Action #1:
Urge Congress to save the Pacific salmon from extinction.

Action #2:
Speak up for Salmon: Submit your comment on the new Federal Salmon Plan.

Action #3:
Letter to the Editor: Express your support for salmon recovery. Write a letter to the editor.

Join the Chefs Campaign to Protect and Restore Wild Pacific Salmon

Add Your Name to the Washington State Chefs/Food Professionals Letter Today

Chefs Collage

Chefs, food professionals, and slow food advocates are joining forces with fishermen, conservationists, and farmers to encourage the development of effective solutions to challenging problems facing our food resources and the communities and people that produce them. In the Northwest, wild Pacific salmon and all that it represents face an uncertain future today.

In May 2007, in a project spearheaded by renowned national chef Alice Waters, a delegation of fishermen, chefs, restaurateurs, and conservationists traveled to Washington DC to deliver the first-ever “Chefs’ Salmon Letter to Congress, signed by nearly 200 chefs and other food professionals from across the country. The visit, which included a wild salmon reception attended by members of Congress, attracted local and national media attention and made quite an impression on the Hill.

In association with the Seattle Chefs Collaborative, we are now organizing a regional Washington State Chefs’ Letter. It is a specific call to action for our elected leaders, including our Governor and members of Congress, encouraging them to work to secure a future for our endangered Northwest food traditions and the fishing and farming communities, industries, and people that bring these foods to our table.

We invite you to add your name to the letter today by completing the form below. Please complete all fields:

Personal Information First name: Last name: Email: Professional Title:

About your Business Business/Restaurant Name: City: State:

Fall 2007

Honorable Members of the Washington Congressional Delegation
Governor Chris Gregoire
Washington State

Dear Members of Congress and Governor Gregoire:

As chefs, restaurateurs, and owners of food-related businesses, we are writing to enlist your help and support to protect and restore one of our last great remaining natural food sources - Pacific salmon of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Wild salmon is one of the Pacific Northwest’s unique, authentic heritage foods. It represents one of our country’s last great wild meals. Salmon have nourished the people of the region and nation for centuries. Not long ago, the Columbia Basin was home to the world’s greatest salmon populations. They have, however, declined steadily and dramatically in recent decades due primarily to dams and habitat destruction.

Of course, Washington State has an extraordinarily rich food tradition that includes not just wild salmon, but many other important and valuable products as well. Wheat, barley, and other grains are grown on the deep Palouse soils of the Inland Northwest. Our state’s vintners craft acclaimed wines from grapes grown throughout the Columbia Basin. Fruits, vegetables, and meats feed many people in the Northwest and beyond.

Whether it is Washington’s wheat, wine, or wild salmon, our restaurants and businesses depend upon the availability of excellent, high-quality foods. Our customers demand it. They increasingly prefer and appreciate fresh, sustainably grown, locally-produced foods. There is also a fast-growing consumer awareness about the profound connections between how and where our foods are produced, the health of our families and communities, and our environment and quality of life.

As culinary professionals, we both rely upon and deeply value our state’s rich food traditions. We have a responsibility to ensure a secure future for these irreplaceable food resources and the communities, industries, and people who bring these Northwest foods to our kitchens and to our tables.

In order to restore abundant, self-sustaining, and fishable salmon populations to the Northwest, scientists have told policymakers for years that lower Snake River dam removal must be at the heart of any effective Columbia Basin recovery plan. Understandably, wheat growers and others who ship products down the man-made navigation corridor created by these four dams are worried about increased transportation costs and the impacts to their livelihoods and communities. Farmer has been pitted against fisherman; wheat against wild salmon.

As food producers, however, fishermen and farmers share much in common. They can and should be allies – rather than adversaries - that work together in search of solutions that serve both our communities and our food resources. With thoughtful planning, investments in alternative transportation and clean, renewable energy sources could better meet the needs of farmers than current systems while benefiting communities throughout the region. A restored river and fishery would benefit rural farm towns as well as the historically salmon-reliant communities downstream.

We strongly support stakeholder discussions about the future of Columbia-Snake River salmon recovery and we urge you as our elected leaders to foster and facilitate these types of constructive conversations. Farming and fishing both represent valuable ways of life in our state. They make important contributions to our community, our economy, and our culinary traditions. We encourage bringing together regional stakeholders and decision-makers to explore a path to lower Snake River dam removal in a manner that can both benefit farmers and restore one of the Northwest’s signature species and most cherished wild foods.

Last month, under court order, the Bush Administration released a draft of its latest Columbia Basin salmon plan. Over the last 15 years, the federal government has developed four similar salmon plans that the courts have soundly rejected as inadequate and illegal. A review of the current draft indicates that we are headed down this same path of expensive half-measures that have long failed both fish and people. At this critical juncture for our salmon and our communities, new approaches are desperately needed. We urge you to bring stakeholders together to craft solutions that protect our Northwest food resources in ways that keep all our communities working and moving forward together.

Sincerely,

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With a combined membership of over 6 million, the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition (SOS) is a nationwide coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and sportsfishing associations, businesses, river groups, and taxpayer advocates working collectively to restore self-sustaining, healthy, and abundant wild salmon to rivers and streams of the Pacific Northwest.