If you love Redfish Lake, if you love to fish, or if you just love to eat fish....
What do three young women on horseback, red fish and Redfish Lake have in common? This spring, three scrappy Idaho women traveled by horse from Astoria, Oregon, up the Columbia and Snake Rivers, eventually finding their way home to Stanley, Idaho. Their journey was dubbed "Ride for Redd" and mimicked the same route that the Sockeye and Chinook salmon have been making for about 5 million years.
The journey is 900 miles with an elevation gain of 6500 feet. Can you imagine the stamina it takes a salmon to go from sea-level to the Sawtooth Mountains? (BTW - I was never worried about the stamina of these lades - they are a tough group prone to laughter and fun!)
These young women, Kat Cannell, Katelyn Spradley, and MJ Writh, did it to raise awareness of the declining number of salmon. The fish do it for survival.
I'm writing this Blog because I several years ago I was lucky enough to see a few of those tenacious salmon when I was Standup Paddle Boarding on Little Redfish Lake. It is my my hope that we can save the salmon so my niece and nephew can have the same experience.
What can you do?
Get involved by becoming a part of the Idaho Rivers United community. They are continuously working with both sides of the conversation to find common ground in saving Idaho's Wild Salmon. They always have answers on what action can be taken. Donate to the Ride for Redd campaign to engage people to take action!
Why Donate?
Kat, Katelyn and MJ rode to raise awareness. Two other women, Meredith Richardson and Whitney McNees, documented their expedition in order to address the dwindling numbers of this native species and explore what it will take to see the counts thrive again.
The film REDD by Nomadic Lens Productions will aim to spread the mission of 'Ride for Redd’ to encourage immediate action to see wild salmon return to their spawning beds in the Sawtooth Valley and to 'Make Redfish Redd Again'!
A donation will help fund the documentary, and will help Idaho Rivers United continue their mission to remove the four dams on the Lower Snake.
I know that endangered salmon might not have a lot to do with real estate....
....but if we continue to lose those aspects of Idaho that makes Idaho HOME, then what's our real estate worth? Besides, Kat Canell is my photographer from time-to-time when she's not on a horse or on a river, and I admire what she does to make Idaho a great place to call HOME.
