letters

Keeping Salmon Wild

The kids of Casa Grande High School, Tom Furrer, and United Anglers have done a great job and deserve credit for cleaning up Adobe Creek. I trust that they understand the biology of wild steelhead and coho in relation to the hatchery project.

Wild, naturally produced steelhead and salmon reproduce in "redds." Redds are nests which returning adult female steelhead dig in special gravel (pea gravel), in the stream bed where water conditions are best for them. The eggs are fertilized by the male and deposited in the gravel. Each female deposits about 3,000 eggs, but only a few survive. The survivors swim up out of the gravel and exist and grow, by virtue of their own cunning and strength, for two years in their home stream. At the age of two years, when six to eight inches long, they migrate to the ocean as "smolts." After two years in the ocean they return to the home stream as adult steelhead to repeat the process. Due to predation, droughts, floods, siltation, and pollution, less than one percent of the 3,000 eggs reach adulthood. This weeding-out, sifting, and culling is part of natural selection.

There can be no natural selection in a hatchery. Fish here are produced by artificial means, a form of genetic engineering. Loading a stream with these homogenized fish finishes off whatever remnants of wild fish might remain. Because of crowding, hatchery fish may introduce diseases into the wild populations. Perhaps worst of all, the essential element of genetic diversity may be lost. Before a hatchery is started, every effort must be made to find and identify the stocks and sub-stocks of native wild fish and their special habitats, then take the necessary steps to protect and preserve them.

Hatcheries are not a substitute for wild protection.

H. Joseph, M.D.
Vallejo, California

Tom Furrer responds: We are cognizant of Dr. Joseph's concerns and our facility could more accurately be called a research station than a hatchery. The native steelhead trout have responded well to the students' restoration work in Adobe Creek, demonstrated by the increase in the young fish population. It makes no sense for us to capture returning steelhead for the purpose of putting artificially raised fish on top of naturally occurring young. The biggest problems these fish face today are poaching, pollution, and stream-side degradation. We invite anyone to help or come and see the grand efforts these young people are accomplishing.

Whose Sierra Buttes?

"A Trail Less Traveled" (California Wild, Fall 1998) gave me much pleasure, as one who views the Sierra Buttes and the Lakes Basin that they dominate as very special places–not only for being a geologist's and naturalist's classroom, but also because they remain little-known and little-developed areas of outstanding beauty and tranquility in the northern Sierra.

Alas, it appears that this may be about to change! In the Sierra Buttes/Lake Basin there are a few pockets of privately owned land, and some of these are now being sold for vacation residences. This is something that most of us, in our naivete, had not considered a possibility in what should be a totally "protected" area.

In the Sardine Lakes area, houses close to the lakes, one highly visible, are already in the planning process and could possibly proceed without E.I.R.s. One looks at what has happened at Lake Tahoe and wonders if we may already be at the top of a "slippery slope." What can be done?

Sierra County is a small rural county, sparsely populated. Can the rest of us not offer them help? Wallace Stegner described it as "a place good for the spiritual health of all, and far away from the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment."

Maureen Meikle
Tiburon, California

Away from Animism

I have recently become a member of the Academy and have been enjoying your fine magazine with its scholarly content and elegant writing. Thank you.

I do object, however, to Lisa Owens-Viani's casual slap on the hand to Christianity in her article on Richard Tenaza. She writes, "Many factors have contributed to the problem, including the introduction of Christianity, which, says Tenaza, destroyed many of the animistic practices that had maintained harmony between the people and the natural environment." In a well-researched scientific publication, such as your own, it is incumbent on you to state only that which has as its basis in logical thought and argument. Here, Ms. Owens-Viani makes quite a leap from the fact that animistic practices have waned (I note the emotional use of the word "destroyed") and that Christianity has been introduced to the problem of Mentawai Island primates being more at risk. In what specific way is Christianity to blame for the depletion of these primates?

Ms. Owens-Viani goes on to say that "animals once hunted only occasionally for religious ceremonies are now hunted frequently. Instead of poisoned arrows, men and boys now use air rifles loaded with poisoned pellets because it takes less time to buy a can of pellets than to make arrows. While some animals are shot for food, others are shot for their cash value. Much of this money is spent on tobacco, which was first brought here by sea-faring traders. Many of the indigenous people are addicted to nicotine. 'Their biggest problem in the morning,' says Tenaza, 'is how to get tobacco for the day.'" Now, how many of these lamentable occurrences are directly linked to the introduction of Christianity in this culture, and in what way? Your stab at the spread of this religion seems poorly supported by the ensuing material and certainly would not be condoned in a fine publication, such as yours, if its target were Judaism or some other religion.

Jenn Gaskin
San Francisco, California

Richard Tenaza responds: Christianity is among the several introduced changes in Mentawai that have increased killing of the islands' primates. Prior to Christianization, the Mentawai celebrated periodic ritual periods called "punen," which required that men go hunting to provide meat for the celebration. The most commonly captured animals were (and are) primates, particularly the snub-nosed pig-tailed langur, Simias concolor. With Christianity, Sunday became punen day; consequently in many villages men began hunting primates every week. Thus hunts that previously were separated by months began occurring weekly, increasing the number of primates killed. Reporting these facts was not meant to be an attack on Christianity.

(For more on the effects of the spread of Christianity on the environment, see "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis," by Lynn White: Science 155:3767 [1967]. –LOV)

San Jose State Boosters

What does Associate Editor Blake Edgar have against San Jose State University? In his Winter 1999 article about the genetic research Chris Brinegar is doing on coastal redwoods, he never once mentions that Chris is a professor at San Jose State University, where he is also an outstanding and popular instructor in the Biology Department as well as an outstanding researcher. Without exception, the affiliation of every other person mentioned in the entire magazine is given.

All right, Mr. Edgar, grit your teeth and say out loud, "San Jose State University" ten times.

Diane R. Conradson
San Jose, California

Chris Brinegar's affiliation was inadvertently deleted. San Jose State University, San Jose State University... San Jose State University...San Jose State University...San Jose State University, San Jose State University...San Jose State University, San Jose State University...San Jose State University, San Jose State University...Ed.

Albino White Fir

During June 1996, while traipsing the dusty trail to the top of Brokeoff Mountain in Lassen Volcanic National Park, I found a plant that was not in any plant key. The ground was thickly matted with green white fir seedlings, and conspicuous among them was a white one–it could only be an albino white fir.

As an albino, it lacked chlorophyll, without which it can't produce sugars from carbon dioxide (photosynthesize). Without this source of energy, it was destined to die. It was, in fact, living off the stored food given to it by its mother.

I knew that I was looking at a rare phenomenon, but I was surprised to learn that it was indeed more rare than I thought. I have spoken with a number of experienced outdoors people, including foresters, and they had never seen one in the wild. It is hard to do research on such a rare phenomenon. The albino appearance was probably caused by a recessive mutation. Frank Sorensen, with the USDA Forest Service at Oregon State University, estimates that perhaps as few as one in 25,000 white fir seedlings is an albino.

The chances of seeing one are further reduced by the fact that the life of such a seedling is so short. But, who knows what other wonders you will find in our California mountains if you keep your eyes on the ground and your camera ready.

Steven C. Price
Madison, WI