SOS Blog

The Indigenous-led 2023 'All Our Relations' Snake River Campaign traveled through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in September and October to inspire and build community, and to demonstrate strong public support to the Biden Administration and Northwest members of Congress - calling on their active leadership to urgently protect wild salmon and steelhead from extinction and restore them to abundance. To protect the salmon and other ecologically and culturally important native fish from extinction and to uphold our nation's promises to Tribal communities, we must urgently replace the services of the four lower Snake River dams and restore a free-flowing river. View the 2023 All Our Relations photo album below, courtesy of Se'Si'Le and photos by Megan Mack. 

All Our Relations - Olympia, WA

All Our Relations - Portland, OR

All Our Relations - Pasco, WA

All Our Relations - Spokane, WA

All Our Relations - Lewiston, ID 

 All Our Relations - Seattle, WA

All Our Relations Snake River Campaign in the media:

• Lewiston-Tribune: Demonstrators gather for a free-flowing Snake River
• Sierra Club: Native Welder Crafts Artwork to Help Free the Snake River Salmon
• NWPB: As Biden negotiates future of lower Snake River dams, Northwest tribes push for removal
• NBC: All Our Relations Snake River Campaign to stop at Sacajawea Park
• Watch the Town Hall Seattle livestream here

Join us in celebrating the latest project from our partners at Braided River Publishing – Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin. This new, breathtaking book includes work by photographer David Moskowitz, writer Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, and poet Claudia Castro Luna.

The Columbia River Basin spans 1,200 miles through seven states and one Canadian province, all of which include the ancestral lands of many Indigenous Nations. The Columbia River Basin watershed encompasses immense ecological, cultural, and economic value, the benefits of which its inhabitants have both stewarded and wrangled over for centuries. As we come to terms with the unsustainable nature of our relationship with this watershed today, and local Indigenous nations renew their efforts to steward their traditional territories, we have reached an inflection point.

Big River, a new photographically-driven book from award-winning photographer David Moskowitz, writer Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, and poet Claudia Castro Luna, illuminates the hydrogeology, beauty, and activity of the Columbia River, while also highlighting current challenges facing the region and the riverkeepers working on sustainable solutions. Through rich and comprehensive images of the land, river, and people and micro-interviews from diverse voices across the region, Big River explores the Columbia River Basin as a single living, interdependent entity.

The book is a culmination of Moskowitz’s many years of photographing the river and exploring its watershed and Eileen’s decades of research and exploration. Big River seeks a path forward for the Columbia River watershed, balancing the demands around water, salmon, agriculture, energy, and climate with the fundamental need for a sustainable living river.

Big River will be released on June 1, 2024, followed by a book tour around the Pacific Northwest region (see below).

Book Supporters: 
Port Gamble Sklallam Tribe, Squaxin Island Tribe, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Tulalip Tribe, Wildsight, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, ArtsFund, The Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation, and The Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation

Photography by David Moskowitz

Events

Join SOS at book release events throughout June to experience a multimedia journey along the Columbia River from source to sea with photographer David Moskowitz, author Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, tribal members, and other people from across the region as part of the launch of the new book, Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin.

Efforts around restoring fish passage throughout the watershed, upholding Tribal sovereignty, renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, developing new sustainable energy projects, and addressing climate change, agricultural sustainability, and irrigation are dynamic and ongoing. We hope that Big River’s stunning imagery and diverse perspectives can galvanize these important conversations, and help to advance our collective work towards more just collaborative and durable solutions for all.

Events will feature author talks, panel discussions, and other activities that explore the issues facing the Columbia River and the importance of protecting the river, its salmon, and people.

Attend a book release event near you!

• June 1 —Nelson, BC 
• June 4 —Olympia, WA
• June 5 —Seattle, WA
• June 17 —Astoria, OR
• June 18 —Portland, OR
• June 19 — The Dalles, OR
• June 20 —Richland, WA
• June 23 —Spokane, WA

ALL BIG RIVER EVENTS

Photography by David Moskowitz

About the Authors of Big River

David Moskowitz, photographer, author, wildlife biologist, and tracker, is the author of Caribou Rainforest, Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest, and Wolves in the Land of Salmon, and coauthor of Peterson’s Field Guide to North American Bird Nests. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Sierra, High Country News, and Audubon Magazine, as well as by organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, Endangered Species Coalition, and Nature Conservancy of Canada. www.davidmoskowitz.net

Eileen Delehanty Pearkes explores landscape, history, and the human imagination through writing, maps, and visual notebooks, focusing on Indigenous culture and the power of water. She has researched the international Columbia River basin for more than two decades. Pearkes is the author of The Geography of Memory, A River Captured: The Columbia River and Catastrophic Change, and The Heart of a River. www.edpearkes.com

Claudia Castro Lunaserved as Washington State Poet Laureate for several years. She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon, One River, A Thousand Voices, and There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love, among others. Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna arrived in the US in 1981. Living in English and Spanish, she teaches and writes in Seattle. www.claudiacastroluna.com

About the Publisher of Big River

Big River is published under the Braided River imprint of Mountaineers Books, which publishes photo-driven conservation books that are the foundation for creative communication campaigns with tangible public policy goals. Braided River defends wild places by bringing evocative and inspirational images and stories to an ever-growing audience of environmental protectors. www.braidedriver.org 

By Lisa Morehouse
November 29, 2017

The Yurok tribe has fished for salmon in the Klamath River for centuries. Salmon is essential to Yurok ceremonies, for food, and for income. But this fall, the number of Chinook swimming up the Klamath, in the Pacific Northwest, was the lowest on record, threatening the tribe's entire culture and way of life.

Erika Chavez and Jerome Nick Jr., cousins who work for the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, are patrolling the Klamath River in the far northwest corner of California. Nick perches in the front of the boat, with Chavez at the helm as they head to the mouth of the river. "Just checking to see if there's any tribal members fishing," Chavez says. "Then we're gonna head up to the bridge to see if anyone's there."

Today, the cousins are also are volunteering to catch salmon for tribal elders — the only fishing allowed this year.

Chavez slows the boat so Nick can pull up a net they set a couple hours ago. The verdict?

"No fish," Nick says, shaking his head.

The cousins are alone on the water today. In a normal year during commercial fishing season, Nick says, "practically this whole area is nets, all the way up to the bridge. You just see corks on the water, the river's so packed with nets."

Without people on the river fishing, the salmon have a chance to travel up river to spawn. "At least that's my hope," Chavez says.

Unlike a lot of Yurok, Nick didn't grow up fishing. He moved here six years ago to get away from family drama in Oregon. Now, when he's not working the overnight shift at WalMart, he's on the water. "I work here with my cousin and she keeps me sane," he says. "She's my rock."

Chavez grew up with her family camping right here for the summer. Her grandma would make fry bread, and she and her great-grandma would watch everyone fish. Chavez started fishing when she was nine. "My partner was my auntie, she's the one that taught me, and our whole bottom of our boat was filled with fish. Everyone was catching plenty for their families. It was beautiful."

For the Yurok, a rich salmon harvest means covering the basics. "It feeds our family," Chavez says. "When commercial's here we use that money to buy our kids school clothes."

Chavez usually fishes for her grandma. "I get her 10 to 15 fish every year, so it's in her freezer for the whole year," she says. This year, "she'll have to deal with deer meat or elk meat or something."

About five minutes away in the town of Klamath, thousands of Yurok tribal members and friends gather every August for the tribe's Salmon Festival. There's a parade, and a stick game that looks to my untrained eye like a cross between wrestling and field hockey. At the 55th Annual Yurok Salmon Festival, Oscar Gensaw cooks salmon the traditional way, on redwood skewers around a fire pit. This year, though, the tribe had to buy salmon from Alaska.

True to the festival's name, there's salmon cooked in the traditional Yurok way. Around the edge of a long, narrow fire pit, salmon skewered on redwood sticks form a kind of crown. Oscar Gensaw monitors the scene, wearing a T-shirt that reads: Fish Boss.

"When you first start cooking, you get those fat rings around the fish like a ring on a tree," Gensaw says. "When the fat starts dripping out of each of those rings you know that side is done."

Gensaw grew up in Klamath and has three sons and a baby daughter. "My main goal is to pass this onto my boys so one day I can be the ultimate fish boss, and be on the side when they cook," he says with a laugh. But he wants to teach them with salmon caught in the Klamath — not the fish he's cooking with today.

"These come from Alaska," he says. The tribe had to buy this salmon, for the first time in the history of the festival.

The tribe works with federal agencies every year to estimate the fall run and to decide how many salmon can be caught. So few Chinook were expected to return to spawn this year that commercial fishing was shut down to protect them. The Yurok were allowed to catch just over 600 salmon, in a tribe of 6,000.

Those low numbers are the end result of drought, disease, and a long history of habitat destruction. The Yurok place much of the blame on upstream dams that have blocked salmon from ancient spawning grounds for over a century. After years of debate and struggle, four dams are set to be removed by 2020.

In the parade, Annelia Hillman commands the megaphone for the Klamath Justice Coalition, chanting, "Undam the Klamath, bring the salmon home." She tell me that tribes along the Klamath have had to fight logging, gold mining, the dams, and now a proposed natural gas pipeline. "If we're putting our water at risk like that, we're putting life on earth at risk," she says.

Hillman's a youth social worker, and she says, when the balance with the river is off, the Yurok feel the effects. "When we can't be in our river, can't eat our fish, it kind of takes our purpose away. We have one of the highest suicide rates... and I think that's directly correlated to our lack of salmon and our inability to continue our way of life," Hillman says.

The Yurok have fought for years to maintain their ties to the Klamath River and its salmon. In the 1960s, game wardens arrested many Yurok time and again for gillnet fishing on the river, a practice banned by the state. One young man, Raymond Mattz, challenged the arrests. His fight went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reaffirmed the tribe's fishing rights.

His nephew, Paul Mattz Van Mechelen, runs Paul's Famous Smoked Salmon on Highway 101. Customers know he's open if there's smoke coming from the traditional fire pit in front. "That's my Yurok Weber!" he jokes.

Paul Mattz Van Mechelen, who runs Paul's Famous Smoked Salmon, has had to buy salmon from fishermen hundreds of miles away instead of fishing for Chinook in the Klamath River, just 50 feet from his California shop.

Van Mechelen opened the shop 16 years ago after his grandmother came to him in a dream. A steady stream of customers comes to sample and buy the wild Chinook salmon he prepares with flavors like garlic, lemon pepper and teriyaki. Usually, he gets his stock from the Klamath River.

"Not the last two years, though," he says. "I had to go to the Columbia River," hundreds of miles away in Oregon, where he buys from native fishermen. Gas, and payment for fish, are big expenses for a business owner who usually fishes about 50 feet from his store.

The losses go deeper than just finances. "I got a great niece — she's only 2 — but she helped start up the boat and and smiled and did all that last year," Van Mechelen says. "Her auntie was five when she pulled in a fish. So that whole part of learning and teaching them who they are and what this river gives to them is kind of life in one way."

When I ask him to explain that, that fishing is who Yurok are, Van Mechelen gets emotional, even stepping out of the store for a minute.

"I had my grandma at a young age tell me I had fish blood. I didn't understand it, I didn't know why. But we're all fishing people."

And when you have fish blood but you have to stay away from fishing in hopes of keeping salmon here in the future? "It's sad to stay next to a river and wake up and not see fish go by," Van Mechelen says. "That's the saddest part. It's bad enough you dream about it."

All he can do, he says, is pray the salmon come back.

This piece is part of the series California Foodways and was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a non-profit, investigative news organization. Broadcast versions of this story aired on KQED's The California Report and NPR's Here & Now.

Read the story at NPR here: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/11/29/561581193/it-takes-our-purpose-with-no-salmon-yurok-tribe-struggles-with-identity

Join Save Our wild Salmon for three Thursdays this fall - October 21^st, November 4^th, and November 18^th - for our Wild Salmon Speaker Series.

This year's fall online speaker/webinar series (via zoom) will feature in-depth conversations with experts and leaders to discuss different aspects of salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest - with a focus on the Snake River Basin.

Join us on October 21^st, November 4^th, and November 18^th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm PT to learn about the challenges, opportunities, and implications of restoring the lower Snake River and its endangered fish by removing four federal dams and replacing their services with alternatives. We'll explore ways we can work together to solve today's Snake and Columbia river salmon crisis in a manner that also ensures clean, reliable, and affordable energy and prosperous communities and cultures.

These conversations will all include audience Q&A and be moderated by SOS' Sam Mace and Joseph Bogaard.

Please RSVP here: https://saveourwildsalmon.salsalabs.org/fallwildsalmonwebinarseries

Please forward/share this announcement with people who may be interested. See links to Facebook event pages listed below.

Have questions? Reach out to carrie@wildsalmon.org

 (1) Getting to Yes: Reflecting on the long road to restoring the lower Snake River
Thursday, October 21st - 6:00-8:00 pm PST.

Join a conversation with three campaign veterans: Pat Ford, the former Executive Director of Save Our wild Salmon, Sara Patton former Executive Director for the NW Energy Coalition, and LeeAnne Beres, former Executive Director of Earth Ministry. They will share their stories and reflections on the last 3 decades of Columbia-Snake River salmon recovery efforts - law, politics, salmon, orca, energy - and reflect on the sustained work by so many to bring us to this current moment.

