Thumbs up: Teaming up to save endangered salmon

California’s commercial salmon season was delayed three months this year, the latest evidence that one of the West Coast’s most productive fisheries is in peril. With two long droughts in the past dozen years, salmon stocks have been decimated. And ongoing congressional efforts to divert water from fisheries to farms mean that a return to wet winters may not be enough. So we welcome the formation of a new coalition of public and private interests dedicated to restoring some of California’s most important salmon-producing rivers and tributaries.

Under a partnership agreement signed this week, 21 organizations formed the Central Valley Salmon Habitat Partnership. The group is committed to developing and finding funding for habitat restoration efforts to protect and restore endangered salmon.

Among the charter members are the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the state Department of Water Resources, Cal Trout, the Golden Gate Salmon Association and the Pacific Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “The successful recovery of any threatened species requires cooperation from many parties,” state Resources Secretary John Laird said. The future of California’s salmon fishing industry could ride on their success.