fatehbaz:

The Columbia River Basin extends through what is now known as Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia, as well as land belonging to the Yakama Nation. For millennia the basin has been home to the white sturgeon, a traditionally significant and abundant food source. The boom in caviar exports of the 1870s caused a steep decline in white sturgeon populations, and more recently, hydroelectric damming and climate change have threatened the habitat of these migratory fish. The population decline was reversed when the Yakama Nation began to undertake concerted restoration efforts. With a mission to revitalize […] white sturgeon in the mid-Columbia River and Lower Snake reservoirs, Yakama Nation Fisheries is bringing the species back.

For millennia, the Yakama people have resided in central Washington’s plateau and the Columbia River Basin. Throughout their history they utilized the entire landscape, from the Cascade Mountains to the riparian lowlands. To sustain their communities, some tribal members would seek game and edible plants in valleys and on the mountainside. Others would fish for white sturgeon, among other species of fish abundant in the basin. 

The largest freshwater fish found in North America, white sturgeon are reported to grow up to 20 feet in length and can weigh almost a ton. Some individuals have also reached an age of 100 years.

The 1800s saw not only the exploitation of white sturgeon for caviar, but intense conflicts over Native sovereignty and fishing rights. The influx of U.S. settlers beginning in the 1830s led to several treaties ceding Native land to the U.S. and British governments. In the Stevens Treaties of 1854 and 1855, 23 tribal groups and Native nations of the Pacific Northwest ceded approximately 64 million acres of land to the United States. Having been dispossessed of an incredible amount of land, […] Native nations considered the fishing clauses of the treaties to be among the most valuable provisions accorded. These clauses reserved the right of tribes to healthy habitats for species spawning upstream of tribal fishing sites, including sturgeon. In spite of these protections, the Columbia River Basin as it exists today is nearly unrecognizable from what it once was. In 1888, sturgeon fisheries were established along the Columbia River for the sole purpose of harvesting caviar, driving the white sturgeon to near extinction. Then, the construction of hydroelectric dams in the 1930s significantly fragmented the habitat of the white sturgeon.

Evidence points to climate change and glacier retreat as additional factors in river health and habitat viability. Though Mt. Adams and the Mazama Glacier lie within the Yakama Nation, Mauri Pelto, professor of environmental science at Nichols College, explained that meltwater inputs to the Columbia River come primarily from glaciers north of the U.S.-Canada border. Their contribution to the waterway becomes most important during warm, dry spells, when glacier melt spikes. […]

Through all of the environmental and political challenges over the centuries, the Yakama Nation continues to steward the Columbia River Basin and, beginning in 2009, established a program to revitalize white sturgeon populations. […] [T]he hatchery has released over 91,000 juvenile sturgeon to date.

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Headline, photos, captions, and all text published by: Grace Palmer. “Yakama Nation fishery succeeds in restoring Columbia River sturgeon.” GlacierHub. 26 June 2020.

Distribution range of white sturgeon in the Columbia River basin:

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