LeeAnne Beresis the Deputy Director for Operations at Washington Nonprofits. She has 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including 16 years as Executive Director of Earth Ministry and as the Associate Director of Save Our wild Salmon and Outreach Director of the NW Energy Coalition. LeeAnne is a published author, has served on numerous nonprofit boards, and survived two years working as a biologist on commercial fishing boats in Alaska’s Bering Sea. She has a Master’s degree in Marine Fisheries Management from the University of Washington and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Whitman College. Outside of work, she is a passionate hockey fan and walks 3-5 miles daily with her dog, Bones.

Pat Ford grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and has lived in Boise Idaho since 1977. He worked for the Idaho Conservation League from 1977 to 1984, and the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition from 1992 to 2013. In stints across those years, he also served on the boards of the NW Energy Coalition, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and Idaho Conservation League. He is now retired from paid conservation work, and lives in Boise with his wife Julia Page. His two daughters, Leigh and Ann, also live in Boise, where they work in quite different corners of the large realm called conservation.

Sara Patton led the NW Energy Coalition as its Executive Director from 1993 to 2015. The Coalition is an influential regional alliance of conservation, low-income, and consumer advocate organizations, utilities, businesses, communities of faith, and citizen activists. For 15 years prior to her tenure at the NW Energy Coalition, Ms. Patton worked for energy efficiency at Seattle City Light. She managed energy efficiency planning and programs, integrated resource plans, research and development projects, lobbying, and program demonstrations. Ms. Patton is an inactive member of the Washington State Bar Association and holds degrees from Antioch School of Law and Reed College. Before settling down in clean energy policy, she worked for PRIM Laundry in Seattle as a mangle operator, for Excursion Inlet Packing Company near Hoonah, Alaska as a salmon canner, for West Side Alliance Day Care Center in New York City as a daycare teacher, and for the Honorable Shirley Chisholm in Washington DC as a legal intern. Community service and honors include the Board of Save Our wild Salmon, the Board of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the Seattle City Light Advisory Board and Review Panel, the Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter Executive Committee, the Pike Place Market Historical Commission, the 2006 Helen H. Jackson Woman of Valor Award, and the Friends of the Market Board.

Please consider forwarding this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

(2) Perspectives from northeast Oregon on salmon recovery and restoring the lower Snake River
Thursday, November 4th - 6:00-8:00 pm PT.

Joseph Bogaard will moderate a panel discussion with three residents from northeast Oregon including Adam Capetillo, enrolled member of the Nez Perce Tribe, Christina deVillier of Greater Hells Canyon Council, and NE  Oregon rancher Andrea Malmberg. Our panelists will reflect upon the history, peoples, and lands, and waters of this special part of the Snake River Basin watershed. This region's rivers - the Grand Ronde, Wallowa, Imnaha, and many others - were once rich with salmon and steelhead populations. Not so long ago, sockeye would fill Wallowa Lake each summer/fall. Community-driven habitat restoration projects have been underway for decades, but the response by depressed salmon and steelhead populations has been muted given the heavy mortality downstream by the federal dams and reservoirs on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers.

Christina deVillieris a writer, a gardener, and a fourth-generation explorer of Northeast Oregon's mountains, canyons, and communities. She is the Connections Coordinator for Greater Hells Canyon Council, where she works with a wide diversity of collaborators to improve ecological connectivity and strengthen social-ecological relationships in her spectacular home region. Previously, she's been a college instructor, a farmer, and a cook. She regularly contributes essays, often on environmental topics, to The Oregon Way blog, and she serves on the board of Oregon Humanities. Her book of poems, Long Coordinates, came out in 2021 from Lynx House Press. When she's not working, she can likely be found on a trail, in the lake, or deep in conversation. She lives with her husband in Lostine, Oregon, in the heart of the Nimiipuu ancestral homeland. She tries to keep her priorities straight.

Adam Capetillois a Nez Perce Tribal member, descending from the Wallowa Band in Northeast Oregon. As an avid fisherman who grew up fishing for salmon throughout Nez Perce country, he and his family live traditionally off of yearly harvested salmon from the Columbia River and smaller tributaries in the lower Snake River basin, including the Lostine and Imnaha Rivers in Northeast Oregon. Adam worked for the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resources Management for nearly ten years, both in Oregon and Idaho, where he grew his passion for salmon recovery. Adam now works in the private sector of the restoration industry as a small business owner and partner for Blackeagle Environmental Solutions, LLC and Geologix, LLC respectively. He aspires to do everything he can to return as much of his homeland as possible to a more natural and functional state, not only for the sake of the salmon, but also the elk, deer, moose, native plants, and various other species that once supported his ancestors’ way of life.

Andrea Malmberg has lived most of her life on the land with livestock and real food in the western United States. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a Master of Science in Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University. After completing her studies in Zimbabwe and Argentina in 2004, Andrea became an accredited professional in Holistic Management. Seeing the need to bring the tools of human flourishing to rural communities, Andrea received a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. As a result, she has created a platform that people throughout the world are using to manage and monitor their well-being. Over the last twenty-five years, in many different capacities, Andrea has facilitated the understanding of ecological, financial, and sociological, factors enabling sound holistic decisions. With her husband Tony, she has run several regenerative land-based enterprises always with the purpose of honing her skills to enhance the well-being of people, animals, and our planet, now and into the future. She delights in ranching, homesteading, conviviality, vibrant philosophical discussions, studying human behavior, and finds purpose in being civically active, participating in the creation of healthy communities, and restoring land.

Please consider forwarding this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

(3) Stories from the scientists: Reflecting on science, politics and salmon recovery in the Snake and Columbia rivers
Thursday, November 18th - 6:00-8:00 pm PT.

We'll sit down with three highly respected scientists based here in the Pacific Northwest to hear about their experiences and their stories about the intersection of science and policy as it affects salmon and steelhead. With nearly 100 years of professional experience dating back to the 1990s, we'll examine the challenges and opportunities associated with recovering imperiled salmon and steelhead populations by protecting and restoring and reconnecting the freshwater habitats they depend upon.

Helen Nevillehas been with Trout Unlimited since 2006 and now serves as the organization’s Senior Scientist. She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Brown University, a Master’s degree in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution from the University of California, San Diego, and her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She specializes in applying genetic tools to improving our understanding of the ecology and conservation needs of salmon and trout, and has published several genetic studies on Chinook salmon in the Middle Fork Salmon River among other topics in the region and beyond. Helen lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and two daughters, and loves having wonderful, wild Idaho as her back yard.

Dr. Rick Williams is a fisheries ecologist and Research Associate in the Department of Biology at The College of Idaho. His research and consulting focuses on conservation of native steelhead, redband, and cutthroat trout in western North America. Rick has been active in Columbia River salmon recovery issues since 1987, and in 2006, published a book on Pacific salmon recovery (Return to the River) that describes the century-long decline of Columbia River salmon and steelhead and proposes a new approach to their restoration. Rick continues to be active in writing and public speaking on Snake River and Columbia River salmon and steelhead recovery.

Jim Martin worked 30 years in fisheries research and management for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife before retiring in 1999. He was Chief of Fisheries for 6 years and served as a Salmon Advisor to Governor John Kitzhaber, leading the team developing the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds. Following his retirement from the State of Oregon, he worked for 19 years as Conservation Director for Pure Fishing, the World’s largest fishing tackle company. He also taught Natural Resources Problem Solving at Oregon State University.

Please consider forwarding this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

MEET THE MODERATORS:

SOS Inland Northwest Director Sam Mace first got involved in efforts to protect Snake River wild salmon and steelhead 20+ years ago working for the Idaho Wildlife Federation. She’s worked for SOS since 2004. Sam lives in Spokane with her dog and her sweetheart and spends her free time fishing, hiking, and gardening.

SOS executive director Joseph Bogaard first got hooked on Northwest salmon restoration efforts while in graduate school where he authored a paper in the mid-1990s, exploring the then-relatively recent Snake River salmon listings under the Endangered Species Act, and how it might impact Northwest lands and waters, its energy system, and tribal and non-tribal communities. He began working for SOS as an organizer in 1996, and has served as executive director since 2013. Joseph lives outside of Seattle with his wife Amy and their children.

Join Save Our Wild Salmon for three Thursdays - October 1, 8 and 15 - for our Fall Wild Salmon Speaker Series.

This online speaker series (via zoom) will feature in-depth conversations with several experts and leaders to discuss different aspects of salmon and steelhead recovery efforts - with a focus on the Snake River Basin.

Join us on October 1, 8, and 15 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm PST to learn about the challenges, opportunities and implications of restoring the lower Snake River and its endangered fish by removing four federal dams. We'll explore ways to solve today's Snake and Columbia river salmon crisis in a manner that also ensures clean, reliable and affordable energy and prosperous communities and cultures.

These conversations and audience Q&A will be moderated by SOS' Sam Mace and Joseph Bogaard.

Please RSVP by sending a note here: speakerseries@wildsalmon.org

Please forward/share this announcement to people who may be interested. See links to Facebook event pages listed below.

Have questions? Reach out tocarrie@wildsalmon.org

University of Washington's Dr. Sam Wasser and Natural ResourcesDefense Council's (NRDC) Giulia Good-Stefani will share their expertise on the critical connections between Southern Resident orcas and Columbia Basin salmon.

Dr. Sam Wasser acquired his B.Sc in Zoology at Michigan State University, his M.Sc in Zoology at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his Ph.D. in Animal Behavior at the University of Washington. After receiving his Ph.D., Wasser was awarded the first H.F. Guggenheim Career Development Award for his studies of reproductive impacts of aggression in female mammals. He then received the first Research Scientist Development Award from the Smithsonian Institution for his work on noninvasive hormone methods. During his time at the Smithsonian, Wasser also directed their Conservation and Management Training Program for African nationals. After 5 years at the Smithsonian, Wasser returned to the University of Washington as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Scientific Director of the Center for Wildlife Conservation at the Woodland Park Zoo. In 2001, Wasser was awarded the endowed chair in Conservation Biology by the University of Washington Board of Reagents. He is currently a Research Professor in the UW Department of Biology and Director of their Center for Conservation Biology after being awarded the endowed chair in Conservation Biology by the University of Washington Board of Regents.

Giulia Good Stefani works to protect marine mammals and other wildlife, wild places, and communities from environmental injustices. Prior to joining NRDC, she taught and supervised a law clinic at Yale Law School as a Robert M. Cover Fellow, worked for a small Los Angeles law firm, and clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She represents NRDC on the Orca Salmon Alliance and as an advisor to the Emergency Orca Task Force created by Governor Inslee in 2018. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Stefani works out of Mosier, Oregon.

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(2)The high stakes of Columbia-Snake river salmon recovery for Northwest coastal communities

Thursday, October 8th from 6:00-7:30 pm PST.

 

Elizabeth Herendeen (Salmon State, Juneau, AK) and Joel Kawahara (Coastal Trollers Association, Quilcene, WA) will share their perspectives on the role that salmon play in the cultures, economies and communities of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Originally from the East Coast, Marketplace Manager Elizabeth Herendeen‘s first introduction to wild salmon was at six, when her uncle gave her a children’s book about an Atlantic salmon’s journey to the sea and back. Her professional work with salmon began in 2003 as a policy intern for Trout Unlimited. She spent the next eight years working for Trout Unlimited in Portland, Oregon and in Juneau, where she started the WhyWild Program. She was the Marketing Director for the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association from 2013-2015. In 2015, she started her own consulting business, Feeding Change, helping small-scale food producers develop and implement strategic business and marketing plans. She joined the SalmonState team in 2016 and helps oversee anything and everything that involves catching, processing, selling, buying, cooking, and eating wild salmon.

 

Joel Kawahara is a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska. He is an active member of the Coastal Trollers Association and has sat on the board of Save Our Wild Salmon for many years. Joel also served for many years on the board of the Alaska Trollers Association and has served for more than a decade as a member of the Habitat Committee for the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

 

Please forward/share this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

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(1) Salmon, justice and community - a perspective from Northwest faith leaders

Thursday, October 15th from 6:00-7:30 pm PST.

 

Salmon are a Northwest icon, a species of great cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance. Join LeeAnne Beres and Rev. John Rosenberg of Earth Ministry to explore the sacredness of salmon and how the faith community is bringing people together to restore the Lower Snake River for the benefit of all.

 

LeeAnne Beres joined Earth Ministry in 2005, providing strategic direction that led to the development of the organization’s nationally-recognized faithful advocacy program, launching of Washington Interfaith Power & Light, and revitalization of the Greening Congregations program. Previously, she served as the Associate Director of Save Our Wild Salmon, Outreach Director of the NW Energy Coalition, and in organizing positions with other environmental non-profits. She also survived two years working as a biologist on commercial fishing boats in Alaska’s Bering Sea. LeeAnne has served on numerous national, regional, and local boards and is active in her church, Fauntleroy United Church of Christ. LeeAnne has a Master’s degree in Marine Fisheries Management from the University of Washington and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Whitman College.

 

 

John Rosenberg is a retired Lutheran (ELCA) pastor and an avid angler and environmental advocate. In addition to his theological training, he has a M.A. in Pacific Northwest History from Portland State University where he did research on the history of salmon decline on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. His articles on salmon and salmon recovery have appeared in a number of publications including High Country News, the Center for Environmental Law & Policy newsletter, the Seattle Times, The Olympian, and Earth Letter (Spring 2019). He is a former board member of Earth Ministry and currently serves on the board of the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group and the Regional Fisheries Coalition. He and his spouse, Nancy Faaren, live in Tumwater, Washington.

 

Please forward/share this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

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MEET YOUR HOSTS:

SOS Inland Northwest Director Sam Mace first got involved in efforts to protect Snake River wild salmon and steelhead 20+ years ago working for the Idaho Wildlife Federation. She’s worked for SOS since 2004. Sam lives in Spokane with her dog and her sweetheart, and spends her free time fishing, hiking and gardening.

