As many of you know, I live in the Lake Shastina area just north of Mount Shasta. The Shasta Valley hold both Lake Shastina and the Shasta River. I have unofficially adopted the Shasta River: I want to protect its health, and so I pay attention to what’s happening to it.
The Shasta River, a major tributary of the Klamath River, was once a major salmon stream, but the historic salmon runs of decades past are gone.
And now we have some very good news in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Nature Conservancy has purchased the ranch that encompasses the entire length of Big Springs Creek:
The cold, nutrient-rich waters of Big Springs Creek once were so full of coho salmon during spawning season that a former ranch owner said he was kept awake at night by the noise of splashing fish.
The coho’s fertile history in the creek, now only a distant memory, is why the Nature Conservancy paid $14.2 million for the 4,136-acre Shasta Big Springs Ranch, including the entire 2.2-mile length of the creek.
The sale, which closed March 6, is being hailed by biologists as a crucial step in the ongoing effort to restore salmon in the Shasta River and ultimately the entire Klamath River system.
Just below the headwaters at Big Springs Lake, the creek once produced as much as half the salmon in the Klamath River system, which once was the third-largest source of salmon in the lower 48 states behind the Columbia and Sacramento rivers.
Read more about the Nature Conservancy to find out how they work and the other projects they support.
And read Tom Chandler’s in-depth take on the Shasta Big Springs Ranch purchase at the Trout Underground blog.
How much impact do you think this purchase will have on Coho salmon?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a necessary first step in Coho salmon recovery, but in truth, it means little if the larger problems of the Shasta and Klamath Rivers aren’t addressed – a difficult proposition given the opposition of the Siskiyou County Board of Directors to fisheries and tourism.
Important point Tom. At least it’s a start, and it’s a good example of what private citizens can do when government does not adequately address environmental issues.