To the editor:

Our human lives are an eye blink in terms of evolutionary time.

Science reports that we are already 15,000 years into this next cyclical climate change cycle. The cold era which follows the heat spike is thousands of years longer than the hot era. We humans have no clue how we’ll manage these changes but science suggests and our guts know that mature trees and intact ecosystems are good defenses, like a healthy immune system. They ameliorate water loss, contribute to the breathability of the air and nurture ground productivity, as well as contribute to our human mental, spiritual and physical well-being.

I consider salmon an indicator species, like the canary in the coal mine: if salmon can thrive, so can we. As a salmon monitor for the last six years, this was the first year I witnessed no returning fish. Paul Dorn, local fish biologist, observed:

“Your data shows the adult numbers were down this year on the island which was also true of everywhere else … The low number of adult salmon this year was primarily due to warm ocean conditions on the food chain … It didn’t help that we apparently overfished the chum commercially.

I’m going to repeat what you know, but we can’t emphasize it enough — to allow salmon to thrive on the island we need to remove barrier culverts and dams, restore channelized streams, reconnect wetlands, protect existing healthy riparian areas, restore impaired riparian corridors, not mine the shallow aquifers, increase precipitation infiltration, and learn better to deal with stormwater contaminates.”

Messing with the Suzuki property doesn’t make wise common sense to me. As a culture and a community, we need to expand our imaginations and begin to think of new ways for embracing the needs of our time while preserving, conserving and honoring the few healthy ecosystems that remain on our island home. All life depends on them.

DEBORAH MILTON

Bainbridge Island