 

SOS Executive Director Joseph Bogaard began working for Save Our Wild Salmon as an organizer in 1996. He first got hooked on Northwest salmon restoration efforts while in graduate school where he authored a paper in the mid-1990s, exploring the then-relatively recent Snake River salmon listings under the Endangered Species Act, and how it might impact Northwest lands and waters, its energy system and tribal and non-tribal communities. Joseph lives outside of Seattle with his wife Amy and their children.

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TAKE ACTION: SUPPORT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND A REGIONAL SOLUTION FOR SALMON, ORCAS AND COMMUNITIES: Link to Save Our Wild Salmon's Action Page

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LINKS TO RELEVANT INFORMATON AND REPORTS:

 • Scientists' White Letter: Southern Resident Killer Whales & Columbia/Snake River Chinook: A Review of the Available Scientific Evidence (Feb. 2020)  PDF
• Salmon Scientists' Letter to Governor Inslee's Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force (Oct. 2018)  PDF
• The Importance of Commercial & Recreational Fishing in Washignton State (Jan. 2020)  PDF
• Letter to Rep. Derek Kilmer signed by Lutheran Bishop Richard Jaech and 76 other clergy and lay leaders in the 6th Congressional District (August 2020)  PDF

 

Join Save Our Wild Salmon for four Thursdays in June for our Wild Salmon Speaker Series.

This online speaker series (using zoom technology) will feature in-depth conversations with several experts and leaders to discuss different aspects of salmon and steelhead recovery efforts - with a focus on the Snake River Basin.

Join us on June 4, 11, 18 and/or 25 from 5:00 to 6:00 pm PST to learn about the challenges and opportunities of restoring the lower Snake River and its endangered fish by removing four federal dams. We'll explore ways to solve today's Snake and Columbia river salmon crisis in a manner that also ensures clean, reliable and affordable energy and prosperous communities and cultures.

These conversations and audience Q&A will be moderated by SOS' Sam Mace and Joseph Bogaard.

Please RSVP by sending a note here: speakerseries@wildsalmon.org

Please forward/share this announcement to people who may be interested. See links to Facebook event pages listed below.

Have questions? Reach out tocarrie@wildsalmon.org

Sean O'Leary joined the NW Energy Coalition in August 2016 as the Communications Director. He and other Coalition staff members work heavily on developing and enacting policies to assist the Northwest electric system transition in ways that are affordable and just to new clean energy resources. That effort includes the replacement of power and grid services currently provided by the four lower Snake River dams. Prior to joining the Coalition, Sean was the author of “The State of My State”, a blog, newspaper column, and book that explored environmental and economic issues in his home state of West Virginia. Sean is also a playwright with half a dozen professionally produced plays to his credit.

Dr. Adam Domanski is a Project Director at ECONorthwest who specializes in environmental and natural resource economics, natural resource damage assessment, applied econometrics, and nonmarket valuation. He has extensive experience valuing changes to public and environmental goods using quantitative methods and has applied these tools to evaluate impacts to housing, transportation, and environmental resources. Prior to joining ECONorthwest, Adam was an economist with NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration and was responsible for assessing ecological and human use injuries resulting from oil spills and chronic hazardous twaste contamination. He also served as the Acting Deputy Director of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and represented the Agency at the 2017 G20 meetings in Germany. Adam is a member of the American Economic Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

Bob Rees(on left) is a 30-year veteran professional Fishing Guide in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Once a biologist, Bob understood the risks involved with initiating a business reliant on wild salmon and steelhead. For close to two decades, he has fought for habitat protections, proper dam operations and beneficial climate action legislation to benefit wild salmon and other coldwater fishes. He serves on the board of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, and fights for the future of wild salmon and the communities dependent on them.

 Aaron Liebermann (on right) has been the Executive Director of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Associationsince 2018. Before moving into this role, Aaron was the Operations Manager for Orange Torpedo Trips, an outfitter that he worked with as a guide for over a decade.

Elliott Moffett is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and one of the founders of Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment. Elliott is a tribal environmentalist who wants to see the river, fish and way of life that he used to know be returned to him and his community. He remembers fish runs that were robust when he was a kid and that have steadily dwindled throughout his life. He tells stories of having to chose not fish some years because he knew that his 'brother salmon was not healthy.' Now he advocates for restoring the lower Snake River because, "My brother salmon can't speak for himself, so I am choosing to speak for him."

Scott Hauser began working for the Upper Snake River Tribes (USRT) as the Environmental Program Director in February, 2012. In 2016 he was promoted to the position of Executive Director. A graduate of the University of Idaho (2002 and 2004), he holds undergraduate degrees in History (focus on the environment) and Political Science (focus on natural resources policy and law) and a master’s degree in Environmental Science. Following graduation and prior to working at USRT, Scott worked for the U.S. Forest Service as both a hydrologic technician and fire ecology technical researcher/writer and an environmental scientist at an environmental consulting firm in Montana. In Scott’s time with USRT, he has worked on many projects relating to salmon and steelhead and currently is a member of the Idaho Governor's Salmon Working Group and NOAA Fisheries Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force.

Please forward/share this announcement to people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

MEET YOUR HOSTS:

SOS Inland Northwest Director Sam Mace first got involved in efforts to protect Snake River wild salmon and steelhead 20+ years ago working for the Idaho Wildlife Federation. She’s worked for SOS since 2004. Sam lives in Spokane with her dog and her sweetheart, and spends her free time fishing, hiking and gardening.

SOS Executive Director Joseph Bogaard began working for Save Our Wild Salmon as an organizer in 1996. He first got hooked on Northwest salmon restoration efforts while in graduate school where he authored a paper in the mid-1990s, exploring the then-relatively recent Snake River salmon listings under the Endangered Species Act, and how it might impact Northwest lands and waters, its energy system and tribal and non-tribal communities. Joseph lives outside of Seattle with his wife Amy and their children.

TAKE ACTION: SUPPORT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND A REGIONAL SOLUTION FOR SALMON, ORCAS AND COMMUNITIES: Link to Save Our Wild Salmon's Action Page

LINKS TO RELEVANT INFORMATON AND REPORTS:

• Federal Agencies' Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS, Feb. 2020): Federal Action Agencies' Website

• Factsheet re: the Draft EIS (Save Our wild Salmon, April 2020) PDF

• Economic Study on Lower Snake River Dams: Economics Tradeoff of Removal Executive Summary (ECONorthwest, July 2019) Executive Summaryand Full Report, 2019

• ECONW 2020 assessment of DEIS(April 2020) PDF

• Lower Snake River Dams Power Replacement Study (NW Energy Coalition, 2018) PDF

• NW Energy Coalition's assessment of 2020 DEIS(April 2020): 4-page comment summary and full comment letter

• Sportfishing fact sheet assembled by the Northwest Steelheaders, NW Guides and Anglers Association, and the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association (Jan. 2020) PDF

•  Presentation materials - June 18 webinar on recreational fishing community impacts from Bob Rees.

Join Save Our Wild Salmon for three nights - March 18th, March 31st, and April 15th - for our Spring Wild Salmon Speaker Series.

This online speaker series (via zoom) will feature in-depth conversations with several experts and leaders to discuss different aspects of salmon and steelhead recovery efforts - with a focus on the Snake River Basin.

Join us on March 18, March 31, and April 15 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm PST to learn about the challenges, opportunities, and implications of restoring the lower Snake River and its endangered fish by removing four federal dams. We'll explore ways to solve today's Snake and Columbia river salmon crisis in a manner that also ensures clean, reliable, and affordable energy and prosperous communities and cultures.

These conversations and audience Q&A will be moderated by SOS' Sam Mace and Joseph Bogaard.

Please RSVP here: https://saveourwildsalmon.salsalabs.org/SpringWildSalmonWebinarSeries

Please forward/share this announcement with people who may be interested. See links to Facebook event pages listed below.

Have questions? Reach out to carrie@wildsalmon.org

 (1) Rep. Simpson's Columbia Basin Fund proposal--perspectives from veteran Northwest journalists.
Thursday, March 18th from 6:00-7:30 pm PST.

The Seattle Times' Lynda Mapes, reporter and author Rocky Barker, and the Outdoors Editor for The Lewiston Tribune, Eric Barker will share their expertise on the Snake River dams issue they've covered for years and how the Simpson proposal plays into this regional discussion.

Lynda V. Mapes is a journalist, author, and close observer of the natural world. The Seattle Times has made a point of focusing on environmental issues for its readership; Lynda has been a key part of this effort, covering natural history, environmental topics, and issues related to Pacific Northwest indigenous cultures. Her writing connects ordinary people and nature. In 1997, while working at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, she was awarded the Gerald Loeb award for a series on salmon recovery efforts in the Columbia Basin. It was the first time anyone looked at what the region had spent on recovery in the basin and what had resulted from those efforts. In addition to her newspaper career, she is the author of four books, including Elwha: A River Reborn. Her latest book focused on the Southern Resident orcas is scheduled for publication later this year. She lives in Seattle with her husband Douglas MacDonald. Learn more at www.lyndavmapes.com

Rocky Barker is an author, writer, and producer who writes a column for Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News. During his 43-year career, he covered environmental issues ranging from mining in Wisconsin, acid rain in Canada, rain forest protection in Hawaii, to fish and wildlife conservation in Russia's Far East and Africa. His paper, Mending Fences on biodiversity conservation in Hawaii, was published by the East-West Center. He is the author of Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America. The story inspired a television movie, Firestorm: Last Stand at Yellowstone on A&E Network co-produced by Rocky. His first book, Saving All the Parts, was cited for excellence by the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award judges. He co-authored the Flyfisher’s Guide to Idaho with Ken Retallic. He retired earlier this year as environmental reporter for the Idaho Statesman, where he was the researcher for a series of editorials in 1997 calling for the breaching of four Snake River dams to save salmon. He and his wife Tina live in Boise. Learn more at www.rockybarker.com

Eric Barkeris the outdoors editor and environmental reporter for the Lewiston Tribune and won the 2019 Dolly Connelly Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. Barker wrote a series of stories about the Snake and Columbia river system that explains the complex policy decisions surrounding the waterways, according to a news release about the award. His stories capture “the shift from the old debate of dams versus fish to the new reality of a rapidly changing energy market, a changing political atmosphere in Washington, and the challenge of climate change,” said Rocky Barker, a retired Idaho Statesman writer, in the news release. Barker joined the Tribune in 1997 as the education reporter and became the Outdoors and environmental reporter a year later and has been covering salmon and steelhead since. He lives in Lewiston with his wife Sadie.

Please forward/share this announcement with people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

(2) Snake River Vision Project: Imagining a free-flowing lower Snake for the Inland Northwest.
Wednesday, March 31st from 6:00-7:30 pm PST

In a discussion led by Sam Mace, the Inland Northwest Director of Save Our wild Salmon, in collaboration with Defenders of Wildlife and Spokane Falls Trout Unlimited, we'll dive into the Snake River Vision Project, interactive map, and perspectives from around the region. We hope to explore questions like: how a restored lower Snake River will best benefit Inland Northwest communities and economies, and what recreation, fishing, habitat, Tribal use, and other values did a free-flowing river provide before dams?

Bryan Jones is a 4th generation wheat grower and cattle rancher near Dusty, WA. He manages a peach farm on the banks of the Snake River, near where the community of Penawawa existed before being inundated by Little Goose dam. Bryan currently ships his grain down the lower Snake River by barge. He has served on the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board and has implemented stream restoration projects on his farm to benefit fish and wildlife.

Harvey Morrison has advocated for Snake River salmon and steelhead for more than 30 years.  He grew up in Spokane hunting, fishing, and hiking the lower Snake River before it was dammed.  He is Past President of Spokane Falls Trout Unlimited and currently serves on the chapter's Advisory Committee, where is a volunteer leader in Spokane River restoring habitat for native redband trout.

Richard Scully,born in Lewiston, is a retired Ph.D. scientist with degrees in zoology and fisheries. He began working for Idaho Fish and Game in 1983 focused on salmon and steelhead management issues on Idaho rivers including the Snake, Clearwater, and South Fork Salmon. He retired in 2008 after serving as the IDFG Regional Fishery Manager based in Pocatello. In the interim, he has continued to work on fishery management issues. Most recently he served on Idaho Governor Brad Little's Salmon Recovery Task Force. Richard lives in Lewiston, Idaho.

Please forward/share this announcement with people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

(3) Dam removal Success Stories - Rivers restored and the lessons learned.
Thursday, April 15th from 6:00-7:30 pm PST 

Guest speakers from American Rivers and Defenders of Wildlife and others will share the stories of various river restorations that have taken place across the region and nation including the Elwha, Rogue, Penobscot and other rivers - and what those can teach us about the potential of restoring the lower Snake River.

Shawn Cantrell, as the Vice President of Field Conservation Programs, oversees the work of Defenders in the field. He has spent more than 20 years working on wildlife and public lands conservation, first as Northwest Regional Director of Friends of the Earth and later as Executive Director of Seattle Audubon Society. His advocacy and leadership were instrumental to the passage and implementation of the federal Elwha River Restoration Act, leading to the removal of the two dams on Washington’s Elwha River. Most recently, Shawn has worked together with government agencies and private landowners to protect and restore forest habitat vital for the recovery of threatened northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets. Shawn earned a B.A. in Political Science from Gonzaga University as well as a certificate in Non-Profit Leadership from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. 

