisance beavers that would build salmon-friendly, water-storing forest ponds. Last summer they helped remove a Pilchuck River diversion dam that has blocked salmon migration for 118 years.

“We have complicated Western water law, and we’re seeing the drought season get longer and longer,” he said. “The population is growing. How are we going to sustain that development with a reduction in water? We already don’t have enough water in the rivers, enough water for salmon.”

Oooh I don’t know. You don’t want to be TOO wise and ecologically minded all at once. I mean it’s one thing to understand salmon. And then how beavers help baby salmon by making these deep pools that don’t freeze or dry up. And then to recognize that the safer and fatter a baby is when it finally swims to sea the better it’s chances of growing up and coming back for people to catch. But do have have to understand climate change too?

That just seems like showing off.