Farmer Rescues Salmon Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. A Whatcom County dairy farmer couldn't just stand by and do nothing recently after learning of a stream blockage was killing migrating salmon.
Twin Brook Creamery owner Larry Stapp says the turnout was great after Double Ditch creek became blocked north of the border in Canada and he began pumping his own irrigation water into the creek bed in order to keep it flowing ...
STAPP ... "And, they got to work, got their boots on and started looking for fish with their nets and by about, I would say 10 or 11 o'clock, they were notified that the obstruction had been removed up in Canada and the water started flowing again. And so, then I was able to shut my irrigation back off and hooked it back up and started do my conventional irrigation again on the crops."
But, when push comes to shove ...
STAPP ... "We get accused sometimes in Ag of not caring about the environment or the fish and this kind of stuff, and this was an opportunity for the public to see that we all can work together and a lot of it just keep the regulatory people out of our hair so we can do our work."
Stapp says it wasn't perfect, but it helped ...
STAPP ... "So, I don't think they got quite as many as they were hoping for, but you know all in all I think more got saved because we were able to keep the water flowing in the creek because that was probably the biggest factor in the salvation of the fish not dying."
Stapp says it was just a matter of working together in order to get it done.