Serena McClain is the Director of River Restoration at American Rivers and has worked in the river restoration field for more than thirteen years, focusing largely on dam removal planning. McClain works with regional and national stakeholders to demonstrate how to enhance safety, quality of life and economic development by restoring the natural function of rivers and utilizes her communications and policy expertise to ensure that local communities and key decision-makers are aware of the opportunities available to them and are equipped with the tools necessary to aid them in those decisions. Serena joined American Rivers in 2001. Prior to that, she was an account executive with Porter Novelli, where she developed media and marketing strategies for a number of associations and issue-oriented campaigns. B.A. in Political Science from Angelo State University

Please forward/share this announcement with people who may be interested. Here is the Facebook event page for sharing with your social media networks.

MEET YOUR HOSTS:

SOS Inland Northwest Director Sam Mace first got involved in efforts to protect Snake River wild salmon and steelhead 20+ years ago working for the Idaho Wildlife Federation. She’s worked for SOS since 2004. Sam lives in Spokane with her dog and her sweetheart and spends her free time fishing, hiking and gardening.

SOS Executive Director Joseph Bogaard began working for Save Our Wild Salmon as an organizer in 1996. He first got hooked on Northwest salmon restoration efforts while in graduate school where he authored a paper in the mid-1990s, exploring the then-relatively recent Snake River salmon listings under the Endangered Species Act, and how it might impact Northwest lands and waters, its energy system, and tribal and non-tribal communities. Joseph lives outside of Seattle with his wife Amy and their children.

TAKE ACTION: SUPPORT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND A REGIONAL SOLUTION FOR SALMON, ORCAS AND COMMUNITIES: Link to Save Our Wild Salmon's Action Page

LINKS TO RELEVANT INFORMATION AND REPORTS:

• To learn more about the Simpson proposal visit our blog - to see what the coverage of this announcement has looked like visit our 'Northwest in Transition' Resource Page
• Snake River Vision Project overview - check out the Interactive Map!
• Dam Removal Succes Stories: A five-part series

Below is a copy of the full-page print ad that SOS published on Sunday, October 3 in partnership with more than 30 Northwest-based businesses, business associations and non-governmental organizations in three regional papers - Spokesman Review (WA), Lewiston Morning Tribune (ID) and Bend Bulletin (OR).

These ads kick off an important outreach project highlighting the urgent plight of Snake/Columbia River steelhead.

• Washington State Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell
• Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
• Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch

 Please write and call these offices today - and share this project with your friends and networks.

Thank you.

 I. INTRODUCTION:

In May 2021, U.S. Senator Patty Murray and Governor Jay Inslee (WA) issued a joint statement in which they acknowledged the extinction crisis facing Snake River salmon and steelhead and committed to develop, by 7/31/2022, a long-term plan to protect and restore these imperiled populations.

In October 2021, they issued another statement establishing a joint federal-state process on Snake River salmon recovery. Then in February 2022, Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee announced a new website - Lower Snake River Dam Options.

As a key part of their initiative, they retained a consultant to produce a Report identifying our options for replacing the services currently provided by the four lower Snake River dams. Since May 2021 when they announced their initiative, the senator and governor, their staffs and consultant have held hundreds of meetings and worked closely with the region’s tribes, stakeholders and other experts to inform this report and understand their options for an action plan that will protect and restore healthy, fishable populations of Snake River salmon and steelhead.

On June 9, 2022, Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee released their highly anticipated ‘Draft Lower Snake River Dams Benefits Replacement Report.’ This document makes it clear that the dams’ services – energy, irrigation, and barge transportation - can be fully, feasibly, and affordably replaced with reliable, cost-effective alternatives.

The core findings from this report lay the foundation for developing a comprehensive solution to restore the lower Snake River and its salmon, help critically endangered Southern Resident orcas, uphold our nation’s promises to Northwest Tribes, and invest in our region's communities and infrastructure.

II. FINAL LOWER SNAKE RIVER DAMS' BENEFITS REPLACEMENT REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

On Aug. 25, Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee took a historic step when they released their final Lower Snake River Dam Benefits Replacement Report and recommendations outlining key actions for the Snake River as a central element of a larger set of important priorities and next steps designed to protect and restore abundant populations of salmon and steelhead across the Columbia Basin and the Northwest.

Save Our wild Salmon welcomes and appreciates this very significant package and proposal from the governor and senator, and we look forward to working with them and others in the region and in D.C. to advance them - with the great urgency that circumstances demand.

Their long-anticipated recommendations include this essential conclusion:
“The science is clear that – specific to the Lower Snake River – breach of the dams would provide the greatest benefit to the salmon. Salmon runs in the Lower Snake River are uniquely impacted by the dam structures relative other watersheds, and the waters of the lower Snake River have unique potential for robust aquatic ecosystem and species recovery.”

Other key themes and conclusions from Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee:

• The status quo is not working and must change. Changing economic, energy, and climate conditions require leaders to plan for changing circumstances in the Columbia Basin region in the coming decades.

• Extinction is unacceptable. Saving salmon and other iconic species in the Columbia Basin is imperative. “Extinction of salmon, orca and other iconic species in the Pacific Northwest is categorically unacceptable…we will not permit Washington state to lose its salmon."

• Saving salmon requires a restored river. The federal government's recent scientific review affirms that breaching the LSR dams offers the greatest benefit to the salmon. “We must recognize that breaching the dams does in fact offer us the best chance at protecting endangered salmon and other iconic species that run through these waters."


The Northwest and nation are now on a path to replace benefits and breach the four lower Snake River dams as part of a comprehensive plan to restore salmon in the Columbia Basin. This requires building new energy, transportation, and irrigation infrastructure. “We can do so in a manner that is responsible and environmentally safe, that addresses the concerns of communities, and that respects the Treaty rights and cultural imperatives of Tribal sovereigns. But we must do this work.”

Sen.Murray and Gov. Inslee said they are committed to action that will make dam breaching viable, noting that the extinction of salmon and the orca that feed on them is “categorically unacceptable.” They stressed the need for immediate action to replace—or mitigate—the dams’ services in advance of breaching.

III. Biden Administration Commitments to Salmon Recovery Complement Murray and Inslee Initiative

Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee’s salmon recovery recommendations, and their report, followed a landmark agreement between the Biden Administration and salmon and fishing advocates, who are challenging a grossly inadequate Trump-era salmon plan in federal court. That agreement extended a pause in the litigation to allow time for both settlement talks and a set of key actions to help fish and their habitats. The plaintiffs – the Nez Perce Tribe, the State of Oregon, and Earthjustice on behalf of fishing and conservation groups – and the Biden Administration told the court earlier this summer that discussions have been productive and should be allowed to proceed by extending the pause to Aug. 31, 2023.

The Court swiftly approved the parties’ joint motion, and as part of the agreement, the Biden Administration made a series of commitments toward this goal:

"The Biden Administration is committed to supporting development of a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels, honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region.” Salmon, orca, clean energy, and fishing advocates have hard work ahead in order to realize this opportunity: to support the Tribes and work with Northwest states, members of Congress, and the Biden Administration to secure the necessary funding and replace the dams' services as quickly as possible.

Read more about Biden Administration Commitments to Salmon Recovery Complement Murray/Inslee Initiative here.

IV. A Path to Restoring Salmon, Steelhead, and the lower Snake River

The forward-leaning leadership for salmon and orca recovery, justice for Northwest Tribes, and investment in a prosperous and sustainable regional future by the Biden Administration and top regional elected officials is a historic moment. We must now move urgently down the path to replace the services of the dams and remove them to restore salmon. As we do so, we will also invest in the future of the Northwest and greatly benefit communities region-wide.

Investment in the Northwest will include: expanded economic opportunity; advancement of clean, affordable and reliable energy systems; increase of job opportunities; reliable, sustainable transportation system; a thriving fishing and outdoor recreational industry; and attainable actions to address climate change; and increase resilience for communities, lands, and waters across the region.

Our way forward – to plan and implement (i) the replacement of services and (ii) removal of the lower Snake River dams – will require significant collaborative planning, policy, advocacy, and state and federal investments. With salmon and steelhead populations and the Southern Resident orcas struggling for survival today, immediate and sustained action is essential.

ACT NOW! Contact your elected leaders!

The leadership shown by Sen. Murray, Gov. Inslee, the Biden Administration, and Northwest Tribes gives the campaign to restore abundant, harvestable salmon and steelhead runs, and healthy Southern Resident orca populations an unprecedented opportunity. We need your help to turn momentum into acceleration - and opportunity into achievement.

SOS has set up an action alert to send a message to your Northwest elected leaders and the Biden Administration to move quickly to develop and implement a comprehensive regional solution that includes lower Snake River dam removal and replacement of their services in a manner that moves everyone forward together.

V. Recommendations of Governor Inslee and Senator Murray following the Conclusion of the Joint Federal-State Process on Salmon Recovery - excerpts:

• While we have heard disagreement and intensity of feeling, we have also seen clear areas of common agreement.  People of every perspective share a desire to see progress on the underlying issues and relief from the uncertainty created by litigation for communities.(p.1)

• The present moment affords us a vital opportunity to build on these areas of agreement, and we firmly believe that the region cannot afford another fifty years of confrontation, litigation, and acrimony over the Lower Snake River Dams. (p.1)

• The Joint Federal-State Process makes clear that - with adequate investment and coordination - it is possible to replace most of the services and benefits provided by the Dams in the event of breach and to mitigate the loss of others. (p.2)

• [W]e are adamant that in any circumstance where the Lower Snake River River Dams would be breached, the replacement and mitigation of their benefits must be pursued before decommissioning and breaching. This is especially true in ensuring that reliable, dispatchable, and carbon-free energy is available and operating…

• Some assert that energy scarcity and environmental calamity are inevitable results of changing our approach to hydropower on the Lower Snake River Dams, and that doing so will derail the Pacific Northwest’s decarbonization goals as we confront the climate crisis.  We believe that is an oversimplified binary choice, and it is one that we do not accept... (p.2)

• [T]he federal and state governments should move forward with a program to replace the benefits provided by the Lower Snake River Dams... (p.2)

• To establish breach of the Lower Snake River Dams as a realistic and actionable option, we must focus on short-and medium-term actions to invest in the region's transportation network and electrical grid...Important, we must also aggressively pursue projects and initiatives to restore habitat and support salmon recovery throughout the Columbia River Basin and the Puget Sound. (p.3)

• [B]reaching of the Lower Snake River Dams should be an option....at the conclusion of this Process, that it must be an option we strive to make viable. (p.4)

• A great deal of work remains to resolve the technical and financial questions that remain, and it is time to transition from endless debate and litigation to taking concrete steps now that ensure every option is available to policymakers. (p.5)

• As this Joint Federal-State Process was underway, new developments are providing an unprecedented opportunity to reach solutions that serve everyone that relies on the dams, the river, and the salmon: the year-long stay agreed to on August 4th by litigants in NWF et. v. NMFS et. al; the commitment by the Biden administration to negotiate toward a regionwide solution to salmon, and the passage of landmark federal investments in clean energy, climate and infrastructure. (p.5)


IV. LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION AND WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

Additional resources:

• Final Lower Snake River Dam Benefits Replacement Report 

• Senator Murray / Governor Inslee recommendations

• Press Release: Gov. Inslee statement regarding final report for Joint Federal-State Process for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin (August 25, 2022) 
• Press Release: Senator Murray Statement on Finding of Murray-Inslee Joint Federal-State Process (August 25, 2022) 
• Press Release: Governor Kate Brown Commends Washington Leaders for Supporting Collaborative Solution for Columbia Basin Salmon, Steelhead Restoration(August 26, 2022) 
• Press Release: Yakama Nation Reponds to Final Murray and Inslee Salmon Report(August 25, 2022) 
• Press Release: SNAKE RIVER: Energy, fishing, conservation groups respond to Sen. Murray's and Gov. Inslee's presumptive plan for dam replacement (August 25, 2022)
• Press Release:Yakama Nation Responds to Murray-Inslee Draft Salmon Report -- Tribe views near-term dam removal as critical to salmon survival in the Columbia Basin (PDF, June 9, 2022)
• Press Release:The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation responds to draft Murray-Inslee Report on Lower Snake River Dams -- Honor the treaties. Protect our salmon. Breach the dams. (June 9, 2022)
• Press Release:Nez Perce Tribe Calls for National Leadership from the Administration and Congress -- Murray-Inslee Report on Replacing the Service of the Lower Snake River Dams. (June 9, 2022)
• Press Release -Salmon, fishing and allied advocates: Scientists, energy experts and others applaud report by Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee (June 9, 2022)

Selected Media Coverage: 

• NY Times: Breaching Dams ‘Must Be an Option’ to Save Salmon, Washington Democrats Say

• KREM: A report produced by Gov. Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray recommends replacing the benefits of the lower snake river dams to make breaching them possible.

• KING5: Inslee, Murray recommend taking action to make breaching the Snake River dams a ‘viable option’.

• Associated Press: Report: Benefits of dams must be replaced before breaching.

• Seattle Times: Inslee, Murray say Snake River dam removal is possible, but not yet.

• Seattle Times article: Removing Lower Snake River dams offers best chance for salmon recovery — at steep price, report says (June 9, 2022)
• Columbian Editorial - In Our View: Snake River dams report leaves many questions(June 13)
• Seattle Times Editorial - A herculean, worthwhile task before breaching Lower Snake River Dams (June 16, 2022)

VII. BACKGROUND:

Snake River salmon and steelhead populations face extinction today. Scientists have concluded that restoring a freely flowing lower Snake River is essential for their survival and recovery. Lower Snake River dam removal would achieve an unprecedented river restoration that reconnects salmon to 5,500 miles of pristine, protected habitat - the best remaining salmon incubator in the lower 48 states. The four Snake River dams and their reservoirs are the primary source of human-caused mortality for these fish. Now warming waters and reduced snowpack from climate change are accelerating existing salmon stressors. Scientists tell us that we only have a few more years left to act.

