A bit of Cascadian trivia: Cascadia just got some of its water back – or will soon.
Cascadia’s boundaries are defined by the watersheds of the rivers that flow through North America’s temperate rainforests. But there are two places where governments have diverted rainforest rivers to the east to feed irrigation canals: one near the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon, the other near the Trinity Alps of northern California. Since 1964, some 90 percent of the waters of the Trinity River have been sluiced into the Sacramento River rather than running westward to the Pacific. As a result most of the Trinity’s wild salmon have disappeared.
Two northern California tribes, the Hoopa and the Yurok, just won a court case that should put at least half of the river back in its natural bed. Salmon restoration will follow.
