Ray Ring’s article on the Alaska salmon ecosystem was the most moving thing I’ve ever read in HCN (“Ecosystems 101,” HCN, 11/25/13). I worked on a commercial salmon-fishing boat in Alaska one summer and have since considered these species to be absolutely sacred. It seems developers always have a price tag to put on the next pile of ore they’re after. What if the Columbia River ecosystem could actually be restored to its former abundance? Could we put a dollar value on that? I think God would smile on us for a move that couldn’t be measured with money. My hat is off to the researchers doing this work, and to Ring for so ably reporting it.
D. Poling
Grand Junction, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Moving words and sacred salmon.
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