Salmon are a keystone species that define our region’s ecology, economy, and communities. Salmon are central to many Northwest tribes and critical to the survival of endangered Southern Resident orcas and more than 100 fish and wildlife species. The Tribes are leading the way - working across our region to protect and restore salmon and their habitats, including in the Snake River. In spring 2021, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) unanimously passed a resolution calling for the removal of the four lower Snake River dams and replacement of their services with alternatives. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a similar resolution several weeks later.

The people of Pacific Northwest and the nation urgently need a comprehensive solution. After more than two decades, six illegal federal plans, and $19+ billion in spending, not a single salmon population has been recovered in the Snake/Columbia rivers. We desperately need a new approach or we will lose these fish and the many benefits they bring. The science is clear: restoring the lower Snake River by removing its four dams is essential for protecting salmon from extinction.

'Urgency and Opportunity - Highlights and milestones from 2021'

The section below contains background and links to press coverage, statements and other information reflecting key details and developments concerning the plight of endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead and the benefits they bring to our region.

In early 2021, Rep. Simpson (R-ID) kicked off a groundbreaking discussion in the Pacific Northwest when he proposed a comprehensive regional solution to restore endangered salmon and steelhead populations and invest in communities and critical infrastructure. His initiative combined lower Snake River dam removal with investments in clean energy, transportation infrastructure, waterfront, fishing and farming communities, and more. 

Other regional leaders have stepped up as well. Oregon’s Gov. Kate Brown and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, for example, announced their readiness last spring to help develop a regional strategy that restores the lower Snake River and invests in communities.

Then in May, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee in Washington State issued a joint statement that recognized the crisis facing Snake River fish, committed to address it and – for the first time - placed dam removal squarely on the table for consideration.

Fast forward to October 2021: Gov. Inslee and Sen. Murray issued a new statement outlining next steps in the process they announced in May. They are working together now, with the assistance of a contractor, to understand options for replacing the services currently provided by the dams as a key step toward developing an action plan for Snake River salmon and Northwest communities by or before July 2022. A draft report from the contractor is expected this spring that will be followed by a regional public input process.

Of course, many others - including Northwest Native American Tribes and stakeholders including utilities, shippers, growers and others - are participating in this conversation around shared solutions.

Save Our wild Salmon has set up this 'Urgency and Opportunity' Resource Page to help people understand the latest developments in efforts to urgently develop a comprehensive regional solution that restores the lower Snake River and invests in communities and infrastructure.

We will update it regularly, so check back to learn about who's weighing in and how.

With these recent developments, our elected leaders need to hear from you and people, businesses and networks with whom you are connected! Go to our Take Action Page to find out how you can make your voice heard! Contact joseph@wildsalmon.org to learn more our work and how you can get more involved!

I.  'Urgency and Opportunity': Select Media Coverage:

Washington governor, senator want answers on how to replace benefits of Lower Snake River dams (Seattle Times, October 16)

Upstream Battle (Time Magazine, October 2021)

Poll finds most Washington voters support plan to breach Snake River dams (Spokesman Review, October 7)

Infrastructure bill would let Bonneville Power Administration borrow $10 billion to modernize Northwest power grid, but critics say it props up ‘failed status quo’(Spokesman-Review, October 3)

Lower Snake River irrigators propose two-dam drawdown, breaking with some farmers and bargers (Seattle Times, September 7)

Steelhead numbers bad, again (Lewiston Tribune, August 24)

Excessive heat makes it more difficult for sockeye salmon to return to Idaho(KIVI TV, August 15)

‘More and more dire’: Idaho salmon advocates rally for Snake River dam breaching (Idaho Statesman, August 7)

Historic summit of tribes across Pacific Northwest presses dam removal on Inslee, Biden, Congress (Seattle Times, July 9)

Pacific Northwest heatwave sets up ‘grim’ migration for salmon on Columbia, Snake rivers(Seattle Times, June 29)

Northwest tribes unite behind breaching concept (Lewiston Tribune, May 27)

Northwest tribes unite over GOP congressman’s pitch to breach down Lower Snake River dams(Seattle Times, May 27)

Gov. Inslee, Washington state’s U.S. senators reject GOP congressman’s pitch on Lower Snake River dam removal (Seattle Times, May 14)

Tribe’s fish study is ‘a call to alarm’(Lewiston Tribune, April 30)

Oregon Congressman joins Idaho’s Mike Simpson in promoting dam removal (Idaho Statesman, April 30)

Columbia Basin tribes back Simpson plan(Lewiston Morning Tribune, April 16)

Idaho Republican, Oregon Democrat could be the key figures in dam-breaching debate(Idaho Statesman, March 29)

Letter from tribal leaders: Breach the lower Snake River dams (Lewiston Tribune, March 26)

A Republican wants to breach dams. Where are Democrats?(E&E News, March 26)

Editorial - In Our View: Snake River dams plan warrants consideration(The Columbian, March 21)

Scientists say removing Snake River dams ‘is necessary’ to restore salmon population (Lewiston Morning Tribune, Feb 23)

Snake River dams proposal draws accolades, criticism (Peninsula Daily News, Feb 21)

‘Devastating impacts’: Idaho Gov. Little opposes Simpson’s plan to breach Snake River dams (Idaho Statesman, Feb 18)

Idaho Rep. Simpson Explains His $34B Plan To Restore The Salmon (Boise State Public Radio, 22 minutes, Feb. 18)

Congressman hopes politics align on divisive Northwest dams (Star Tribune, Feb 15)

Idaho U.S. rep calls for breaching Lower Snake River dams (La Grande Observer, Feb. 8)

Republican wants to breach dams, reshape Pacific Northwest (Energy & Environment News, Feb. 8)

GOP congressman pitches $34 billion plan to breach Lower Snake River dams in new vision for Northwest(Seattle Times, Feb. 7)

Rep. Simpson proposal calls for breaching four lower Snake River dams (Lewiston Morning Tribune, Feb. 6)

This GOP congressman wants to remove 4 dams to save Idaho’s salmon. It’ll cost billions.(Tri-City Herald, Feb. 6)

II. 'Urgency and Opportunity': Select Editorials and Guest Opinions:

The Oregonian: Clean energy, wild salmon both critical for the future of the Columbia Basin
(Kate Brown, Samuel N. Penney, and Liz Hamilton, October 10)

Idaho Statesman: President Biden needs one voice to lead on Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s plan to save salmon (Tracy Andrus, September 15)

Register-Guard: We can have our salmon and eat it too(Walt Pollock, September 2)

Everett Herald: Murray, Inslee should back removal of Snake’s dams (Peter Hapke, August 23)

East Oregonian: Working together, bold action can secure a thriving future for the Columbia Basin (Gov. Kate Brown, August 14)

Spokesman-Review: Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee must keep their promise to save wild salmon (Collin O’Mara and Alyssa Macy, June 6)

Oregon Business: The Salmon and the Snake (Nick Cunningham, May 25)

The Hill: Rivers, hydropower and climate resilience (Tom Kiernan, May 25)

Act now to save salmon, regardless of dams’ fate (The Everett Herald, May 23)

Columbia River needs a solution that sustains all our communities - By Earl Blumenauer and Mike Simpson (The Oregonian, May 9)

Commentary: Simpson dam proposal smart, strategic (Capital Press, April 26)

Portland Business Journal: Viewpoint: A way to end litigation around salmon and dams (March 19)

Opinion: My Motivation by Mike Simpson(March 14)

Lewiston Tribune Guest Opinion: Troy and Schoesler rushed to judgment on Simpson’s fish plan (Don Chapman Feb. 27)

Magic Valley Op-ed: Hartgen wants to gamble for Idaho’s future – I want certainty (Rep. Mike Simpson, Feb. 26)

Spokesman Review Guest Opinion: The Last Salmon (W. Ron Allen and McCoy Oatman, Feb. 21)

Andy Kerr Blog: The Simpson Salmon Strategy(Feb. 19)

Statesman Journal Guest Opinion: A plan for salmon, jobs and a strong economy (Feb 19)

Union-Bulletin Guest Opinion: Rep. Simpson's bold vision to restore salmon runs(Nathaniel Mahlberg, Feb. 14)

Spokesman Review Guest Opinion: From an unforeseen corner comes a push to return dam-breaching to the discussion (Shawn Vestal, Feb. 14)

Lewiston Morning Tribune Opinion - Cheers and Jeers: ‘Daring greatly’(Feb. 12)

Lewiston Morning Tribune Guest Opinion: Simpson’s run of the river(Marc C. Johnson, Feb. 12)

Oregonian Guest Opinion: Despite unknowns, dam-breaching proposal is opening honest conversations(Kurt Miller, Feb. 10)

Idaho Statesman Editorial: At long last, a workable plan to remove Lower Snake River dams and save Idaho’s salmon (Feb. 7)

III. 'Urgency and Opportunity': Select statements by sovereigns, elected officials, stakeholders, and others:

Press Release: Conservation & Fishing Groups Agree to Pause Litigation, Discuss Long-Term, Comprehensive Solution to Aid Struggling Salmon (Oct. 21)

Press Release: CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory Holds Roundtable Discussion with Tribal Leaders at Yakama Nation (Oct. 4)

81 Chefs and Restaurant Industry Leaders Urge WA Policymakers to Support Salmon, Infrastructure Investments (June 10)

Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Resolution #2021 – 00 Calling on the President of the United States and the 177th Congress to seize the once-in-a-lifetime congressional opportunity to invest in salmon and river restoration in the Pacific Northwest, charting a stronger, better future for the Northwest, and bringing long-ignore tribal justice to our peoples and homelands (May 2021)

New Perce Tribe and the New Perce Fisheries: Snake Basin Chinook and Steelhead Quasi-Extinction Threshold Alarm and Call to Action(May 2021)

Joint press statement from Senator Murray and Governor Inslee (May 14)

Shoshone-Bannock Tribe’s letter to President Biden re: Simpson proposal and restoring the lower Snake River (May 2021)

Press Release: Columbia Basin Tribes urge Congress to make historic investment in Northwest Infrastructure (April 15)

Letter to Northwest Congressional Delegation re: the critical importance and urgent need to pass comprehensive Congressional legislation similar to Congressman Simpson’s proposal. Signed by former Columbia Basin Partnership participants. (March 25, 2021)

Tribal Leaders Letter Calling on Congress and President Biden to Honor the Treaties Made with Northwest Tribes (March 18)

WA black Lives Matter Alliance letter in solidarity with Northwest Tribal Nations calling for the removal of four Lower Snake River dams (March 18)

Letter from the Yakama Nation to Oregon and Washington State Senators expressing its strong support for Congressman Simpson’s proposal. (March 9, 2021)

Letter from the Nez Perce Executive Tribal Committee to the four WA and OR Senators (March 2)

Scientists’ letter on the need for lower Snake River dam removal to protect salmon and steelhead from extinction and restore abundant, fishable populations to Northwest Governors, member of Congress, and Policymakers (Feb 22)

Yakama Nation (Feb. 20)

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Feb 18)

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Oregon, District 3. (Feb. 18)

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation(Feb. 14)

Governor Jay Inslee, Washington State (Feb. 12)

Governor Kate Brown, State of Oregon (Feb 12)

Spokane Tribe of Indians (Feb 11)

Shoshone-Bannock Tribe (Feb 10)

Congressman Derek Kilmer, Washington State, District 6. (Feb 10)

Nez Perce Tribe Executive Council (Feb. 8)

Joint statement from U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (WA), and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (OR). (Feb 8; see below)

Letter from 40 recreation businesses/organizations to Northwest policymakers asking for the restoration of the lower Snake River (Feb 2021)

 IV. Notable Quotes:

“Working together as a delegation and with the governors, stakeholders and conservationists, we can create a Northwest solution that ends the salmon wars and puts the Northwest and our energy systems on a certain, secure and viable path for decades and restores Idaho’s salmon.”
  - U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho)



“I am certain if we do not take this course of action, we are condemning Idaho salmon to extinction.”   
- U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho)

“If we give the farmers, bargers, ports, the BPA and communities the necessary resources, each sector can develop a certainty and security putting the Northwest and Idaho salmon on a path to sustained viability,”- U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID)

“I have great respect for Representative Simpson, his staff and all those who helped him develop his proposal.”  - U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID)

"The conceptual framework released by Rep. Simpson offers a lot of substance for our regional stakeholders to consider as the four governors process gets underway, and I hope this framework will help initiate a productive dialogue on how to achieve our shared goals. As these conversations continue, it is imperative that any future federal actions are based on both sound science and on consensus recommendations for impacted stakeholders." - U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA)

"The Columbia-Snake River Basin is home to an incredibly complex web of communities, cultures, ecosystems, and infrastructure – and increasingly, salmon and steelhead populations are in crisis. The status quo is not working; more progress is needed to recover these important species. I applaud Mr. Simpson for his efforts to craft a comprehensive solution that addresses multiple – often competing – needs, to bring communities together, and move us all forward. I'm intrigued by his proposal, which I think deserves thoughtful consideration from all sides. I look forward to working with communities across the region to help craft solutions that help recover these iconic fish on the brink of extinction."  - U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)

