Nick Pate can look across the street from his farm into Washington’s Snohomish River, where five salmon species swim to their spawning beds. The salmon are fighting a losing battle with habitat loss, declining water quality, and rising water temperatures. Chinook are among the hardest hit—less than 10 percent of their historic numbers now swim in the river.

When Nick bought his farm a little over a decade ago, he found a small creek running through it, flowing straight to the Snohomish. Its banks had been nearly stripped of vegetation. Riparian habitats—the diverse and delicate ecosystems along waterways—protect water quality and have an enormous impact on aquatic life, yet they are vanishing from Washington’s landscape. Since its statehood in 1889, Washington has lost over 50 percent of its riparian habitat. That loss is a key obstacle to salmon recovery.

Read more about this study done on private riparian habitat by Sightline Institute by following the link below.

Source: Sightline Institute | Agroforestry could help Cascadia’s Farmer’s and Dwindling Salmon Populations