Act now to save California's salmon

California's endangered salmon are slipping quickly and quietly toward extinction. Coho salmon populations have plummeted to less than 1% of their historical numbers, and best estimates are that there are fewer than 5,000 wild coho left in the entire state. Similarly, chinook salmon and steelhead trout are being driven toward extinction, largely due to unsustainable logging and other destructive land-use activities.

The State Board of Forestry has been considering new logging rules to protect salmon. Unfortunately, the Schwarzenegger administration appears to be caving in to pressure from the logging industry and has weakened the proposal so much that it won't help save salmon from extinction. Key officials in the administration have previously called for new rules to create wider streamside buffers, prevent landslides, and keep dirt out of the streams. The Board of Forestry needs to apply these protections to all endangered salmon in California, from the Sierra to the sea, to help recover this beautiful and tasty creature.

WhatYouCanDo

Contact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at:
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916)445-2841
fax: (916)445-4633
www.govmail.ca.gov

Ask him to help save the salmon by directing the Board of Forestry to adopt new salmon-protection rules.

For more information see www.sierraclubcalifornia.org

Paul Mason, Sierra Club California