Neighbors Along the Riverbed Episode 7: Interconnectedness

Neighbors Along the Riverbed Episode 7: Interconnectedness

Mickey Morgan 0:09
The topic in this episode of neighbors along the riverbed is interconnectedness. And before we get into it, it's important to acknowledge that these conversations took place on the lands and waters of the Kumeyaay and the Muwekma Ohlone Peoples. Rather than saying these tribes and nations owned the land before settlers arrived, several native people I've heard give land acknowledgments describing the intergenerational responsibility to steward the lands and waters. Indian tribes and nations and people continue the stewardship, regardless of whether they own the land they reside on or not. Stewardship is a different kind of relationship than just owning land. It's one that acknowledges how we must take care of our non human neighbors, because they're an equally important part of our community as humans are. And our survival depends on one another. I'm going to ease us in with a few clips of conversations with folks explaining different kinds of interconnectedness with salmon and steelhead they're familiar with.

Joe Sullivan 1:28
No trains on this track, but that is part of track.

Mickey Morgan 1:36
I'm also finding it interesting how many like finding it interesting how many like intersections of different species migratory pathways are like, right here, there's the water, and then there's the trains, and this bike paths, like roads, everything's kind of, it seems kind of a hub.

Joe Sullivan 1:57
Yeah, these are our trails for the park district that that we operate [that] connect to the lake. The quarry lakes that I was talking about where I originally was going to meet you, and we can still go over there if you want, is one of our parks. But it's used by the water district to recharge groundwater, but we operate, they operate the water and have the rights, the water, but we operate it as a park as well.

Mickey Morgan
Right, right, right.

Joe Sullivan
So It's kind of a cooperation between the two agencies.

Speaker 3 2:29
I came, or, when I worked at Santa Cruz, I also went to school there, I was in the ecology and evolution department. So there was a pretty heavy focus on like the connectedness of things, especially in like the, or like in the local Santa Cruz area, like how industry has affected like watersheds, or like blocking up rivers or changing the course, or even just like blocking up certain parts of those rivers. Like isolating different species from each other reducing like, the like meta-populations of that area. However, like, if I go out and like talk to my family about it, it seems like there's still sort of like an apathy about it.

Mickey Morgan
Mm, right.

CT Workshop Speaker 1 3:26
Yeah, jumping off of that one of the things that have come up for us just like what what we're steelhead neighbors need from us, they need connection, right? They need, they need the connection from, you know, from the freshwater to saltwater, all salmonids do. But they also need, you know, what, what folks have been talking about is like that those community connections and those connections and ourselves to, you know, to, to, to our relations, and and that relationship being the connection. So that's kind of one of the things that I mean, it's one of the things that CalTrout does really, really well, but also connecting the different stakeholders. I mean, it's all about, like Sandy was describing it the webs, right, the the multiple webs, but the webs, the webs are the connections from the physical connections to the metaphorical ones, to you know, the very work that we do to build those relationships.

Mickey Morgan 4:14
An example of the complex webs, ecosystems or neighborhoods is San Lorenzo Creek, which Ann from Friends of San Lorenzo Creek was able to share some local knowledge about.

Ann E. Maris 4:29
Like, this road is almost like a freeway here. And this area, you'll see when I have little maps in my story, you'll see that this area is just surrounded by these kind of streets. It's like a little triangle.

Mickey Morgan
Yeah.

Ann E. Maris
And this area is also where we have two creek influences. So like Bruce was saying it spreads out to the tributaries up here. And so just a little ways up here. I don't know if you want to see any of that but there's the you know, the creeks come together. And so those areas are are the most sacred for the native people. And those are the areas that are considered really high value archaeological dig sites, right. And so, but that that didn't even help us. And so like, the place we were trying to say this Save Ruby meadow, that place it had had research done by CalTrans archaeologists. So they dated two different civilizations back 500 years ago, and 5000 years ago.

Mickey Morgan
Yeah.

Ann E. Maris
And they and then in the old historic newspapers, you know, the, the settlers were enjoying the fish too, until they put this channel in. So right, right here, the first high school was here, of the whole area in the late 1800s.
Mickey Morgan 5:42
Oh, really?

