How Wine Can Save Salmon

Uncorking a bottle of wine can elicit merriment, boost heart health, and even relieve stress. But one program brings another benefit to pouring a glass of vino — helping out struggling salmon populations.

The Salmon-Safe certification program is taking off in America's Northwest and the Walla Walla Valley, regions famous for their cool-climate grape varietals like Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot Noir. More than 220 vineyards in Oregon and Washington earned Salmon-Safe certification so far, and the interest continues to grow as fast as the grapes themselves.

So how, exactly, can a vineyard that grows wine help out threatened Pacific salmon? Easy. That vineyard can grow with the environment in mind.

The Northwest and Walla Walla Valley are huge wine- and food-producing regions. All those farms and vineyards typically use a ton of chemicals through fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. As growers irrigate their crops and grapes, water mixes with those chemicals, eventually running off into local watersheds. Pollution — as well as erosion caused by farming — negatively impacts Pacific salmon and their natural habitat.

Which is where Salmon-Safe comes in. The non-profit works with local vineyards and farms to protect and restore salmon habitat. Vineyards can earn certification by relying on earth-friendly practices like planting trees along streams, growing cover-crops or using very precise drip irrigation systems to control agricultural run-off, and switching to all-natural pest- and weed-control methods. The process is similar to earning organic certification, but much more collaborative and focused on salmon and salmon habitat.

Pacific salmon could certainly use all the help they can get. Back in the 1800s, about 10 million salmon swam the Columbia and Snake rivers. The Northwest's rivers were practically overflowing with the swimmers, and Pacific salmon remain a symbol of the region's cultural identity. But a host of factors including hydroelectric dams, overfishing, pollution, and cross-breeding with farmed fish decimated salmon populations. Today, a mere 10,000 return to the Snake River each year.

In addition to vineyards, Salmon-Safe certifies farms, corporate and university campuses, parks, golf courses, residential developments, and construction management companies. The program may just address one of the many problems affecting Pacific salmon — pollution — but fixing that is an important piece of the larger puzzle. Now that's a cause we can all raise a glass to.

Photo credit: GenBug via Flickr