The Last Steelhead

Steelhead Sunlight on the river, winding through painted hills
Clear, clean water, flowing through my gills
I've been this way just once before, but I know where I'm going
The taste of the water guides me back where I come from

I'm a Steelhead, fighting up the river
I'm a Steelhead, heading back where I was born
I'm a Steelhead…. going home.

There's danger for me everywhere, as I struggle on my way
But I'm a survivor, I'll fight and live another day
Battling 'gainst the current, or resting in a seam
Returning to my spawning ground, is my only dream

Strong, sleek and silver, I'm a wonder of the sea
See me in my river you can glimpse eternity

Ancient times have made me what I am today
Instinct drives me inland to my future come what may
If'n I don't make it home, I fear I might die alone
No progeny to swim another day.

Projections are in
And the news ain’t good
Returns are down
The fish aren’t coming back the way they should

At the current rate
They could all be gone
Steelhead extinct
A loss we cannot grasp -- so what went wrong?
           
Lewis and Clark called them the white salmon
Floating the undammed river they swam in
Dinner, sport -- a whole industry
Don’t they have a right – a right just to be?
           
Do we close it up?
Nets and rods away
What a holy mess
Whatever course we take we’re sure to pay.
Whatever course we take we’re sure to pay.

Clouds of dust
Rise about us as we crawl
Into the canyon far below
Desert pinstripes
Etched upon my doors
Battle scars that few will know

Twenty years
I’ve been driving down this road
Searching for a silver ghost
Waste of time
The unannointed say
For us it’s time that matters most

Life starts here
As we cross over the tracks
Slide down the bank where waters roll
Life starts here
Where  problems fade away
And normal life can’t take its toll

Stepping in
At Bathtub #1
Check my knots and change the fly
Peeling off
Loops and loops of line
Send it off into the sky

Shadows fall
Across the canyon walls
Take a step and cast again
Current slows
And line comes quickly tight
Like shaking hands with a dear friend
I’m shaking hands with a dear friend

There was power in the notion
Bringing jobs to the depressed
There was power in the concrete
A million cubic ton bequest

There was power in the planning
For a modern new Northwest
There was power in the government
Telling Indians what was best

There was power in the water
Churning westward to the sea
There was power in the power
Generated almost free

There was power in irrigation
Bringing deserts into bloom
There was power in the smelters
Winning wars with aluminum
There was power in the hatcheries
Replacing what was lost
There was power in the engineers
Remaking nature at a cost

There was power in propaganda
Making white seem just like black
There was power in momentum
Once it’s moving you can’t push back

The fish didn’t have the power
The fish didn’t have the power
The fish didn’t have the power

No, the fish didn’t have no power.

Putting more in, getting more out
Putting more in, getting more out

Clip, clip clippin’ those fins all day
Clippin’ those fins at the hatchery
Into the pen and out to the sea
Our half-tame half-wild progeny
A good idea once long ago
Make your own fish and help them grow
A little bit in and a big return
So many fish you got fish to burn

Putting more in, getting more out
Putting more in, getting more out

The eggheads say our fish are poison
Foul up the gene pools, take up space
One fish is just like the other
Can’t tell the difference face to face

Clip, clip clippin’ those fins away
So license buyers can go and play
Fish on the bank, fish in the well
Fish on the barbecue sure tastes swell
Fewer come back so we put more in
The cycle goes on again and again
Big money goes to the farming
Very little thought to the harming
Big money goes to the farming
Very little thought to the harming

You believe that hatchery fish are identical to wild specimens
You believe that there’s no difference in their genetics or ability to survive in the wild
You believe that hatcheries are the best hope for putting more fish back into our rivers
You believe that rivers can support infinite numbers of fish – both in terms of food and spawning habitat
You believe that cats are not an invasive species and don’t harm birds – especially not yours
You believe that vaccines cause autism and to hell with kids that might catch measles from yours
You believe that facts are at worst nonexistent and at best malleable to conform to your perspective
You do not believe in science

Why – do you deny science?
What – do you fail to comprehend?
The methods don’t affirm a point of view
They’re cold calculus to find what’s true
Why, why, why why do you deny science?

Why – do you disbelieve science?
What – does your worldview portend?
Confusing facts with just the way you feel
Doesn’t add up to an honest deal
Why, why, why why do you deny science?
Why, why, why why do you deny science?
Why, why, why why…do you deny science?

