Day FIVE - Santa Rosa

On the fifth day of our journey with Fin, we awoke in Santa Rosa, a beautiful wine town about an hour north of San Francisco. We drove in to let the people see Fin, doing a few circuits around their downtown and up and down Main St. We chatted with Rob Dickerson from Trout Unlimited and he wished us well. Rob is the Project Manager for TU’s North Coast Coho Project. Considering that Coho are now extinct on the Snake River and elsewhere, Rob has the noble job of making sure these runs of fish stick around on the Pacific coast. (READ MORE about recent salmon returns in the Columbia & Snake Basin.)

At noon we drove over to Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey's office to meet her staff. We were received very warmly and had a chance to discuss the campaign with them over lunch. It is clear Rep. Woolsey and her staff recognize the cultural and economic importance of salmon recovery up and down the coast by supporting solutions to the Snake River salmon crisis. READ MORE about Congressional activity on behalf of Columbia and Snake River salmon.
Special thanks to Tom, Emmie, Ed, and Jennifer for the hospitality! After taking some pictures with them, we hit the road again, pointing our Salmon south, towards San Francisco.

For us, Santa Rosa marks the end of our first leg of the Road Show (coastal Oregon and northern California), and the milestone gave us a moment to reflect on the experiences and conversations we’ve had so far.
Though Jeremy and I knew that salmon recovery in the Columbia & Snake River Basin impacts hundreds of thousands of people in the Northwest, it is eye-opening to see the connections this issue makes across the spectrum. Just in the first few days we have talked to many different people, all with similar goals.

From coastal fisherman trying to earn a living, to those whose recreation depends on healthy salmon and rivers, to the markets and their customers that choose wild salmon as a healthy food, these fish represent so much to so many people. California fishermen share the same struggles as those who depend on the Columbia & Snake Rivers in Washington and Oregon. The message from all these people is clear: Congress needs to provide leadership and address the salmon crisis in the Northwest. ADD YOUR VOICE

In the coming days we will be in Berkeley at a farmers market, in Oakland at the Zoo, in Vallejo at a congressional field hearing, in Marin for a fair and 4th of July parade, and finally at the Aquarium by the Bay in San Francisco.

Hope we see you somewhere along the road!

- Jeremy, Bobby, Buster and Fin