This court case was in the Pacific NW, where salmon are an important species, historically, ecologically, and economically. The optimal steam conditions for their spawning are well known. That includes relatively clean gravels. Too much silt is bad, but so is bare bedrock. The surrounding hillsides are typically steep, but well vegetated. Heavy silting after rain storms is not common, though there are occasional landslides.
Urban development, logging, and roads have all been shown to produce changes in run off and in its sediment load. These changes not only affect the salmon, but also communities downstream, making them more vulnerable to flooding.
As a historical note, one of the first cases of environmental law arose in California over sedimentation. Specifically farmers in the Sacramento area objected to the vast amounts of sediment that washed on to their land as a result of hydraulic mining in the mountains. This dates back to the second half of the 1800s.
The Colorado is not a salmon stream. Sediment plays a different role. Dams have produced more changes than roads, since they block much of the sediment. They experimented with some high volume discharges from Glen Canyon trying see if they could restore some of the sandbars in the Grand Canyon portion.
), and preaching against it is insane, but it is also my old backyard. anyone from az, or nevada, you know what, it's not the same where you are. we get a lot more rain, and have a lot more trees, and have a lot of fish to boot. fish that are part of the life cycle we are recording as suffering. a lot of this run off is unavoidable once you fell the forest, considering the forest is what is, duh, holding down the dirt. dirt goes in small streams, clogs salmon runs, salmon runs get less and less every year, orcas and other animals like local fisherman suffer the hit. i will tell you, a few years ago when i took my excursion to alaska, on my return trip my now wife and i went through a town in canada, and we counted at least 7 operating log mills. in one town. i know there have been massive closures of lumber companies nationwide, and i feel for those who are out of a job, but it may be a strong indicator of the changes that need to be made. i don't want them to close what we have now in terms of off pavement travel, but when they see a lumber company blaze a trail through a perfectly good forrest, i see why they would be up in arms, and look for whatever victory they could get, no matter how seemingly petty or cheap. the recession is hurting many right now, take it from someone with little hope of finding work in one of the worse off areas in the country for my line of work, but i am okay with it if it keeps them cutting less.
