Help Save the Last Naturally Spawning Salmon Stream in San Juan County
It all starts with salmon's favorite meal: Surf Smelt.
Here are thousands of them entering Cascade Creek:
Later the salmon become the favorite meal for the orca whales.
If we do not preserve the salmon habitat, more whales will starve to death.
Cascade Creek has a pristine habitat with naturally spawning coho and chum salmon, the largest run of-sea run cutthroat in San Juan County, and a variety of other fish and wildlife. Even juvenile chinook have been documented several times since the 50's by Fish and Wildlife. This habitat is under severe stress and threatened with extinction. Washington Water Trust has acquired a small instream flow water right, but is far too small, and subordinate to Rosario's massive hydro diversion. Rosario is allowed to divert all of the water from Cascade Creek if there is not enough water available.
The natural spawning reach is protected on one side by the Land Bank's 24 acre Coho Preserve and protected on the other side by the author's 14 acres of private property. None of this has any value without sufficient water. The county Water Budget Report below shows that in 2007-2008, there was not sufficient water available to satisfy Rosario's right. Fortunately during the drought the diversion was completely broken.
The Water Budget below shows Rosario had the right to divert the entire flow from Cascade Creek. Fortunately at that time the diversion was broke. At other times all water has been diverted, killing all of the juvenile coho, who stay in the stream for more than a year.
Please read the Orcas Women's Coalition's Environmental Action Team's Call to Actionn's Coalition. This includes a list of politicians and others to email to show your support.
Jenny and the Coho, Protecting the Last Wild Salmon Run in The San Juan County
Here is my interview on the San Juan County You Tube channel:
Fish Tales of the San Juans - Sandy Taylor
Future generations of kids deserve to experience the joy of an unspoiled habitat.
My daughter caught a salmon with a net from the side of the stream:
Shiner Perch swimming upstream under the bridge 2021
The Natural Chum Run in Cascade Creek around 2001:
At the mouth of Cascade Creek in 2006
Here is an American Dipper diving for a meal: