Recently a group of individuals from a number of fields gathered on the Oregon State University campus. The group came up with a list of human activities and natural phenomena that have been identified widely as influences on salmon. These influences range from the fresh waters where salmon hatch, down the streams they travel to the ocean, and back to the home streams where they spawn and create the next generation.

Each story listed here examines one or more of these influences. Most of the stories offer a variety of human perspectives. This isn't about blame. It's to give you a better understanding of the range of viewpoints that make the salmon crisis a public issue not easily "solved."

We probably omitted worthy topics, unintentionally. And the logic of how we picked some may not be obvious. For example, the topic of predators could fit in several areas. We singled it out because often this seems to be a "flash point" in discussions of the salmon issue.

We hope this information will help you fulfill your role as a citizen, including the very important activity of discussing the salmon issue with other Oregonians.

Can you hear the water gurgling, high in a mountain stream? Off we go.

Mining

Forestry

Ranching

Farming

Dams

Urban life

Hatcheries

Commercial fishing

Recreational fishing

The Native American fishery

Estuaries

Predators

Natural fluctuations

The ocean

Cumulative effects