Creeks To Turn Red & Salmon Recovery Report Gone Digital

Creeks To Turn Red & Salmon Recovery Report Gone Digital

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

During the weeks of July 15 and 22 the Washington Department of Ecology will be releasing a harmless red-orange, fluorescent dye into the Germany, Mill and Abernathy creeks, west of Longview. The dye, which is harmless to fish, wildlife, and humans, aides researchers in measuring current speeds through different sections of a stream. Information gathered is then used to help scientists determine whether actions to restore salmon habitat are working. All three creeks are tributaries to the Lower Columbia River. DOE has received permission to access the sampling sites.

The mandated biennial State of Salmon in Watersheds report can now be found in digital form at stateofsalmon.wa.gov. In the past this was a printed 150 page paper report, which was mailed out to its target audience, which consists primarily of elected officials and salmon recovery partners. Jennifer Johnson, Recovery Implementation Coordinator with the Governor’s Salmon Recovery office explains why the report went digital.

JOHNSON: It was costing us around $56 thousand every time to produce it, and then the mailing costs. We wanted to be able to provide more accessibility of the data to the general public and our salmon recovery partners.

Johnson says there was another reason for going digital.

JOHNSON: We also wanted to be able to collaborate with our partners- tribal partners, local partners, city and county government, non-profits, using a content management system on the web so that they could actually enter data and information themselves, and then we could go back and forth and work with that information.

To view the 2012 State of Salmon in Watersheds report visit stateofsalmon.wa.gov.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.