730 | Saving Wild Salmon with Rick Williams – Snake River Dams, Managed Extinction, Steelhead Conservation

Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast

Dave Stewart

Hobbies, Wilderness, Leisure, Sports

4.7 • 530 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#730 Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/730

Presented By: Drifthook Fly Fishing, Four Wheel Campers, Jackson Hole Fly Company, Togiak River Lodge

Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors

What if we could bring back wild salmon and steelhead to the rivers where they once thrived? With historic runs in the Columbia and Snake Rivers plummeting, it's time to ask—what can we do to reverse the damage?

Today, we chat with Rick Williams, fisheries biologist, master fly casting instructor, and co-author of Managed Extinction, a follow-up to the groundbreaking book Salmon Without Rivers. Rick breaks down the four Snake River dams, the barriers to fish recovery, and what needs to happen to restore wild salmon and steelhead populations. Plus, we dive into the hatchery debate, what history has taught us about failed management strategies, and why he still has hope for the future of these fish. If you care about the future of wild salmon and steelhead, this episode is for you. Let's get into it!

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/730

Transcript

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0:00.0	Salmon Without Rivers was an amazing book written by Jim Lickettowich that explain how we got to where we are with the salmon and steelhead numbers today.
0:10.1	This book talks about all the issues, including dams, harvesting, climate change, and everything else that has impacted.
0:17.2	And to get us where we are today.
0:19.0	And on this episode today, we have Jim's new co-author on to talk about their new book, Managed Extinction.
0:26.1	And today, this is going to help you understand what you can do this year and how you can help protect the salmon and steelhead species we all love.
0:33.3	This is the wet fly swing podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing,
0:37.4	how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do
0:41.2	to give back to the fish species we all love.
0:43.8	How you doing today?
0:44.6	This is Dave, host of the wetfly swing podcast, grew up around a little fly shop, and have
0:49.0	created one of the largest fly fishing podcasts in this country.
0:52.1	Rick Williams has been helping save salmon and finding solutions since the 1980s.
0:57.2	We dig into his new book today and find out why he's optimistic, given our current status,
1:02.6	and what we can do today to help move things around.
1:06.0	We find out what the status is of the Forsnake River dams and some actions you can take
1:10.3	to help move this
1:11.3	towards recovery. And also, we're going to hear about what the total numbers would look like
1:16.9	before all the dams got started and how that looks in species. We talk about coho salmon
1:21.9	distribution. This is a fun one. Plus, we're going to get his best exercise to improve your flycast
1:27.3	today. Rick was also a master certified FFI instructor, and you're going to get a bonus casting tip as well. All right, let's get into it right now. Here he is, Rick Williams. How you doing, Rick? Fine, thank you. Good to be here, Dave. Yeah. Appreciate you coming on here today to shed some
1:45.5	light on an important topic or probably a lot of topics here. You have a book out there,
1:50.4	Managed Extinction. Jim Lickettouch is your, I think, co-author on this. You guys have a lot of
	...

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