SLOW FOOD LAS VEGAS

Learn why Nevadans should be concerned about wild salmon

Did you know that Nevada was once home to abundant wild salmon and steelhaead? Thats right, four rivers in northern Nevada the Owyhee, Bruneau, Jarbidge and Salmon Falls Creek once supported abundant runs of wild salmon and steelhead.

Dozens of old newspaper stories talk about fishing parties, and salmon hauled into town by the wagon load to be sold in local markets in Elko and Tuscarora. These fish were so important to the people in northern Neveda that in the late 1800s, the state legislature even passed laws requiring any dams built in Nevada to provide safe passage for salmon swimming up or down the rivers.

Neveda’s fish passage law was enacted to protect our fisheries, so that future generations would continue to enjoy the bounty of our rivers. However, in the first part of the 20th century, dams built downstream, in other states began to block passage of salmon and steelhead. By early 1930s there were no more salmon or steelhead in Nevada.

“Salmon and trout were never half so plentiful in the Owyheeand its tributaries as they were this season... They are sometimes found at the heads of the smallest streams where one would think there was scarcely water enough to swim a tadpole” - Tuscarora Times-Review, May 9, 1885

Restore Nevada’s salmon heritage

Contact your elected representative TODAY