Giving Compass' Take:
- A report at Environmental News Network exposes the ineptitudes of California dams in preserving salmon populations in cold-water conservation efforts.
- How can we use data and new research to impact changes across cold-water conservation efforts? What are you doing to support data collection that can drive effective solutions for climate change?
- Read about how dams have reduced the benefits of the world's longest rivers.
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Dams poorly mimic the temperature patterns California streams require to support the state’s native salmon and trout — more than three-quarters of which risk extinction. Bold actions are needed to reverse extinction trends and protect cold-water streams that are resilient to climate warming, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE by the University of California, Davis.
The study helps identify where high-quality, cold-water habitat remains to help managers prioritize conservation efforts.
“It is no longer a good investment to put all our cold-water conservation eggs in a dam-regulated basket,” said lead author Ann Willis, a senior staff researcher at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and a fellow for the John Muir Institute of the Environment. “We need to consider places where the natural processes can occur again.”
Read the full report about cold-water conservation from the University of California - Davis at Environmental News Network.