Ann E. Maris 5:43
Where we parked, that parking lot was the high school parking lot. And it was called the old Hayward Union High School. And so the kids were able to come down in the creek and have magical moments, you know, lovers sitting on a rock, they talked about that, like, “Oh, this is where the kids like to sit” or whatever, there are bridges that kept getting wiped out, because this gets so crazy in the winter. And so there was a whole there was a there was a lot. So they really enjoyed the fishing, they were talking about, you have that in your report. So they talk about all the fish they caught. And so, so it wasn't just a resource for the Ohlone, but somehow, development was more important. Like I was reading one report about the San Lorenzo Creek that it really, you know, this flat part here was called the alluvial plain. And basically, the creek opened up and spread out there. Soon, what they want to do is get it nice and narrow in a concrete channel. But that wasn't naturally how it works.

CT Workshop Speaker 5 6:43
So I’ll jump into that, that all resonated with me a ton there. I think that, you know, our organization is lucky enough to have like one of the biggest restoration impacts on freshwater fisheries in California, period. And so we can all, you know, take a huge amount of credence in the fact that like, really no one else is doing the amount and scale of work that we're doing on the ground, which is awesome. And you know, what, what we need to think about, obviously incredibly biased from my perspective, but how do we have like that, you know, legal and policy changes that can push towards that culture, change the awareness of the importance of the ecosystem, and put it on par with, you know, other things that California supports, you know, huge economic price tags, right. I think that if we truly value this place, then we're going to have to have some major changes that not just fund restoration projects, but you know, fund the movement towards like actual personal choice change and changes within water use throughout California in order to be effective.

SCSC Workshop Speaker 3 7:46
From our group, I think we mentioned you know, looking towards other watersheds, where steelhead populations are a little bit higher abundance, or presence and seeing really, really kind of considering how those other watersheds are behaving. When we know that on average, when there is good habitat and there is the right water at the right time, you know, the species does does thrive and is able to complete their, their lifecycle. So I think our group was saying we can learn by looking at possibly other watersheds where the species might be doing quite well given habitat conditions and water.

CT Workshop Speaker 6 8:37
To me, I really think one major benefit is kind of the overall ecosystem health and how things are really connected, you know, a vibrant healthy population of steelhead in a river, you know that that's a pretty good indicator that the stream itself is healthy, and that that supports a lot of different aquatic and terrestrial all kinds of other natural processes and other species. So, to me, it's kind of really how it's all very connected, and all really kind of critical when you think about it from a holistic restoration perspective. So that's one thing I love to think about when I think about what we can learn from our steelhead neighbors.

Mickey Morgan 9:25
Do you have any knowledge or like putting the importance on the interconnectedness between like ourselves and nonhumans? For you know, for this example being salmon but also like, I don't know, trees, rivers.

Speaker 1 9:43
With animals, I think they're deeply able to feel like for example, I was driving. Like, in the countryside like here In California, and I went by several farms and there was a cow a farm full of cows and like me and my partner got out of the car and we started like petting them. And I was like looking into their eyes and it reminded me of like, my dog.

Mickey Morgan 10:19
Yeah.

Speaker 1
I was just like, I want a freakin’ cow like. But I mean, that's just an example, I guess to say that we are so used to creating mental blocks around like, oh, what is the domesticated animal versus the wild animal and what makes it okay to eat one versus the other, but that often desensitizes us to the fact that like, they can feel and love and they also like scratches, and they want to like show affection and compassion towards you. So I think I feel that connection with non human species. And also, I think something like veganism, for example, is a way to, like fight the patriarchy and also white supremacy. Because by not like colonizing a species, we're not further perpetuating that as well. So I see that intersection with like feminism and veganism and in my reasons, toward, like for taking that, like political stance.

Mickey Morgan 11:37
Regardless of the personal or collective actions made as a result, the idea of neighborliness as an underlying principle was repeated throughout. This means a few things. The salmon and steelhead populations are just as important a part of the local community as us or any other neighbors, that we depend on each other, and that our fates are therefore also connected.

CT Workshop Speaker 7 12:06
I'll jump in here. We talked about how we need to recognize them as neighbors and treat them as neighbors. That's one of the big things before we can do all bunch of other actions to support them.

Mickey Morgan 12:20
Do you have any questions or want to add to this conversation? Email salmon neighbors@gmail.com