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Many MA-RI TU members may know the story of the fabled Columbia & Snake River wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark once marveled at the abundance of fish in these waters on their epic voyage across the country. Tragically, this abundance has slipped into crisis.
With the start of a new legislative session in the 111th Congress, Save Our Wild Salmon and Trout Unlimited are renewing their effort to see the endangered salmon and steelhead placed on a path to recovery and restoration. The most biologically promising and cost-effective step to recovery — a plan endorsed by TU — is the removal of the lower four dams on the Snake River in Idaho. We are asking you to let our own Senator John Kerry know how important it is to ensure the recovery of these wild Northwest Pacific salmon and steelhead. Senator Kerry has a special connection to this issue. As a landowner in Idaho’s Wood River Valley - right near the Snake River – he is a stakeholder in deciding the fate of these fish.
Time is running out if we hope to restore several of these endangered salmon and steelhead populations. Please join with MA-RI Trout Unlimited and do your part today: follow the instructions for taking action at the end of this article.
In the 1800s, the Columbia and Snake Rivers in America’s Pacific Northwest boasted the greatest salmon populations on earth, with up to 30 million salmon returning home each year. But today, populations linger near just one percent of that historic number. Wild salmon and steelhead — a valuable economic resource to the Northwest and a national treasure — are in danger of extinction.
Fortunately, we now have one of our best opportunities to bring them back. For decades, the federal government has ignored science and wasted taxpayer money on a series of failed and illegal federal plans. Elected officials in the Northwest have failed to lead, leaving our wild salmon and Pacific Coast communities that rely on them high and dry.
But a changed political landscape — a new administration and new members of Congress — offers us a fresh opportunity to bring people together to work collaboratively on federal salmon efforts that will recover our endangered wild salmon, create good jobs, invest in our fishing and farming communities, and encourage the development of truly clean energy resources.
Over the last 18 years, the federal government has failed to develop a lawful, science-based, fiscally responsible recovery plan that restores endangered salmon and steelhead to healthy, abundant populations. Through inaction and misplaced priorities, the federal government is allowing salmon to quietly disappear, devastating scores of fishing communities up and down the West Coast in order to preserve four outdated and costly dams on the lower Snake River.
The dams in question were built in the 1960s and 70s, primarily for barge traffic transporting eastern Washington grain to market. Immediately after the dams’ construction, wild Snake River salmon and steelhead populations plummeted by 90%.
The best available science today shows that removing the four lower Snake River dams must be at the heart of any effective recovery plan. A comprehensive Snake River legislative “salmon solutions” package will do more than increase wild salmon numbers. It will:
1. Create sustainable family-wage jobs.
Removing the four lower Snake River dams will create thousands of family-wage jobs and help to restore the commercial and sport fisheries of the Pacific salmon states.
2. Restore 140 miles of river and 30,000 acres of parklands and wildlife habitat.
A restored Snake River will return rapids, recreation, wildlife habitat and plentiful salmon — uncovering thousands of acres of riverfront to help wildlife, farms and towns thrive again, and reconnecting the Snake River to its spectacular canyons and magnificent salmon runs.
3. Enhance the recreation economy based on a free-flowing river.
A restored Snake River will provide year-round recreation including hiking, hunting, bird watching, salmon and steelhead fishing, rafting, kayaking and canoeing — pumping tens of millions of dollars into the region’s communities.
4. Address safety concerns associated with aging dams.
Removing the four lower Snake River dams will reduce flood risk and save money. These four dams are facing expensive repairs and maintenance. Lower Granite dam is creating a serious flood risk for the city of Lewiston, Idaho because of sediment piling up behind the dam.
5. Eliminate subsidized barge transportation and invest in an efficient rail network.
Removing the four lower Snake River dams will create the opportunity to bring a more efficient, modernized transportation system that includes rail and highway improvements to farming communities for shipping and exports.
6. Replace hydroelectricity with clean, affordable, salmon-friendly energy.
Smart investments in efficiency and renewable sources like wind and conservation can more than replace these dams’ limited energy production.
7. Keep farmers farming with secure water supplies.
Today, irrigation water for several orchards is drawn from the reservoir behind Ice Harbor dam. With upgraded equipment, this water can instead be drawn from a free-flowing Snake River, or replaced by local groundwater supplies.
Two Quick Actions You Can Take Today:
1. Send a message to Senator Kerry using the link below:
http://ga0.org//campaign/kerry2009
2. Give Senator Kerry a call: (202) 224-2742
Ask him to champion legislation in the 111th Congress to remove the four lower Snake River dams and replace their limited services with salmon-friendly alternatives that will create jobs and invest in a clean energy future.
For more information online, visit Save Our Wild Salmon at www.wildsalmon.org.
(Trout Unlimited is an original partner organization of Save Our Wild Salmon, a coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and recreational fishing associations, and other citizen groups committed to working together to protect and restore healthy, abundant populations of wild salmon and steelhead to the rivers and streams of the Pacific Northwest.)