“All communities in the Columbia River Basin and beyond should be heard in efforts to recover the Northwest’s iconic salmon runs while ensuring economic vitality of the region. Any process needs to balance the needs of communities in the Columbia River Basin, be transparent, be driven by stakeholders and follow the science.”  - Joint Statement from U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)

“Iʼd like to thank Rep. Simpson for working with a broad coalition of interested parties across the Northwest to craft this proposal, which will help us to build on the economic opportunities of the Columbia Basin and invest in a clean energy future,”  - Oregon Governor Kate Brown

“Washington welcomes Rep. Simpson’s willingness to think boldly about how to recover Columbia and Snake River salmon in a way that works for the entire region and invests – at a potentially transformative level – in clean energy, transportation and agriculture.”  - Washington State Governor Jay Inslee

“We will support Congressman Simpson’s initiative and we respect the courage and vision he is showing the region. This is an opportunity for multiple regional interests to align with a better future for the Northwest: river restoration and salmon recovery; local and regional economic investment and infrastructure improvement; and long-term legal resolution and certainty.” - Chairman Shannon Wheeler, Nez Perce Tribe

“There is potential for a lot of healing with this legislation.”– Chairman Shannon Wheeler, Nez Perce Tribe

 "Restoring the lower Snake River will allow salmon, steelhead, and lamprey to flourish in the rivers and streams of the Snake Basin. This has long been a priority because these are the CTUIR's ancestral traditional use areas, such as the Grande Ronde, Imnaha, Lostine, Minam, Tucannon and Wallowa Rivers and their tributaries."- Chairwoman Kat Brigham, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

 "I urge our Senators and Congressional Representatives to join Congressman Simspon in advocating for legislation to breach the lower Snake River dams, and taking bold action to restore our salmon."  - Chairman Delano Saluskin, Yakama Nation

"Addressing the impacts to the Columbia River Region in a holistic way will require the Region and its political leaders to display the same courage, Congressman Simpson has displayed in releasing this proposed framework. Many details will need to be worked through and many hearts and minds won over, however, acknowledging that they system is not working for the entire Region is a big step forward.”  - Chairwoman Carol Evans, Spokane Tribe of Indians

 As Shoshone and Bannock peoples of Idaho, we have co-existed within an ecological system from time immemorial. Our traditional culture is based on the fish and wildlife that provide subsistence for our people. We fully support this wide-ranging initiative that would substantially help salmon recovery in Idaho.”  - Chairman Devon Boyer, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation

“For the past five decades, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have been working to restore the Snake River and our salmon runs. With the dams in place, we have experienced impacts to our culture, spirituality, and our way of life; we need to change the system in order for salmon and our people (Newe) to survive.”  - Claudeo Broncho, Fish and Wildlife Policy Representative, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation

"Rep. Simpson supports an historic investment in infrastructure to protect Snake River salmon from extinction, while converting the region’s energy, transportation, and irrigation sectors to meet 21st century demands. This proposal will be a major step in restoring the Snake River ecosystem to its natural state giving its ancestral salmon runs a chance at survival. This proposal is visionary and long overdue. Tribes are co-managers of the Columbia River Basin and hold unique rights through our treaties, including the right to access fish in perpetuity. This right has been ignored for nearly two centuries, leading to the decimated fish runs we see today. Healthy Columbia River fishing runs support fishermen from the coast to the plateau including our spiritual relatives the Southern Resident Killer Whales. We look forward to working with the Northwest congressional delegation, other Tribal leaders, and elected representatives from throughout the region on a plan to save Snake River salmon from extinction while protecting the climate, respecting Treaty rights, and enhancing Columbia Basin salmon runs." – Chairman Leonard Forsman, Suquamish Tribe & President, Affiliated Tribes of NW Indians

"It’s a serious plan at a unique time and it deserves to be vetted and heard."  - Kurt Miller, Northwest River Partners

“We want to be thoughtful about and not retrench into traditional positions but give it a fair shot and at the same time approach it with a critical eye -- one that makes sure the questions get answered.”  - Kurt Miller, Northwest RiverPartners

"We respect Congressman Simpson, and appreciate his interest in salmon recovery in the Columbia River Basin. BPA looks forward to more conversations about this concept, and the region's environmental and economic future." - John Hairston, Bonneville Power Administration

“We’ve spent decades making minor improvements and adjustments that simply haven’t worked, and what we really need is serious funding and a major overhaul.”- Liz Hamilton, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association

“I think we need to look at it with an open mind. We need to look and examine all pieces of that before we say ‘Oh, it’s impossible’ or ‘Absolutely not.’ ”- Scott Corbitt, Valley Vision

“I remain optimistic that through open dialogue, curiosity and a focus on ends versus means, we can find a path forward that includes the interests and needs of the power sector, as well as those of numerous other groups and communities,”  - Debra Smith, Seattle City Light

"We are going to have to get a lot more information about what this entails all the way from replacement of the power to transmission services to fish and wildlife costs going forward,”  - K. David Hagen, Clearwater Power

“This is the first meaningful approach any elected official has made public that recognizes the only way to recover Idaho’s salmon and steelhead to meaningful abundance is to untangle the gargantuan and crippling bureaucratic knot that is now also failing ratepayers and taxpayers. The scope of this proposal will be a massive and decades long - possibly perpetual - shot in the arm for the economies of North Idaho, and Eastern Washington and Oregon.”  - Brian Brooks, Idaho Wildlife Federation

“Congressman Mike Simpson’s new Columbia Basin Fund opens the door to a long-awaited and necessary set of solutions to Idaho’s salmon and steelhead crisis. The framework set forth in the plan outlines a path to forestall the extinction of Idaho’s salmon while also ensuring that important industries and communities that depend on the current Snake River System have the means and support to adapt and thrive.”- Aaron Lieberman, Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association

“There are those who talk and those who lead. We applaud Congressman Simpson for his bold leadership to mobilize support in Congress for a comprehensive and lasting plan that would make significant investments in the Northwest economy while recovering the salmon and steelhead that define the region."
- Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited

"What he's proposing is so much bigger than dams. It's about the region. It's about working together to break out of the status quo, which has kept the region in conflict."- Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League

V. 'Urgency and Opportunity': Rep. Simpson's proposal:

Congressman Simpson's video introducing his proposal(5 minutes)

Slide deck summarizing the 'Columbia Basin Fund' by sector (11 pages) 

Slide deck detailing the Northwest in Transition proposal elements and suggested spending (34 pages)

Congressman Simpson's website

Watch a recording of Reps. Simpson and Blumenauer discuss solutions for Northwest salmon and communities

The R.U.N. in Unity Convening is the fifth annual salmon and orca convening was organized by the Nez Perce Tribe and hosted by the Tulalip Tribes. The two-day summit brought together more than a dozen tribes from Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada, and at least 15 allied NGOs to connect and unify voices, and develop and implement best practices for the protection and preservation of water, orca, and salmon in the Northwest. Tribal protocols and presentations, song and ceremony, and panel discussions filled both days.

The SOS team is deeply moved and appreciative for the sharing of wisdom and strength that took place at the convening, and the opportunity to listen and learn from their traditional ecological and cultural knowledge of the region. We strongly encourage you to listen to, or revisit, the thoughtful discussions that took place at R.U.N in Unity Convening.

See below for the recordings of R.U.N in Unity Convening and the event agenda.

Watch the R.U.N in Unity Convening video by Children of the Setting Sun Production. 

Day One | November 1, 2023

• Opening remarks by Kayeloni Scott(Spokane and Nez Perce Nations), Communications Consultant at Nez Perce Tribe and River Protection Communications Director at American Rivers

• Blessing by Jefferson Greene, (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs), Executive Director of the Columbia River Institute for Indigenous Development Foundation

• Welcome by Amy Cordalis (Yurok), Executive Director of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation

• Litigation Update by Chairman Shannon Wheeler(Nez Perce)

• Columbia Basin Tribes- 7 Drum

• Tribal Protocols and Testimony
  • Lummi Nation
  • Nisqually Indian Tribe

•  Covenant of the Salmon People and Film Panel

• Tribal Protocols and Testimony
  • Shoshone Paiute Tribes
  • Nooksack Indian Tribe
  • Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
  • Suquamish Tribe
  • Spokane Tribe of Indians
  • Peggen Frank (Nez Perce Lobbyist and Executive Director of Salmon Defense)

• Closing remarks by Kayeloni Scott 

Day Two (Part 1) | November 2, 2023

• Blessing from Shoshone Paiute Tribes
• Welcome by Fawn Sharp (Quinault), President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
• NGO Opening(Part 1):
  • Ben Jealous, Executive director of the Sierra Club
  • Tom Kiernan, President and CEO of American Rivers

Day Two (Part 2) | November 2, 2023

• NGO Opening(Part 2):
  • Dr. Mel Lewis, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice atAmerican Rivers
  • Collin O'Mara, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation
  • Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited

• NW Legislative Salmon Champions: Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray

• Energy Panel
  • Moderator: Aja DeCoteau (Yakama), Executive Director of CRITFC
  • Panelists:
    • Nancy Hirsh, Executive Director of NW Energy Coalition
    • Karl Dye, CEO of TRIDEC
    • Rob Lothrop, Policy Development/Litigation Support Manager at CRITFC

• Irrigation Panel
  • Moderator: Lisa McShane, Principal at Blue Spruce Strategies
  • Panelists:
    • James Kraft, Executive Director of Washington Water Trust
    • Blaine Meek, Farm Manager at AgReserves, Inc.

• Transportation Presentation
  • Presenters:
    • Tanya Riordan, Policy & Advocacy Director at Save Our wild Salmon
    • Lisa McShane, Principal at Blue Spruce Strategies
    • Ahmer Nizam, Director of Environmental Services Office at Washington State Department of Transportation

• Tribal Speaker
  • Chairman Kris Klabsch Peters from Squaxin Island Tribe

• Tribal Women Panel
  • Moderator: Kayeloni Scott (Spokane and Nez Perce Nations)
  • Panelists:
    • Alyssa Macy (Warm Springs), CEO of Washington Conservation Action
    • Carol Evans (Spokane), Retired Spokane Tribe Chairwoman
    • R. Kim Hartwig, MD (Nez Perce), Medical Director at Nimiipuu Health

• Guest Speakers
  • Bob Ferguson, Washington State Attorney General
  • Dean Hall (The Wild Cure Way)

• Business Impacts Panel
  • Moderator: Chairman Shannon Wheeler (Nez Perce)
  • Panelists:
    • Jay Julius (Lummi) President of Se’Si’Le
    • Ashley Nicole Lewis (Quinault Indian Nation), Owner of Bad Ash Outdoors
    • Lauren McCullough, Co-Manager at OARS

• Youth Panel
  • Moderator: Chantel Greene (Nez Perce), CEO of Xexus Greene Energy, LLC
  • Panelists:
    • Jalisco Miles (Nez Perce)
    • Free Borsey (Lummi), Children of the Setting Sun
    • Lilly Wilson, Youth Salmon Protectors
    • Maanit Goel, WA Youth Ocean & River Conservation Alliance

• Tribal Men Panel
  • Moderator: Ashton Picard (Nez Perce), Council Chaplain
  • Panelists:
    • Jeremy RedStar Wolf (Umatilla), Water Resources Program Tech III at CTUIR
    • JoDe Goudy (Yakama), Vice-President of Se’Si’Le and former Chairman of the Yakama Nation
    • Nate Tyler, Makah Tribal Member and Council Member 
    • Jay Julius (Lummi) President of Se’Si’Le

•  Orca Panel
  • Moderator: Lynda Mapes, Author and Reporter at Seattle Times
  • Panelists:
    • Dr. Deborah Giles, Science & Research Director at Wild Orca
    • Hannah Thompson, Director of Advocacy & Mission Adv. at Northwest Animal Rights Network
    • Freddie Lane (Lummi), Community Activist & Artist

• Salmon Panel
  • Moderator: Chairman Shannon Wheeler (Nez Perce)
  • Panelists:
    • Dave Johnson (Navajo), Manager at the Nez Perce Tribe's Department of Fisheries Resources Management
    • Fawn Sharp (Quinault), President of National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
    • Phil Rigdon (Yakama), Superintendent at the Yakama Natural Resources 

“The salmon can’t get out of the river to march the halls of Congress. They can’t get out of the river to go to court. We have to be their voice and their advocates and champions.” — Fawn Sharp (Quinault), president of the National Congress of American Indians, quoting the late Billy Frank Jr. (Nisqually)

“What you all are doing there is organizing. You are taking power from other structures and putting it behind the sovereignty, the salmon, the orca, the Indigenous Peoples and figuring out how do we unite that voice into one to advance our common cause. That’s the movement.”
— Amy Cordalis (Yurok), executive director of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group

“As I was watching Nooksack Nation up here, I started to get emotional. I was just thinking about how at a certain point in history the goal was to erase Tribal Nations and yet here we are, having retained these traditions. We are so resilient. Knowing that, it seems impossible that we could lose our relative salmon.” — Kayeloni Scott (Spokane and Nez Perce Nations), communications for the Nez Perce Tribe and American Rivers, R.U.N. in Unity organizer

On Sunday, March 26, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition were joined by more than 50 allied NGO partners on this full-page, full-color ad in the Seattle Times.

Coming at a critical time, this ad raises the profile of the collective and urgent work by salmon, orca, fishing and clean energy advocates in Washington State and across the Northwest to restore the lower Snake River and replace its dams’ services as quickly as possible. Right now, the Washington State Legislature is turning its focus on discussing and deciding upon the state’s 2-year budget.

