Scott Schuyler doesn’t need to see the Skagit River to know something is wrong. It has been harvested for money.”Schuyler is a member of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe, which has lived along the Skagit River for at least 8,400 years and considers it to be sacred. The battle over the Skagit River and its dams is in some ways a proxy battle over the hidden expense of fighting climate change. This winter the Skagit River, which is Puget Sound’s largest river, had less than 4,000 steelhead migrate up the Skagit to spawn; Schuyler said his tribe’s allotment was only 75 individual fish. The Board of Commissioners for Skagit county wrote an open letter criticizing the Seattle utility, calling “the status quo” on the Skagit River, “unacceptable”.

Source: The Guardian March 05, 2021 10:52 UTC