What a wonderful awards ceremony!

Thank you to everyone who attended or otherwise supported the 44th Annual Environmentalist of the Year Awards on November 8, 2017! We have photos of the evening in the album below, as well as on our facebook page — enjoy!

This year’s honorees were as follows:

Jennifer Wood of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Sacramento (Environmentalist of the Year)

Lower American River Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Projects (Environmentalist of the Year – Habitat)

March for Science Sacramento (Environmentalist of the Year – Innovation)

Robert Meagher (Environmentalist of the Year – Volunteer of the Year)

As always, the awards ceremony was hosted by the Environmental Council of Sacramento.

Photos compliments of the talented photographer and ECOS volunteer, Anny Huang. Thank you Anny!

[Show slideshow]

City Light Impacts on Declining Salmon Populations

March 21, 2017

ECOS submitted the following letter with concerns about outdoor lighting on the Sacramento riverfront and its effects on local salmon populations, such as the endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, which are particularly important among California’s salmon runs because they exhibit a life-history strategy found nowhere else on the West Coast.

Read the full letter by clicking here.

600,000 Baby Salmon Head to the Pacific, With a Little Help

National Geographic
February 24, 2015

“The California drought, the state’s worst on record, has taken a terrible toll on those already-diminished winter Chinook salmon runs.

It’s not just that there isn’t enough water; there’s not enough cold water, especially after competing interests such as urban areas and big agriculture—each equipped with more political muscle than wild salmon advocates have—take their share. In 2014, the percentage of baby salmon that survived to head downstream was the worst that fishery officials had ever seen. In a normal year, about 25 percent of the eggs produce baby salmon healthy enough to migrate downstream; last year, with only 5 percent surviving their infancy in the unusually warm water, nearly the whole winter run was wiped out.

That’s why hatchery workers tripled the fish in the truck-lift this month.”