We had a blast celebrating salmon and the rivers we share, swimming through the Bend Environmental Center Earth Day Parade on April 22nd. Thanks to our sweet neighbors joining us, we had a great school of Sockeye running up stream!
The Salmon even made a splash in the Bend Bulletin!
Joe Kline / The Bulletin Photos
Some of you may remember these salmon lanterns which were originally made for our community dance performance along the Waterfront in Portland, OR on Earth Day in 2004!
The performance was titled “River of Light, a Traveling Twilight Dance Performance, Celebrating Salmon and the Rivers we Share!” We danced between the Morrison Bridge and the Salmon Street fountain, with 7 salmon lanterns and 12 waters (dancers with streams of fabric – the same ones you see here), live musicians and a poet. I’ll write more about this wonderful community art and dance performance in a future post.
We always love bringing the salmon out to play whenever we can, which brings attention back to these strong yet fragile fish that struggle to keep spawning in our precious Northwest ecosystem. Many rivers no longer support spawning, due to dams, mines, logging, warming waters, over fishing and shrinking habitat.
We support Columbia Riverkeepers and Sierra Club, who tirelessly work to protect and restore native salmon habitat.