Farmers Rescue Fish Pt 1
I'm Bob Larson. Farmers aren't too surprised when they see their kind vilified for ignoring environmental concerns, but a Whatcom county dairy farmer recently demonstrated there's more to them than meets the eye ... of the media.Twin Brook Creamery owner Larry Stapp was notified the Double Ditch stream, that runs past his farm, was blocked ...
STAPP-3 = 17 ... "There was a blockage in the stream up in Canada where it originates which greatly diminished the water flow. So, it started drying up faster, from what I've been told by Fish and Wildlife, than what the fish could migrate north. And so, they just started finding all kinds of dead fish lying in the stream which is quite abnormal."
Stapp says it situation seemed dire ...
STAPP-4 = 22 ... "One thing led to another and I got to thinking, well this was a Friday afternoon, I said you know Saturday morning my reel is going to be in from irrigating on that field. My main line from feeding that reel lies right along the Double-Ditch for about a quarter mile. I'll just unhook the reel and turn the valve sideways and dump water in the ditch if that would be amicable to you guys? Well, it didn't take long for them to say yes."
And, Stapp says that made it easy ...
STAPP-5 = 10 ... "So, beginning Saturday morning for 48-50 hours, maybe a little longer, we just pumped our irrigation well water, that's not surface water, into the Double-Ditch which is surface water."
Tune in tomorrow and hear more about the rescue effort and how it turned out for the stranded salmon.