YEAR 2 7 , DISTRICT A VOLUME 2 7 , ISSUE 3 TRIBUTARY TRIBUNE STORIES AND ART BY CORPSMEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA CONSERVATION CORPS WATERSHED STEWARDS PROGRAM, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICORPS IN THIS ISSUE Page # A New Day Dawning on the 1-2 Klamath Art by Erin Phillips Diversity in Fisheries 2-3 Professionals: A Hidden A NEW DAY DAWNING ON Population Bottleneck? 4 River Time THE KLAMATH 5 BY: THEO CLAIRE-MCKOWN, SERVING AT CALIFORNIA Stay Positive; I'm Trying DEPARTMENT OF FISH & WILDLIFE YREKA The Good, the Bad, the Ugly of 5-6 Iron Gate Dam emerges from the fog as I round the bend, a reddish earthen Juvenile Salmonid Variation wall where the Klamath River should be. Of California’s 1,500 dams, the 6-7 earth-fill slump of PacifiCorp’s Iron Gate isn’t anything special, really. This Salmon Dance dam, though, is one of the reasons I am excited to work in the Klamath 8 Watershed: this dam, and three others upstream, are coming out. EDNA Debate around the four lower dams on the Klamath stretches back decades, Digital Outreach 9 spanning water rights, water quality, and the health of the Klamath’s salmon fishery. After the license of the dams expired in the early 2000’s and White Nose Bat Syndrome 10 environmental retrofitting proved prohibitively expensive, PacifiCorp reached an agreement with state and tribal governments to remove Iron Gate November Observations at 10-11 Dam, J.C. Boyle Dam, and Copco #1 and #2. George Geary 11-12 CONTINUED ON PG. 2 Alumni Spotlight WATERSHED STEWARDS PROGRAM PAGE 1 KLAMATH DAM, CONTINUED FROM PG. 1 Decisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission complicated things and the original dates for the project came and went. Salmon populations continued to decline. The dam removals have been making headlines again recently: late last year, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he and Oregon Governor Kate Brown had committed their states as co-licensees to the four dams and were committing to dam removal. The new date: dams out by 2022. This is a cause of celebration for the salmon and their advocates, and especially for the Karuk, Yurok, and Hupa peoples who have deep kinship relationships with salmon. “This dam removal is more than just a concrete project coming down. It’s a new day and it’s a new era for California tribes,” said Yurok Tribe Chairman Joseph James.1 Because of the defining role salmon play in their ecosystems, they are considered to be keystone species. Salmon are also a cultural keystone species, meaning that they play a “unique role in shaping and characterizing the identity of people who rely on them.”2 THIS DAM REMOVAL IS MORE THAN JUST A CONCRETE PROJECT COMING DOWN. IT IS A NEW DAY AND IT'S A NEW Iron Gate Dam Photo credit: Theo Claire-McKnown ERA FOR CALIFORNIA TRIBES. Indigenous communities in Northern California have argued that by contributing to the destruction of salmon populations, the four dams have acted as DIVERSITY IN FISHERIES “weapons of mass destruction” and that salmon PROFESSIONALS: A extinction constitutes “cultural genocide.”3,4,5 Kari Norgaard, who works and researches with the Karuk HIDDEN POPULATION Tribe and teaches at the University of Oregon, asserts that environmental degradation such as the decline of BOTTLENECK? salmon “become[s] the leading edge of genocide.”6 BY: KATE STONECYPHER, SERVING AT In June 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom offered a CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIF ARCATA formal apology for the California Genocide and called Recent social and political upheaval over issues of race and equality for truth and reconciliation. Salmon restoration in the United States have led many to question implicit and explicit projects, such as the Klamath dam removals, are an biases in our country, our workplaces, and ourselves. Many important way of putting these promises for workplaces, including government agencies such as the California reconciliation into practice. Department of Fish and Wildlife, have initiated Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JEDI) efforts in response. 1 Kasler, D. and R. Sabalow “California, Oregon to take over dams controlled by Warren Buffett. The plan: tear them down.” The Sacramento Bee, 2020. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article247242289.html These efforts are aimed at identifying and addressing the social and 2 Garibaldi, A. and N. Turner “Cultural Keystone Species” Implications for Ecological Conservation and Restoration.” Ecology and Society 9 (3): 1, 2004. structural factors contributing to a lack of representation for women, 3 McConnel, H. “Remove the Dams on the Klamath River” in Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground. eds. Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, July Oskar-Cole, and Laura Allen. NY: people of color, and LGBTQ+ people. Soft Skull Press, 2007. p.258-261 4 Sisk, C. “Address to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.” 2001. https://vimeo.com/2255757. 5 Kingston, L. (2015) “The Destruction of Identity: Cultural Genocide and Indigenous DIVERSITY IN FISHERIES, Peoples.” Journal of Human Rights 14, 2015. 