Thank you for encouraging readers to submit responses to your article “From the Publisher: Water and Fish.” You mentioned being confused as to why SoCal steelhead are endangered and NorCal ones are not. The answers are very clear: Water, barriers to fish passage and pollution. Northern California’s waterways are much more plentiful than in Southern California and, obviously, fish need water. Much of our state is no longer in a drought (considering surface water alone), but not down south.
As to your comment asking, “why the fish can’t just fool around below the dam,” it’s simply untrue that steelhead have “equally enticing opportunities below the dam,” as you stated. They require particular habitat for spawning — cool, deep pools with low flows so that their eggs can safely rest in the gravel beds. Steelhead life is complicated. They are born upstream, and then juveniles make the daunting trip to the ocean. When ready to reproduce, they must return to inland rivers and streams. Historically, steelhead had access to miles of spawning grounds, and it is hardwired in them to return to those spots. How ridiculous to infer they can just transfer to another location.
Plus, there are many more barriers to fish passage in SoCal than NorCal, due to the larger population. Yes, dams, but also road crossings and other infrastructure. Many state agencies and organizations have completed projects to remove these barriers and build new fish passageways.
Your article does not do any justice for these endangered fish. I understand it is your opinion, but some of your opinion here seems to include a lot of ignorant reasoning (and that’s my opinion). There are many people working hard to protect and restore these fish populations. It might not make sense to you, but I find it disturbing you didn’t research your topic more before writing about it and sharing it with the public. The environment needs our help, now more than ever. I’m sure you’re aware most people don’t care about the environment, especially wildlife. Your article is encouraging them to feel this way or, at the very least, it is confusing them, which also leads to distrust of environmentalists’ actions, and that is incredibly irresponsible.
Alisan Amrhein