Day 20: Phoenix - Take me out to the ball game!

What goes together better than baseball and Salmon?

What better way to kick off our Arizona leg of the Wild Salmon Road Show than a Sunday afternoon with America’s pastime: Baseball!

Buster is a fan (the Florida Marlins are his favorite MLB team) and a player (see below) and he most certainly was a hit with Phoenix residents.

Because only three Snake River sockeye returned in 2006, this card is an extremely rare find.

Baseball fans are known for their love of statistics. Let’s review a breakdown of Snake River salmon stats.

Behind the Numbers – Hard-hitting Facts about Salmon Recovery:

$7 billion: Number of US taxpayer dollars (that’s you too Arizona!) spent on previous salmon “recovery” plans that have led only to more failure. That is well above the salary cap Americans are willing to pay for illegal programs.

3: Number of Snake River sockeye salmon that returned to their spawning grounds in 2006. Three strikes and these salmon are out, extinct, forever.

Up to 90%: Percentage of out-migrating juvenile salmon that are killed by the dams in the Columbia-Snake Rivers on their way out to the Pacific. This means the dams' are batting close to a thousand in the salmon killing average.

Average 4%: Percentage of peak power generation provided by the four lower Snake River for the Pacific Northwest. These dams are “run-of-the-river” dams, where power is based on river flow that varies widely throughout the year. Sound investments in real renewable energy can bring sustainable solutions that replace these out-dated and lethal dams.

3: Number of federal salmon plans that have been ruled illegal in federal court for failing salmon, salmon-dependent communities, and American taxpayers.

Attention Federal Agencies: Salmon Recovery is Not a Game!

Congress: End this vicious cycle in the courts and
Call for real recovery!