Salmon - The Spokesmodel of the Northwest

If you played the word association game with “Pacific Northwest”, what would come to mind? Rain, green, Space Needle, ocean…. Odds are, that list would include “salmon,” one of the most enduring icons of the Pacific Northwest, and a creature that has sustained the environment and human society in Cascadia throughout history. Images of the Northwest invariably include salmon spawning in the rivers and being eaten by bears or eagles, Native American totems of salmon, fishing boats heading to sea, plates of gourmet prepared salmon steaks, historical photos of Native Americans spear fishing at waterfalls, current photos of catch-and-release fly fishermen wading in rivers.


Above: Salmon passing through the fish ladder at the Chittenden Locks in Seattle. Film by artist Jeff Hull.

To discuss the role of salmon in historical and current day ecosystem, culture and politics is a daunting task. Topics include: A basic primer on salmons’ life cycle and the species; salmon’s integral role in the Pacific NW ecosystem and the impact of environmental change on salmon populations; tribal culture, mythology, and political history; current politics of resource management and conflicting demands (land development and its impact, farming vs hydroelectric energy vs salmon preservation, tribal vs commercial vs recreational fishing rights, and the wild vs farmed salmon debate); culinary topics; and salmon fishing as recreation.

Cascadia Song is embarking on an occasional series touching on all these topics, providing links to informational resources. To start, educational links on the topics of the salmon life cycle and the species native to the Pacific Northwest are listed below.

Salmon Life Cycle:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pugetsound/species/salmon_cyc.html
http://www.fish.washington.edu/hatchery/education.html

Species of Pacific Northwest Salmon:

http://www.hitime.com/sdscptn.htm
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/salmon/id.htm
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/ESA-Salmon-Listings/Salmon-Populations/

Wilderness Sprawl

Two days ago, while walking the shoreline of Seward Park (a city park) I watched a pair of bald eagles cooperatively hunt and catch a grebe in the bay. It was a page out of National Geographic coming alive before my eyes. After making the catch, they flew to a nearby tree to pluck the carcass and have lunch. This morning, I watched a pair commute past my bedroom window, trailed by a murder of livid, squawking crows.

It is common anywhere, when human communities sprawl into a wilderness environment, that wildlife will be spotted. What is amazing about Seattle is that wilderness persists on "sprawling" into long-established urban areas. Bears, coyotes, mountain lions, deer, and eagles are not uncommon in the city and nearby towns. Whales are spotted in Elliott Bay and sealions are a perennial "pest" at the Ballard Locks during the salmon runs.

Above: A blue heron on the peak of my roof.

I think it is a hopeful sign that we've managed to strike a balance, so far, between human and nature's needs... that we've not yet strained nature so much as to destroy the web of life here. Pollution control, daylighting of urban streams, protecting wetlands and watershed buffer zones, and creative land conservency projects all play a part. And these are born out of an appreciation by the folks who live here for the importance of this balance, not only for the sake of preserving the beauty of it all, but preserving our own, human community as well.

Crows

This is the time of year when, from mid-afternoon until dawn, the crows flock together to roost. It is an eerie, rather unnerving, sight to walk beneath trees studded with hundreds of those large black birds. (Thank you Hitchcock.) They swarm like starlings. This presence in the winter landscape feels metaphoric of the dark grey, stormy season. As much as sea gulls, the crow (often called raven, but being a smaller cousin) is a bird that characterizes Cascadia. They are ubiquitous here and, being scavengers, their society is tightly interwoven with the human one.

They are integral to the cultural landscape as well. A prominent totem in Northwest Native American culture, the crow (raven) is seen as wise and a trickster, and is a central character in many creation stories.

As much as modern society often reviles crows as aggressive, thieving birds, they practice a noble community and family life. Mating pairs are generally together for life. They are very protective of their family (ever been dive-bombed by a crow in the spring? You were likely near a nest or a fledgling on the ground). The young stay with the family group for the first 2 or 3 years of their life, helping their parents raise their younger siblings before heading out to make a nest, and life, of their own.

There are innumerable stories about the intelligence of crows, from using tools for foraging to adaptation of scavenging behavior to respond to others to problem solving and teamwork when dealing with predators. I regularly see crows (or even a single crow) chasing off a bald eagle.

They are “old souls” with a sense of humor and a low threshold for BS. I admire that.