In his Nov. 27 letter, “Wildlife area plan is not worth it,” Al O’Connor made good points regarding trading valuable habitat for salmon habitat.
Salmon-rearing habitat is a critical part of salmon population restoration. The habitat in question can support millions of salmonid fry and smolts, not just thousands of ducks and geese. The mission of wildlife refuges has been exclusive of salmonids since their inception. Sadly, the wildlife habitat of duck hunters is more accurately called duck habitat and is managed as just that.
Decades ago, when I was on a tour with fisheries biologists and other salmonid advocates, I witnessed an interesting device at work. The device was the RSI (remote salmon incubator). One stop on the tour was a short spring creek, close to Hood Canal, which literally “sprung” from the base of an old growth red cedar. The property owner had installed an RSI and the creek was full of 100,000s of salmon smolts. A few days later they would be gone on their way to the Pacific Ocean. That creek was rearing habitat.
Imagine if wildlife refuges were also used for salmon restoration as well. Rearing habitat could add tens of thousands of returning salmon, and another facet to tourism.
