This story was originally published in High Country News, and is reproduced as part of Climate Desk’s collaboration. As climate change is melting the glaciers in Western North America, new habitat for Pacific salmon is being created. New river systems have begun to flow and rain and snowmelt are causing them to melt.
[[{“value”:”As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, High Country News previously published this article, which is reproduced around.
Potential Pacific salmon habitat is opening up as human-caused climate change points a huge hair dryer at the glaciers in Western North America, melting them ever more quickly. Rain and snowmelt will keep some of the new river systems running yet after the ice melts away. Salmon are beginning to appear in some for the first time.
However, mining firms are also chiming in. In Southeast Alaska and in northern British Columbia, where some Pacific salmon spawn, there is a significant overlap between probable future salmon habitat and new mining claims, according to peer-reviewed research published in Science last November. However, there is still hope: The creation of Indigenous protected areas in British Columbia might safeguard some of these fresh waterways and their fish for future generations.
The study’s co-author, Naxginkw Tara Marsden ( Gitanyow Huwilp ), said,” The science is very clear.” The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs ‘ unceded traditional territory is in what is now British Columbia, and Marsden serves as their Wilp Sustainability director. Salmon finding novel habitats and adapting have both risks and possible short-term benefits, so we must take precautions to protect those areas.
Five species of Pacific salmon in North America fly to the ocean before returning to their perineal rivers to spawn. However, a small proportion of” stray” salmon travel to various rivers. According to Jonathan Moore, the article’s lead author and director of the Salmon Watersheds Lab at Simon Fraser University, straying may be an adaptation that keeps populations resilient because Pacific salmon have evolved in very powerful river systems.
” Conservation tends to cling tenaciously to what we currently have.” And that might be a pointless endeavor.
The region’s glaciers would continue to contract even without human-caused climate change. They have been since the last ice age, but due to human activity, they are melting much more rapidly today. 80 percent of the glaciers in the area might be gone by the century’s end. Additionally, coming habitats are not properly protected by mining laws in British Columbia and Alaska.
Society must make this choice as these young ecosystems come into contact with the Earth, according to Moore. ” Are we going to safeguard them for salmon?” Or will we search for gold by digging them up?
In a golden rush, gold companies in particular are staking claims. Even beneath glaciers that have n’t yet melted, it’s relatively simple and inexpensive to stake claims. Prospective salmon habitat hundreds of miles inland could be contaminated by mine tailings for thousands of years.
Daniel Schindler, a boundary ecologist at the University of Washington who studies salmon ecosystems in northern Alaska, cautioned that it is unknown how fast fresh salmon habitat will appear on thawing-exposed landscapes and that mining may not immediately endanger salmon in some areas. Salmon have now been spotted in emerging rivers near the coast, where riverbeds are less rough and more secure, according to Schindler, Moore’s postgraduate research advisor. However, further inland, steeper, more stormy rivers with tumbling gravel beds might take thousands of years to develop into appropriate spawning habitat.
However, Schindler said that the fundamental notion is that conservation and management strategies must adapt to climate change and safeguard future Pacific salmon habitat. ” Conservation tends to cling tenaciously to what we currently have.” And that might end up being ineffective.
Indigenous protected areas may be a glimmer of hope for the time being. After observing more salmon in the region linked to holocene retreat, the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs founded the Wilp Wii Litsxw Meziadin Indigenous Protected Area in 2021, only a short drive from the Alaskan border. Meziadin will prevent mining in developing salmon habitat while allowing for different uses. However, the British Columbian government is also selling mineral tenures in the habitat and has not yet recognized the secured area.
Aboriginal people ( in British Columbia ) are picking up the slack and trying to use their own laws to protect those critical areas where imperial governments are failing and where they are not acting quickly to ensure that those areas are protected in the face of mining, according to Marsden.
A more comprehensive solution might become apparent: Last September, a court ruled that British Columbia’s Mineral Tenure Act must be amended to include Second Nations consultations, which could aid in preserving potential salmon habitat. The province has not already taken any action as of publication.
The salmon will continue to thrive if we let nature run its course, according to Marsden.”}]] As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was first published by High Country News, is reproduced below. Potential Pacific salmon habitat is opening up as human-caused climate change points a gigantic hair dryer at the glaciers in Western North America, melting them ever more quickly. Rain and snowmelt will continue to fall as fresh river systems begin to flow.
This story was originally published in High Country News, and is reproduced as part of Climate Desk’s collaboration. As climate change is melting the glaciers in Western North America, new habitat for Pacific salmon is being created. New river systems have begun to flow and rain and snowmelt are causing them to melt.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/02/melting-glaciers-salmon-threat-mining-companies-pollution/
