How A Flower Grown Near It Could Affect The Wild Smith River

The Smith River, straddling the California-Oregon border, is considered one of the Golden State’s most wild waterways, but it appears that flora along the Smith is potentially a risk to the river’s anadromous fish.

Here’s SF Gate with more:

NOAA Fisheries scientist Marisa Parish Hanson told the board that the small tributaries winding through the lily fields are “highly productive” for coho salmon and “really important for the physiological changes” young fish undergo as they mature, with more than half of the river’s juveniles passing through those waters.

Rian explained that dissolved copper harms fish by “impairing or destroying neurons” in the olfactory system and lateral line, disrupting how salmon sense and navigate their surroundings. The damage, she said, happens within minutes and can linger for weeks — or even permanently.

Rian called diuron the “most commonly detected synthetic pesticide,” which she said can “impede or impair primary productivity and impact riparian habitat.” Ethoprop and imidacloprid overlap with copper, dulling fish reflexes and escape responses. The combination of these chemicals, Rian warned, results in “synergistic toxicity,” meaning harmful effects “far greater than what you would expect if you had a simple solution of just one chemical.”