Okay, fellas, perhaps I'm a bit lazy in not wanting to do the research myself, but I thought I pose a question that I feel is silly, but I truly don't know the answer.
What happened to the steelhead populations in Washington?
Our rivers are raging due to the wet weather and most are toast for a while, so I find myself either a lot at the computer visiting steelhead forums and sites or re-reading books like "A Passion for Steelhead". It seems like not so long ago, Washington rivers were loaded with big, bright, solid, hard-fighting steelhead. The book is loaded with awesome pics of these gorgeous fish. But a good portion of the book is depressing, with an almost, "you should have been there, it was awesome" theme. The book wasn't written by some guy who could be my great great grandfather, it was written by a guy my age!
Here in Northern California, we can attribute the decline to logging (coastal rivers), mining (inland rivers) or damming (both). Some is simply mis-management of the water resources... the tug for water between farmers and So Cal and environmentalists, especially during drought periods. Perhaps a bit of greed and overfishing, too. Of course, there are other factors undoubtedly, but the purpose is not to start a debate, simply to understand, in general, what happened to the steelhead in your rivers.
You have so many rivers and so much water! I look at a map and see long stretches of rivers before being dammed, what appears to be plenty of habitat left. I never hear talk of rivers being "silted in" from logging but I know that must be an issue.
I look at rivers on the map like the Sauk, Skagit, Snohomish, Skykomish, Snoqualamine, which seem to flow for miles before being dammed. I don't see that all are. So was it the dams? Was there not enough habitat left? Was it logging? And I never hear anything written about the fishing in rivers like the Green or Cedar just to the south?
I'm self-admittingly uneducated on this subject. Anyone care to give me the unabridged history lesson?
What happened to the steelhead populations in Washington?
Our rivers are raging due to the wet weather and most are toast for a while, so I find myself either a lot at the computer visiting steelhead forums and sites or re-reading books like "A Passion for Steelhead". It seems like not so long ago, Washington rivers were loaded with big, bright, solid, hard-fighting steelhead. The book is loaded with awesome pics of these gorgeous fish. But a good portion of the book is depressing, with an almost, "you should have been there, it was awesome" theme. The book wasn't written by some guy who could be my great great grandfather, it was written by a guy my age!
Here in Northern California, we can attribute the decline to logging (coastal rivers), mining (inland rivers) or damming (both). Some is simply mis-management of the water resources... the tug for water between farmers and So Cal and environmentalists, especially during drought periods. Perhaps a bit of greed and overfishing, too. Of course, there are other factors undoubtedly, but the purpose is not to start a debate, simply to understand, in general, what happened to the steelhead in your rivers.
You have so many rivers and so much water! I look at a map and see long stretches of rivers before being dammed, what appears to be plenty of habitat left. I never hear talk of rivers being "silted in" from logging but I know that must be an issue.
I look at rivers on the map like the Sauk, Skagit, Snohomish, Skykomish, Snoqualamine, which seem to flow for miles before being dammed. I don't see that all are. So was it the dams? Was there not enough habitat left? Was it logging? And I never hear anything written about the fishing in rivers like the Green or Cedar just to the south?
I'm self-admittingly uneducated on this subject. Anyone care to give me the unabridged history lesson?