In Brief: Salmon, conifers, and rivers, in other words, which symbolize the Pacific Northwest, where battles to preserve forests, streams, and wildlife have raged for years. With a hostile administration in Washington, the struggle continues.

The towering, ancient trees of the Northwest have always been the source of its mythic salmon and its clear, cold-running streams. Together these fish, trees and water form the essence of the coastal temperate rainforests that once blanketed the Pacific coast from the redwoods of northern California to Kodiak Island in Alaska.

In the last century, however, the enduring and stable relationship between the ancient forests, the rivers, and the salmon has steadily unraveled. From south to north, the coastal temperate rainforests are being destroyed in the interest of the global timber markets, agriculture, and urban development. Even the great remaining stronghold of the temperate rainforests, the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, is at risk. Loss of forest cover has drastically altered the quality, quantity, and character of water flowing in streams, from the tiniest trickle to major river systems. Deprived of undisturbed habitat, many salmon populations, especially south of Alaska, have vanished and others continue to dwindle toward extinction.

Despite broad public recognition of the need for immediate and dramatic action to preserve the coastal temperate rainforests, government agencies again and again fail to protect these resources, as the law requires. Political allies of resource industries seek to roll back even the existing environmental statutes. And the industries themselves continue to pursue short-term profit at the expense of tomorrow's natural heritage.

Earthjustice's Fish Trees Water Campaign seeks to protect and restore these unique forest ecosystems through the enforcement of environmental laws, policy advocacy, and public education and outreach through the media.

Fish

Earthjustice continues to actively monitor federal agencies and proposed private actions to ensure that real protections are afforded threatened and endangered salmon and their habitats. We also have returned to court under the Endangered Species Act and other laws to force agencies to take action.

Trees

Earthjustice continues to work to create a shift toward logging practices on Northwest national forests that take into account diverse values such as wildlife, water quality and recreation, as well as timber. Also, in addition to the challenge to the threatened salmon and steelhead rule described above, we are pursuing critical cases that focus on forestry practices on state and private lands. As in the past, our work to protect temperate rainforests also extends across the border to Canada and north to Alaska.

Water

The Columbia River Basin was once the greatest salmon watershed in the world, teeming annually with migrating fish. Today the waters of this river system and its tributaries are plagued with the silt of erosion from logging, agricultural runoff, hydropower dams, water diversions for irrigation, municipal waste, and more. Earthjustice is working to compel government agencies to follow the peoples' lead and make the choices that will restore Snake and Columbia salmon, including choosing to bypass the four lower Snake River dams. While we are fighting for adequate water quality and quantity throughout the Northwest, the strategic challenges described below occupy a significant portion of our attorneys' time and resources and are illustrative of the types of litigation in which we are engaged.