ACTION ALERT: Urge President Obama to Restore the Columbia River and its wild salmon and steelhead!

Save our wild Salmon Coalition member American Rivers recently designated the Columbia River as one of our nation's Most Endangered Rivers in 2015. Please support this designation by sending a letter to President Obama urging his leadership to protect and restore the Columbia River, its fish and wildlife, and communities that depend upon them.

Once home to the largest salmon runs in the world, the mighty Columbia River is now blocked by a series of dams. But the damage to the river’s ecosystem can begin to be reversed if the federal government demands flow and fish passage commitments in a renegotiated Columbia River Treaty with Canada.

For the past 50 years, this treaty prioritized flood control and hydropower generation at the expense of salmon and other environmental values. President Obama can add a much-needed voice for salmon and river ecology simply by revising a 50-year-old executive order.

There will be significant changes to flood risk management operations in 2024 should the United States and Canada fail to take action to modernize the Treaty. Those operations will be detrimental not only to salmon but to the health of the river as well. As the United States prepares for negotiations with Canada, now is the time to add an ecosystem representative to the U.S. negotiation team to ensure salmon and the ecosystem have a voice at the table.

TAKE ACTION HERE:  Please urge President Obama to make the Columbia act more like a river again. It’s time to (1) add “ecosystem function” (health of the river) as a new purpose of the Columbia River Treaty with Canada and (2) appoint a new member to the U.S. negotiation team who will speak for a healthy river.