6 Norgaard, K. “Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action.” Rutgers University Press, 2019. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 WATERSHED STEWARDS PROGRAM PAGE 2 DIVERSITY IN FISHERIES, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 It’s no secret that science, technology, What about diversity within the field Addressing these inequities is crucial engineering, and math (STEM) fields of fisheries management? While the to the advancement of our field and have historically been dominated by number of women belonging to the the creation of a more just society. white males, and while the number of American Fisheries Society has Numerous studies have affirmed that women and people of color attaining increased from 9% to 25% in recent improving diversity and STEM degrees has increased, these years, non-white membership has representation in science enhances changes are poorly reflected within only risen from 5.5% to 8% (Penaluna innovation and quality of research the workforce (NSF 2019). While et al 2017). A recent study found that (Swartz et al 2019). Although the women hold 47% of jobs in the United while 52% of biological science diversity of fisheries professionals is States, only 23% of federal scientists, degrees are awarded to women each not yet representative of the engineers, and technical experts are year, just 26% of federal fisheries diversity of our country, it has been women (NOAA 2020). These statistics scientists are women. 31% of my honor and pleasure to work are even more alarming for people of biological science degrees are alongside WSP’s diverse color and women of color in awarded to people of color each year, Corpsmembers. I look forward to particular. A 2021 report prepared by but only 26% of fisheries scientists witnessing the progression of their the United States House Committee on are people of color: 9% of federal careers and the continued Science, Space, and Technology fisheries scientists are black, 4% are improvement of diversity within our revealed that less than 4% of NOAA’s Hispanic, 12% are Asian, and 1% field. scientists are black, and only 1.3% are identify as a different race Arismendi, I. and Penaluna, B. 2016. Examining Diversity Inequities in Fisheries Science: A Call to Action. Bioscience 66(7):584-591. black women. (Arismendi and Penaluna 2016). This National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 2007. Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women disparity indicates that a bottleneck in Academic Science and Engineering. Washington, D.C.: The National Academic Press. ADDRESSING THESE for diversity exists somewhere within National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2020. In Their Own Words: Women Doing NOAA’s Work. NOAA Women’s Employee Resource the population of fisheries INEQUITIES IS CRUCIAL TO Group. professionals. Notably, this gender National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering THE ADVANCEMENT OF Statistics. 2019. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science data is binary and relied on self- and Engineering: 2019. Special Report NSF 19-304. Alexandria, VA. Penaluna, B., Arismendi, I., Moffitt, C., and Penney, Z. 2017. Nine Proposed OUR FIELD AND THE reporting. There is currently little Action Areas to Enhance Diversity and Inclusion in the American Fisheries Society. Fisheries 42(8):399-402. CREATION OF A MORE data on the number of LGBTQ+ Swartz, T., Palermo, A., Masur, S., and Aberg., J. 2019. The Science and Value of people working in fisheries. Diversity: Closing the Gaps in Our Understanding of Inclusion and Diversity. JUST SOCITY The Journal of Infectious Diseases 220(2):33-41. "May your rivers run redd May your jacks be nimble May the reverence you hold For salmonids and their habitats Never dwindle" - Erin Phillips Art by Erin Phillips WATERSHED STEWARDS P R O G R A M P A G E 3 ABOUT THE WATERSHED STEWARDS PROGRAM Since 1994, the Watershed Stewards Program (WSP) has been engaged in comprehen- sive, community-based, watershed restoration and education throughout coastal California. WSP was created in 1994 by California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) biologists, educators, and the California Conservation Corps Artwork By: Ana Rubio to fill critical gaps in scientific data collection, in-stream RIVER TIME restoration, and watershed BY: ANA RUBIO -SERVING AT SIX RIVERS education. In collaboration NATIONAL FOREST ORLEANS with landowners, tribal Crispy blue sky with a spray of white clouds. communities, teachers, community members, Mountainous slopes with mixed deciduous and evergreen trees falling nonprofit organizations, and steadily into the Salmon River. government agencies, WSP The river roars as it slithers around a bend down a riffle and back into a clear works to revitalize blue pool. watersheds that contain Underneath the surface lie fish of all kinds, chinook, coho, and even endangered and threatened steelhead, that consume the small macroinvertebrates inhabiting the salmonid species (Chinook interstitial space of the river bottom.