Conservation Deadline & Bad News For Salmon

Conservation Deadline & Bad News For Salmon plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Mark Rose of Natural Resources Conservation Service says there is a deadline coming up for some programs.

ROSE: It’s going to be up to the state conservationists discretion to when they’re going to announce it and a lot of it is going to depend on, in some cases the initiative that’s being promoted either through working lands for wildlife or EQUIP/WHIP. It could also depend on the funds available. In other words that particular initiative may have already received enough applications and funding has been obligated so there’s not additional opportunities during the fiscal year just yet.

It has taken 60 years but a study says that there is some bad news in the offing for salmon. The study show the hottest temperatures of summer and the lowest water levels of fall are converging and that convergence gives salmon less time to recover from the stress of warm water before the stress of low water hits -- 20 to 30 days less time. Climate change is being cited as the cause for the convergence. Stream flow records from 22 sites in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Montana and Idaho were studied over 60 years.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Fall back, spring forward. I’m sure Daylight Saving Time made sense once for industrial and economic reasons, as for now, maybe not so much. It takes days for most of us to get our body clocks back in sync. Supposedly, it’s a proven scientific fact that going back and forth with the time has a profoundly negative effect on the human body’s internal clock, resulting in all sorts of negative vibes that affect our driving and working; completely throwing us off for days, even weeks. Back in the seventies it was thought that the continuation of Daylight Saving Time would result in the saving of energy. Now, studies show that it actually uses more energy. When asked whether they support the time changes, most people admit that it just doesn’t make sense to them. Even families are split when it comes to the Daylight Saving Time debate. Being up here in the northwest part of the country where the fall time change has it getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon has me against it. My son, however, is for it. My husband very smartly takes the Swedish approach, and stays neutral. How about this, we meet in the middle. Move the time a half an hour either way and leave it there.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.