Global Warming Is Pushing Pacific Salmon to the Brink, Federal Scientists Warn

The fish, critical to local economies and the food chain, were already under pressure from human infrastructure like dams.  Climate change is turning up the heat.

Pacific salmon that spawn in Western streams and rivers have been struggling for decades to survive water diversions, dams and logging.  Now, global warming is pushing four important populations in California, Oregon, and Idaho toward extinction, federal scientists warn in a new study.

The new research shows that several of the region's salmon populations are now bumping into temperature limits, with those that spawn far inland after lengthy summer stream migrations and those that spend a lot of time in coastal habitats like river estuaries among the most at risk.

That includes Chinook salmon in California's Central Valley and in the Columbia and Willamette River basins in Oregon; coho salmon in parts of Northern California and Oregon; and sockeye salmon that reach the Snake River Basin in Idaho, all of which are already on the federal endangered species list.

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