Save Our Wild Salmon, a nationwide coalition devoted to restoring the Pacific Northwest wild salmon population,
is just finishing up a Washington D.C. lobby trip this week, which included a number of outdoor industry members.
The goal of the trip is to get representation from the outdoor industry into the offices of policy makers on Capitol Hill. The timing of this trip is critical as there is a bill in front of the U.S. House of Representatives at this time, the Salmon Planning Act. Outdoor industry members Gareth Martins of Osprey Packs, river guide Jim Norton, Dave Knutson of Chaco, John Sterling of the Conservation Alliance, Lisa Meyers of Patagonia, Mark Rockwell, Federation of Fly Fishers, Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association are in
attendance.
Participants are on Capitol Hill to attend meetings in both the U.S. House
of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
While visiting with policy makers, attendees will also be sharing why their
industry and their businesses care about salmon recovery in the Northwest.
Owners of these and other businesses rely on upon healthy populations of
salmon and steelhead and the cool, clean waters that sustain them to ensure
that fishing and other outdoor recreational activities are available to
their customers. Unfortunately these valuable economic and natural resources
have declined precipitously in recent years. Support from congressional
leaders to develop good information and sensible planning on behalf of wild
salmon and steelhead would help to protect business interests and fishing
and recreation-dependent economies all along the Pacific coast and beyond.
