March 1999
Seattle supports listing of Salmon as Endangered Species
Seattle, Washington
The city that celebrates salmon now has the chance--and the obligation--to make sacrifices to help save the fish. On March 20 the federal government announced that it would add nine species of Pacific Northwest salmon to the Endangered Species List. A key component to helping the salmon recovery: controlling urban growth. Seattle residents have overwhelmingly supported efforts to designate salmon as endangered. Now both supporters and opponents of listing the salmon are waiting to see whether Seattle will accept or fight the restrictions needed to help the species recover.
Salmon are a key icon for the city and the region, and the millions of migrating fish were once an important economic asset. Their numbers have dwindled as the rivers in which they migrate and spawn have been dammed, polluted, and clogged with silt from road building, logging, and building construction. Restoring the Puget Sound Chinook salmon, probably the best known of the designated species, will require cleaning up rivers that run through urban and suburban areas, restricting suburban sprawl along salmon spawning streams, controlling residential fertilizer use, and possibly placing limits on water use in drought seasons.
Skeptics foresee that these restraints will cause a backlash against the Endangered Species Act. This is by far the largest population and largest geographic area affected by any listing in the Act's 26-year history. Optimists, though, hope that listing salmon will help bring about innovations in urban development. They hope that protecting the salmon will help make Seattle a cleaner and more livable city all around. Less suburban development should mean less freeway expansion, less long-range commuting, more efficient use of tax money on infrastructure, and possibly a livelier urban core. At the same time, the rivers should run cleaner with more pollution controls, Puget Sound will be healthier, and ultimately the region's residents should be able to see the salmon once again in significant numbers in local rivers. Also, because of the large area and large population affected, the burden of recovery efforts will be spread thin, so that individuals may feel little personal impact. Seattle-Tacoma is one of the fastest-growing urban regions in the US, and growing pains could be worse, and prices higher, with environmental restrictions. But supporters of the salmon listing point out that it's high time that more attention was paid to environmental concerns in growing urban areas.
How the costs and benefits play out will be seen over the next few years. In the mean time, there is great enthusiasm in Seattle for helping the salmon recover. To help boost the recovery effort, Vice-president Al Gore has promised $100 million in federal aid to help restore salmon populations.
For further information, see these related web sites:
Editorial from Seattle's mayor Paul Schell, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
To read more, see
Environmental Science, A Global Concern, Cunningham and Saigo, 5th ed.
Endangered Species Act: pp. 283-86
Economic impacts of endangered species legislation: p. 287
Habitat protection: p. 288
Environmental Science, Enger and Smith, 6th ed.
What is being done to prevent extinction? pp. 213-18
Land use, development, and water: pp. 225-29
Land use and problems with urbanization: pp. 230-32
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