We’re working very hard to ensure critical Snake River restoration-related budget priorities are included in the final state budget. These funds are essential for advancing critical priorities - energy, irrigation and transportation transition planning - that must begin this year. These urgent next steps are key to investing in communities and infrastructure needed in order to replace the lower Snake River dams.

YOU CAN HELP! Sign this petition asking our State Legislators to act now to fully fund these budget items and begin the process to replace and transition the services of the lower Snake River dams - and share this petition with your friends, family, and networks.

View the full-page Stop Salmon Extinction adhere:

More than two decades of smart, relentless advocacy led by Tribes and supported by conservation and fishing NGOs culminated last Thursday (11.17.22) with a unanimous vote by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to remove four dams from the Klamath River.

This long-sought, historic victory, championed by the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and other tribes, will open more than 400 miles of spawning habitat along the Oregon and California border that has been inaccessible to endangered salmon for over a century. 

“‘The Klamath salmon are coming home,’ Yurok Chairman Joseph James said after the vote. ‘The people have earned this victory and with it, we carry on our sacred duty to the fish that have sustained our people since the beginning of time.’” 

Photo Credit: Bob Wick (BLM)

The vote by FERC orders the energy company, PacificCorp, to surrender its dam operating license - the last major legal and regulatory hurdle needed to begin what will be the largest dam removal / river restoration / salmon recovery project in the world (so far!). The dams generate less than 2% of PacificCorp’s power, although they often provide even less. 

As the licenses of privately-owned come up for renewal, their owners and operators increasingly face decisions about if and how to update their aging infrastructure and at what cost. With this month’s decision, Klamath River dam removal is expected to come quickly. The smallest of the four dams, Copco 2, could come down as early as this summer, with the remaining three dams being drawn down and removed in early 2024. 

This momentous win for endangered salmon and tribal and fishing communities coincides with Native American Heritage Month. Restoring the Klamath River and its salmon is critically important to the Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, and Hoopa Valley Tribes as salmon lies at the heart of these cultures. 

Our gratitude and congratulations to all.

Read more here:

• High Country News: The Klamath dams are coming down
• Seattle Times: ‘Momentous:’ Feds advance largest dam demo in US history 
• Oregon Public Broadcasting: The world’s largest dam removal will touch many lives in the Klamath River Basin
• The Guardian: The U.S. approves largest dam removal in history to save endangered salmon

Greetings!

We'll get right to the point - today - 11.27.2018 - is givingtuesday - a global day of giving - and we hope that you will support our important work at the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition with a generous donation.

With your support, we'll continue:

• Defending and restoring healthy rivers, the wild salmon and steelhead that inhabit them, and the many valuable benefits both deliver to communities and ecosystems;

• Holding accountable the federal government and its agencies in the Northwest to uphold our nation's laws and treaties and protect our lands, waters and fish and wildlife;

• Collaborating with partners, building new alliances, educating and mobilizing the public, engaging with those with whom we may disagree, and moving policymakers to protect and restore healthy, resilient lands and waters and thefish and wildlife and human communities that need them.

At SOS, we're calling 2018 the Year of the Orca - the year when Tahlequah, the orca mother, made international news with her heart-breaking 17-day, 1,000 mile procession of grief bearing her lifeless newborn calf through the waters of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest.

This is also the year that Governor Inslee (WA) established the Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force - highlighting the urgent plight of orca and bringing together dozens of state leaders to develop an action plan to sustain this unique and critically endangered community of whales. We're off to a good start, but much hard work remains.

Working with a wonderful local artist, we've developed a fantastic new t-shirt design (shown here) honoring Northwest salmon and the Southern Resident orca that depend on them.

These new t's are tan, short-sleeve, organic cotton, and available in mens and womens sizes. Learn more at our donor page.

Thank you in advance for your support,

What could be a better kick-off to summer with a wine tasting, sipping an array of tasty rose’ and white wines on the beautiful patio watching the sun set over the Olympic Mountains on the shore of Lake Washington? 

Doing all of these while also raising money for Save Our wild Salmon!

Be part of this Seattle summer tradition by joining us at the 17th Annual Rose’ Revival and Other Cool Whites Wine Event! Proceeds from this Seattle Uncorked event will be donated to SOS. So join us and enjoy the stunning view of the sunset over Lake Washington and take home your favorite wines with our on-site wine store! It’s time for Rose’ All Day!

Date:

Thursday May 16, 2019

Location:

Olympic Terrace Tent – Woodmark Hotel
1200 Carillon Point
Kirkland 6 – 9 pm

Tickets:

Available for purchase at https://www.tickettomato.com/event/6078

$35/person (6 pm entry, wine tasting only)

$50/person for VIP tickets* (early entry at 5 pm, and includes wild salmon appetizers)

Learn more at https://seattleuncorked.com/event/rose-revival-may-16th-2019/and make sure to tag your photos of the event with the Instagram handle @roserevival2019 

This event features a wide array of dry Rose’ and interesting white wines! Attendees will meet a variety of Northwest winemakers and taste their Rosé made in very small lots from Sangiovese, Syrah, Cab Franc, Tempranillo, Grenache, Pinot Noir. The event will also feature a wide array of delicious whites for summer, including varietals such as Semillon, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Albarino, Gruner, & Pinot Blanc, as well as wines from Italy, France, Argentina, Australia, and more.

*5pm VIP/Early Entry limited to 100 people featuring delicious Wild Salmon noshes, swag bags, and meet & greet with all the wine makers without all the crowd.

33+ Northwest Wineries pouring their latest releases for Summer at this Rose’ Soiree’!
Aluel Cellars
Bayernmoor Cellars
Cedergreen Cellars
Chandler Reach Vineyards
Chateau Beck
Chatter Creek
DeLille Cellars
Ducleaux Cellars
Elevation Cellars
Goose Ridge Winery
Grosgrain Vineyards
Hedges Family Estate
Lachini Vineyards
Lauren Ashton Cellars
Lodmell Cellars
Michael Florentino Cellars
NHV Naches Heights Vineyard
Nine Hats/Julia’s Dazzle
Patterson Cellars
Revelry Vintners
Rocky Pond Winery
Rooted Souls Winery
Scarlet Oak Barrels
SMAK Wines
Three of Cups
Treveri Cellars
Two Mountain Winery
Upsidedown Wine
Warr-King Wines
Watermill Winery
William Grassie Wine Estates
Wilridge Winery & Distillery
Woodhouse Wine Estates

2017 has been a big year. With your support and with help from our many partners, we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount and laid the groundwork for new gains in 2018. Our collective efforts are helping better meet the needs of struggling wild salmon and steelhead populations now as we build the public and political foundation to free the lower Snake River, to modernize the U.S. – Canada Columbia River Treaty, and more.

The effects of overzealous dam building last century are now combining with the intensifying impacts of climate change. Wild salmon and steelhead of the Columbia-Snake River Basin – and the people and fish and wild life that depend upon them - need resilient rivers, cool waters, and reconnected habitats.

Removing the four lower Snake River dams. Modernizing Columbia River Treaty. Giving voice to the river, its fish and wildlife, its Tribal and non-tribal communities. SOS is working for big, visionary changes - protecting our lands and waters, rebuilding an irreplaceable ecosystem, investing in diverse communities.

Read on to review some of SOS’ major accomplishments this year, but know that more is needed – especially so in the Trump era. Salmon, orca, and fishing communities face huge challenges today.

Thank you for being part of the SOS community. We appreciate your generous support and hope that you can help us to leverage and defend our victories - and make new progress in 2018 - with a fully tax-deductible gift before the end of this year.

And you can take a look at our donor gifts and raffle items here.

With your help, we will continue to mobilize our members and move the politicians to protect, restore, and reconnect the healthy, resilient habitats that wild salmon and steelhead need.

Here are just some of our major accomplishments this year:

• Organizing for dam removal: SOS and allies dominated the court-ordered NEPA Review Public Scoping Process. Together, we mobilized more than 2,000 people for public meetings and rallies, generated almost 400,000 comments supporting dam removal, and helped allies to submit nearly two dozen detailed policy comments. Reflecting big changes in the Northwest, some significant regional actors expressed clear support for a thorough dam removal analysis - including the City of Lewiston, States of Washington and Oregon, Columbia Basin Tribes, EPA, Seattle City Light, and several others.

• Helping salmon now: SOS member groups – in alliance with the State of Oregon and Nez Perce Tribe - secured additional court-ordered spill starting in 2018 that will increase juvenile fish survival through the federal labyrinth of dams and reservoirs and increase adult salmon returns. The court’s order also increased scrutiny on questionable spending on the lower Snake River dams as we decide their fate.

• Making the orca- salmon connection: SOS - working with our good friends in the Orca SalmonAlliance (OSA) - has solidified public and political understanding of the critical connection between Columbia Basin Chinook salmon and Southern Resident killer whales. There is no question today: rebuilding Columbia Basin salmon populations is essential to protecting critically endangered orca.

• Securing action for orca: SOS’ strategic organizing work with OSA spurred Governor Jay Inslee to establish an Emergency Orca Task Force (link) (SOS will ensure that Columbia-Snake salmon figure prominently) and moved the Puget Sound Partnership to pass a resolution highlighting the urgency facing Southern Resident orca and the critical need rebuild salmon populations in the Columbia-Snake Basin and elsewhere in order to feed our region’s hungry, struggling orca community.

• Stopping harmful legislation: SOS led a successful effort last winter to kill a misleading, anti-salmon resolution in the Washington State Legislature. And right now we’re in a battle to stop HR 3144, introduced in Congress by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. We’ve generated good media coverage and editorials - and organized significant opposition in Congress. That said – this bill is still very much alive and our work to stop it must continue.

• Organizing contacts to elected officials: SOS has coordinated hundreds of thousands of letters and emails to targeted members of congress and Northwest Governors in 2017 re: salmon, climate, orca, increased spill, NEPA Review, Columbia River Treaty, and more. We’ve organized and participated in dozens of meetings with elected officials and/or their staff. You can take action here!

• Educating, Organizing, Mobilizing: In 2017, we hosted and co-hosted several dozen events in the region: presentations, outings, rallies. We’re both talking and listening; we’re educating and engaging people to act on behalf of these inter-connected issues of resilient rivers and watersheds, salmon and orca, community and economy, clean energy and climate. The 3rd Annual Flotilla to Free the Snake! organized with Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Friends of the Clearwater, Idaho Rivers United and many other organizations and businesses drew 350 people despite smoky skies and forest fires. See a 7 min. video from our friends at Wingspan Media here (link coming soon).

• Pursuing shared solutions: SOS continues to reach out to stakeholders including farmers and utilities to listen and learn, and to look for common ground. Restoring and reconnecting the resilient rivers salmon and steelhead need must address the needs of local communities. We hope tp foster conversations on the economic benefits that removing dams and restoring the lower Snake River will bring to the region. We’ll continue to have these conversations and look for ways to expand these dialogues in the months ahead.

• Developing new information: We’re working with our partners to identify and develop accurate, up-to-date analyses and reports to educate the public and politicians and to inform policy. We joined forces, for example, with Columbia Basin Tribes to hire economists at Earth Economics to assess the value of Columbia Basin's 'natural capital' – clean water, fish and wildlife, flood abatement, etc. And there is more in the works: SOS and its members are working with expert firms on similar types of reports that can help inform the region’s thinking about recovery options and paths forward. Look for these in the first half of 2018.

• Generating media coverage: in just the last year, leveraging the NEPA Review, impending Treaty negotiations, salmon and orca population trends, organizing rallies and events, energy and economics, our program work has helped generate well over one hundred stories, editorials and op-eds – print, radio, and online. You can find them here on our new and improved website!

With your support, we’ll continue to making progress in 2018 to:

• Protect, restore and reconnect the healthy rivers and resilient habitats that wild fish need now – and over time.
• Mobilize people and keep moving the politics.
• Stop the attacks on our salmon and our rivers – like HR 3144 – and defend and expand our gains that are helping salmon and orca and fishing communities.
• Envision what a restored lower Snake River corridor could look like and the economic, recreation and cultural benefits it would provide to towns and communities.
• Build new alliances and work with Northwest people on shared solutions.
• Bird-dog the court-ordered NEPA environmental review – to ensure the dam removal analysis – its costs and its benefits – are fully and fairly considered.
• And much more!

Thank you for being part of the SOS community. With your support, and working with others, we can achieve the big, systemic changes the Pacific Northwest ecology and economy need to survive and thrive in the 21st century - with resilient rivers, abundant wild salmon and steelhead, and vibrant communities.

I. INTRODUCTION: This resource page provides a review and summary of the federal agencies' recent public comment period for the 2020 Columbia River Systems Operation (CRSO) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). A short introduction to the process is followed by (1) a partial list of the official comments submitted by sovereigns, stakeholders and independent experts, (2) a select list of press stories and (3) links to other resources. As reflected here, the federal government's DEIS has come under heavy criticism from many quarters due to its significant shortcomings on both process and substance.

On process: Even before the COVID health crisis, the government's 45-day comment period was woefully inadequate for an 8,000 page document that deals with issues of critical importance to the people of the Northwest and nation: the fate of endangered salmon populations and Southern Resident orca; the health of fishing and farming communities; and the future of the Bonneville Power Administration and regional energy grid. In response to the pandemic, all public meetings were (rightly) cancelled. However, despite many requests (see letters below) for comment period extensions and modifications, the federal agencies refused to make any further adjustments to accomodate meaningful public involvement and feedback under the unprecedented circumstances.

On substance: The comments below highlight in myriad ways the agencies' flawed analyses: indefensible assumptions, over- and understated costs and benefits that skew to support the agencies' Preferred Alternative, incomplete or ignored science and economics, and much more.

