I grew up in a place called Salmon Nation. It stretches from the Yukon Territory in the North all the way to Southern California. On the West, it hugs the Pacific and its fingers reach East into Idaho. But Salmon Nation’s boundaries are not best defined using our political ones. It is a nation defined by watersheds and streams. EcoTrust, the Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit, which launched the Salmon Nation project in 2003, defines its boundaries rather elegantly as “anywhere Pacific salmon have ever run.”

Salmon are an indicator species. Because their circuitous lifecycle takes them from quiet mountain headwaters, to the ocean, and back again, they are a litmus test of sorts for the overall health of the region. When they are healthy, so is our soil, our water, and our food supply. The idea behind Salmon Nation is for people to stand up and take upon themselves the duties associated with living in such a nation. By declaring one’s citizenship in Salmon Nation, one is pledging to build a world in which the salmon will once again thrive.

I declared my citizenship a year ago, but truth be told, I’m a Salmon Nation expatriate living in Chicago. So, rather than living out my days dreaming of the West, I’d like to suggest another nation, built upon another equally endangered, indicator species. Let us consider the Pedestrian Nation, a sprawling empire whose boundaries were once limitless.              

In Wanderlust: A History of Walking author Rebecca Solnit suggests, “Perhaps walking is best imagined as an ‘indicator species,’ to use an ecologist’s term. An indictor species signifies the health of an ecosystem, and its endangerment or diminishment can be an early warning sign of systemic trouble. Walking as an indicator species for various kinds of freedoms and pleasures: free time, free and alluring space, and unhindered bodies.”

Like the salmon, the pedestrian has seen its ecosystem crumble. Feeble attempts have been made to recreate their habitat in captivity, but just as farm-raised salmon is injected with pink dye to make it look wild, so too the artificial pedestrian habitat is hard pressed to mask the urban sprawl peeking out from behind the commercial facades and parking structures. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, all resident of both Salmon and Pedestrian Nation will stand up and declare their citizenship?    

Benjamin Helphand