As a boy I watched my father and my uncles working mending up their nets
To make some extra money off the salmon to help pay off their debts
Those sunny summer Sundays near the river I won’t ever forget
Stopping off for soft-serve ice cream before they’d head back out to set the nets.

My ancestors spent winters just waiting for the salmon to arrive
The fish stretched on forever but they only took enough to stay alive
But then the whites arrived with modern canning plants and fish wheels in the air
The market died and interests went to logging and no one seemed to care

We do not live in teepees or ply the mighty river in canoes
We don’t tend to wear moccasins but work boots and hightop Nike shoes
But in the spring when fish return our neighbors all come out to dance and feast
We speak the ancient prayers, bake the salmon, turn the fish heads to the east.

Celilo Falls were gone a long, long time before I took in my first breath
For the natives rising waters were a senseless, cruel and slowly lingering death
With our dip nets and our drift nets we still can harvest salmon now and then
But now to save some steelhead they’ll take it all away – another treaty broken once again.

What are you drinkin’, Fisherman Joe
Jack in front and a Bud below
Let me buy a round and hear your river tales
I can tell just by your clothes
You fly-fish and think I’m slow
And you probably drink only micro-ales      

I suppose your dad fished too
Was a family thing to do
Even though the stocks were steeply in decline

Never thought to change your course
Habit proved a potent force
Now you’re posing as a victim of our times.

True I didn’t go past tenth grade
Saw the living my dad made
Liked the thought of working outside on my own

You have no clue what it’s like
On the river late at night
When the clouds explode and the mighty west winds moan.
                       
The seine nets can’t be dropped forever
If there aren’t still fish left to swim
Even fly rods will have to go away
Once the returns become so grim

What are you thinking, Fisherman Joe
It’s getting’ time to head back home
Get some sleep before your next big fish assault

Doubt we ever will agree
Bout the future, you and me
It will always seem to be the other’s fault
It will always seem to be the other’s fault

The Four H’s
It’s not ribbons and cows
It’s all about extinction
And just exactly how

Harvest!
It’s drift nets and dip nets
And spinners, spoons and flies
Pull fish out of the water
They gasp until they die.
There’s always been some harvest
By humans, birds and seals
But humans changed the balance
They’ve taken too much yield. 

Hydro!
The dams came up and
The fish couldn’t get around
Ten million year-old salmon runs
Run right into the ground
Some fish get up the ladders
And make it home to spawn
But little steelhead heading out
Hit turbines and are gone

Hatcheries!
Livin’ in a concrete pen
Ain’t livin’ in the wild
You breed a lesser animal
Less likely to survive
The few that come back take up space
On native spawning redds
And water down the gene pool
If any smolt are bred

Habitat!
You can lead a cow to water
But you can’t make ‘em drink
They’ll surely trample all the banks
Til spawning grounds just stink
And every new development
Sucks river water out
You might have greener fairways
You won’t have steelhead trout

The Four H’s
It’s hard to say what’s worse
Like cancer or a heart attack
Each one’s a special curse
It’s hard to fight the battle
Sometimes it’s hard to care
But these fish are worth fighting for
And there’s no time to spare
But these fish are worth fighting for
And there’s no time to spare

What does it matter if a fish I’ve never seen
Vanishes away
My life will go on pretty much the same
If it swims or goes astray
Then again – that’s a pretty selfish way to see
The world – it’s a bigger place than you and me

They say there’s a tapestry of life
That holds us all in place
Just how a creature here impacts a creature there
Isn’t clear – it’s a partial leap of faith
Short-term – things probably won’t change
Long-term – our existence could get strange

What does it matter if a fish I’ve never seen
Vanishes away
I guess the world becomes a slightly smaller place
A Technicolor palette turning gray
What to do – write a letter to my congressman
Or cry – because the fish have all but died.

What does it matter?
What does it matter?
What does it matter?
What does it matter?

They say my race is shrinking, my future is unknown
Concrete blocks my rivers, keeps me from my home
Nets and lures must be dodged, hatchery fish avoided
No one in the larger world even knows my plight

I’m a Steelhead, fighting up the river
I’m a Steelhead, heading back where I was born
I’m a Steelhead….  going home.

Whether I’ll come back again, it’s really hard to say
Science has the answers but no one wants to pay
Compromises must be forged to help me stay alive
But given at least half a chance odds are that I will thrive

I’m a steelhead, fighting up the river
I’m a steelhead, heading back where I was born
I’m a steelhead…going home.
Going home.
Going home.