The new NWIFC News features a story about the concerns of the Quinault Indian Nation about shrinking glaciers that feed two major coastal rivers. From the magazine:
The glaciers that feed the Queets and Quinault rivers are just fractions of their size today from a few decades ago. As they recede, they threaten salmon stocks important to the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN).
“These glaciers once provided large amounts of cold water year round that maintained higher summer flows,” said Tyler Jurasin, QIN operations section manager. Lower flows mean less habitat for spring/summer chinook runs in the Queets and Quinault rivers on the Olympic Peninsula, which already face many other threats to their survival.
“In addition to lower summertime flows, we are dealing with a lot of sediment released by the retreat of the Humes and Anderson glaciers,” Jurasin said.
You can download the entire magazine or any in the archives here. You can also read it at slideshare and scribd.