II. BACKGROUND: On April 13, 2020 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bonneville Power Administration closed a 45-day comment period for their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for endangered Columbia Snake River salmon and steelhead. This National Environmental Policy Act review was ordered by the U.S. District Court in 2016 when it invalidated the agencies’ latest plan for Columbia Basin salmon. The 8,000-page DEIS considers five salmon/dam management alternatives, including one that would restore the lower Snake River by removing its four federal dams. Though the federal agencies' own analysis finds that restoring a free-flowing lower Snake River will deliver the greatest salmon survival and recovery benefits, the federal agencies instead recommend a 'Preferred Alternative' that, if adopted, will perpetuate a status quo approach has for 25+ years proven to be illegal, unaffordable and inadequate - and has brought Columbia-Snake River salmon and steelhead populations in recent years to some of their lowest returns on record.

A new approach is urgently needed: This 'new' Draft EIS closely resembles five previous federal salmon plans that have all been rejected by courts as inadequate and illegal. Frustrated by a 25 year-old federally-led process that has failed salmon and orca, and our communities and energy system, growing numbers of people - including stakeholders, sovereigns and policymakers across the Northwest - are calling for a new, collaborative and regionally-centered approach that recovers abundant salmon populations, invests in prosperous fishing and farming communities, supports an affordable, reliable energy system and upholds our nation's responsibilities to tribal communities.

III. PUBLIC COMMENT: Nearly 100,000 people submit comment supporting a restored lower Snake River and community solutions: Despite the inadequate public comment period and process, many people, organizations, issue experts and sovereigns submitted official public comment. Approximately 100,000 people from the across the Northwest and nation submitted comments calling for leadership from Northwest policymakers to support the development of a comprehensive solution that restores the lower Snake River through dam removal, meets the needs of farming communities and maintains an affordable and reliable energy system.

In addition to citizen comments, several dozen entities and experts also submitted detailed comments highlighting issues of critical concern as the agencies move forward to finalize the EIS. Below find a select list of comments from Tribes, States, NGOs and independent experts raising serious concerns about the Draft EIS and calling on the federal agencies to, among other things, carefully, thoroughly and fairly consider the costs, benefits, opportunities and tradeoffs associated with the removal of the four federal dams on the lower Snake River before they issue a Final EIS (though few expect any meaningful changes or improvements). The federal agencies will issue a Final EIS in June, a "new" Columbia-Snake salmon plan ('Biological Opinion') in July, and an official Record of Decision in September 2020.

IV. LETTERS REQUESTING EXTENSION/MODIFICATION OF THE DEIS PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

• Letter sent by 13 Congressmembers and Senators from Washington and Oregon requesting that the DEIS public comment period be extended until after the COVID-19 threat to public health has passed. (March 2020) PDF
• Letter sent by 24 NGOs based in the Northwest states to Federal Agencies requesting that the CRSO DEIS public hearings be postponed and rescheduled at a later date after the public health risk caused by the coronavirus has passed. (March 2020) PDF
• Letter sent by 22 NGOs based in the Northwest states to Federal Agencies requesting that the CRSO DEIS public comment period be extended from 45 days to 120 days to allow for meaningful public review and feedback. (March 2020) PDF

V. OFFICIAL PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR THE 2020 CRSO DEIS:Below is a partial list of the formal comments that were recently submitted by sovereigns and organizations and others to the federal agencies.

Nez Perce Tribe

Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Governor Brown of Oregon: cover letter and full comments

Governor Little of Idaho: cover letter and full comments

Governor Inslee of Washington: cover letter and full comments

Governor Bullock of Montana and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Pacific Fisheries Management Council

American Rivers

American Whitewater

Columbia Riverkeeper

Conservation NGO Sign-on Comment Letter

Earthjustice comments, on behalf of 16 NGOs

ECONorthwest

Great Old Broads for Wilderness

Idaho Conservation League

Idaho Rivers United

Natural Resources Defense Council

Natural Resource Economics

Northwest Energy Coalition: 4-page comment summary and full comment letter

Northwest Resource Information Center

Oceana

Orca Salmon Alliance

Salmon State

Sierra Club

Southern Resident Orca Scientists

Northwest Guides and Anglers Fisheries Restoration Initiative

Trout Unlimited

V. OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:

• Save Our wild Salmon Coalition Factsheet: Why the CRSO Draft EIS will not bring people together or deliver solutions for Northwest salmon, communities or energy system (March 2020)  PDF
• Fish Passage Center: Chapter 2, Comparative Survival Study Annual Report for 2019
• SOS Resource Page: Summary of the Federal Agencies' NEPA Public Scoping Comment Period (Feb. 2017)
• Visit this pagefor links to recent court decisions, related fact sheets and media coverage (Feb. 2016)
• Collection of comments made by concerned citizens with pictures. PDF

VI. SELECT MEDIA COVERAGE:

Idaho Press: Don't let politics drive salmon, steelhead into extinction (April 13, 2020)

Lewiston Morning Tribune: Idaho fishing towns object to Columbia River study (April 11, 2020)

Lewiston Morning Tribune: Groups want more time to comment on river plan (March 7, 2020)

E&E News: Spotlight turns to states as critics slam feds' salmon plan (March 3, 2020)

AP/Seattle Times: Feds reject removal of 4 Snake River dams in key report(Feb. 27, 2020)

Contact Carrie Herrman if you have questions or would like to get more involved.

You can visit the federal agencies' CRSO DEIS page for further information, to access the 2020 Draft EIS and to review additional comments here.

Despite 2020's great difficulties, we’re seeing some fantastic developments concerning Pacific salmon and their rivers as the year comes to a close. We want to share with you some inspiring progress on three important salmon strongholds on the West Coast: the Klamath River, Bristol Bay watershed, and lower Snake River. 

And we ask for your generous support before year-endto help ensure SOS has the resources we'll need for the opportunities and the challenges of 2021.

I.  Restoring the Klamath River – Oregon/California: In October, the governors of Oregon and California hosted a virtual press conference with Yurok and Karuk Tribal leaders and a Pacificorp executive to announce their unified support and plan for removing four large dams that have destroyed hundreds of miles of once-highly productive salmon habitat in the Klamath River Basin. After a decades-long campaign led by the Tribes, fishing communities and conservationists, the restoration of the Klamath River and its endangered salmon is now expected to begin in early 2023! 

L.A. Times Guest Opinion: A victory for salmon, two tribes and the Klamath River (Oct. '20) 

II.  Protecting the Bristol Bay watershed – Southwest Alaska: Then in November, the Army Corps of Engineers rejected a permit for the Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. This 300+ square mile watershed is home to the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery. It is pristine and productive; it is the traditional homelands of Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiiq people who rely on salmon for their way of life; and its fishery also supports thousands of other fishing people, families, and businesses. This permit denial should be the end of the mine – but salmon advocates will continue working to secure permanent protection for this area, its fish and wildlife, and its people. 

Washington Post: Army Corps denies permit for massive gold mine proposed near Bristol Bay in Alaska (Nov. '20) 

III.  Restoring the lower Snake River – the heart of the Pacific Northwest: 2020 has also been critical for our efforts to restore the lower Snake River. SOS' work this year has helped move politics and gain critical momentum. The feds' “new” plan for Snake-Columbia salmon has been widely panned in the region. Northwest people – Tribal leaders, governors, members of Congress, state legislators, and conservation, fishing, farming and utility leaders - are picking up the reins, reaching out to others and exploring a new collaborative path forward. SOS and our coalition partners are working hard with others to develop and deliver a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of salmon and orcas - and our communities and energy system. 

Here’s a powerful new article from Seattle Times’ Lynda V. Mapes spotlighting the Nez Perce Tribe and their ancient and reciprocal relationship with the lands and waters, and fish and wildlife of the Snake River basin – and their unyielding commitment to restore the river and recover its fish. Restoring the lower Snake and its salmon presents an important opportunity to right historic wrongs. 

None of this kind of progress comes about without strategy, tenacity, and a whole lot of hard work. Learn more about our accomplishments in our 2020 Year-end Review - where we've come and where we're headed.

2021 is shaping up now to be a pivotal year for the future of the lower Snake and its salmon. Your generous support before the end of this year will help ensure that we have the resources necessary to carry our momentum into 2021 and to take full advantage of the opportunities we’ve helped create. 

Please reach out to Joseph (joseph@wildsalmon.org / 206-300-1003) if you have any questions about our program work or making a gift. You can donate online or use our mailing address here:

Thank you for your advocacy and support for abundant salmon and steelhead populations, Southern Resident orcas and Northwest communities.

 

On August 7^th, 2021 several Rallies for the River were held across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to call for a comprehensive solution to salmon recovery that invests in the Northwest and removes the lower Snake River dams. Rally locations include Seattle, Spokane, Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, and Boise. These rallies included ways to take action, and most included a paddle or float as well. Below you'll find excellent news coverage and photos from these events!

Select news coverage from rallies around the region:

• KHQ: Local wildlife advocates work to save endangered salmon populations (Spokane, WA)
• Idaho Statesman: ‘More and more dire’: Idaho salmon advocates rally for Snake River dam breaching (Boise, ID)
• Katu TV: Conservation groups call for removal of Snake River dams, citing concerns for salmon (Portland, OR)
• King 5 News: Conservation groups call for removal of lower Snake River Dams to save salmon, orca (Seattle, WA) 

Photos from the Seattle Rally for the River event by Dana Schuerholz:

Photos from the Seattle Rally for the River event by Jeff Dunicliff: 

Photos from the Portland Rally for the River event by Nathaniel Akey: 

 Photos from the Spokane Rally for the River event by Jerusha Hampson:

Photos from the Boise Rally for the River event:

This year, we are now entering a critical new phase in the campaign to restore a free-flowing lower Snake River and its endangered wild salmon and steelhead. After lengthy negotiations between the 'Six Sovereigns' (Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakima, and Nez Perce Tribes; and the states of Washington and Oregon) and the federal government, the Biden Administration released on Dec. 14 a road-map to recover Columbia Basin fish that includes next steps to remove the lower Snake River dams and replace their services.

This plan prioritizes big investments in the Northwest’s economy, communities, lands, and waters to move everyone forward together. This historic agreement will direct hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize infrastructure and protect and restore native fish and their habitats in the Snake and Columbia rivers. Planning has already begun, with the goal of implementing key projects - including a set of Tribal-led projects - to replace the energy, irrigation and transportation services currently provided by the lower Snake River dams as quickly as possible. This is a critical step forward and it is vital that together we begin to envision a Pacific Northwest with a restored, resilient, freely flowing lower Snake River, healthy fish populations and thriving communities.

In recognition of this historic pivot, SOS and partner organizations hosted the 2024 Snake River Dinner Hour webinar series! The Snake River Dinner Hour is a space for folks to come together and learn more about where we’ve come and what’s ahead, and participate in civil dialogue as we each bring different opinions and perspectives to the table. Check out below for a recap of the webinar and a link to the webinar recordings. 

In February, SOS and Snake River Dinner Hour partners launched its first 2024 webinar: Federal actions and commitments to restore Snake River salmon focused on the historic 'USG Commitments Agreement' announced in December 2023. 

Our guest speakers included:

• Nez Perce Tribal Council Chairman Shannon F. Wheeler
• Amanda Goodin, supervising senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Northwest office
• Ed Bowles, Fish Division Administrator for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife from 2000 - 2020
• Liz Hamilton, executive director for the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association (NSIA)
• Snake River Dinner hour host: Kayeloni Scott, Communications Director at American Rivers, and Spokane Tribal member and Nez Perce descendant

 Watch the February webinaR REcording 

In the March Snake River Dinner Hour: Culture + Recreation + Ecology = benefits of a restored lower Snake River, we were honored to have the following guests share their thoughts and advice about plans now underway to restore the lower Snake River, including honoring and protecting Tribal cultural sites and relationships in their traditional lands, as well as investing in new outdoor recreational opportunities, ecosystem and habitat improvements in a manner that can deliver significant economic benefits locally and across the Northwest region.

Our guest speakers included:

• Nakia Williamson, Cultural Resources Director of the Nez Perce Tribe
• Lauren McCullough, Operations Manager at OARS Dories
• Libby Tobey, Grand Salmon Expedition Member and Legislative Fellow at Idaho Conservation League
• Trey Carskadon, Public Relations Director for O'Loughlin Trade Shows and President of NSIA
• Kayeloni Scott, NW Communications Director, American Rivers

Watch the March Webinar recording

In the April Snake River Dinner Hour: Clean energy + a restored lower Snake River = a more vibrant Northwest, our guest speakers talked about the ways we can effectively replace the four dams’ energy services in a manner that prioritizes tribal-led clean energy programs, improves the region's power system resilience and reliability, provides stability for communities, and recovers salmon and steelhead.

Our guest speakers included:

• Alyssa Macy, CEO of Washington Conservation Action and Citizen of the Warm Springs Tribe, Oregon
• Chantel Greene, Founder & CEO of Xexus Greene Energy, LLC., and Nez Perce Tribal member
• Robert E. Morris, Power System Consultant, Lance Energy Chair at Montana Technological University, and technical advisor for the Nez Perce Tribe
• Senator Rebecca Saldaña, Washington State Senate Deputy Majority Leader representing the 37th Legislative District

Watch the April Webinar recording

In the May Snake River Dinner Hour: Salmon & Grain: How to keep our plates full, responsibly, we were honored to hear from committed leaders on the Pacific Northwest’s connection to both agricultural food sources and salmon and supporting sustainable food systems in the Columbia-Snake River Basin for generations to come. 

Our guest speakers included:

• Kat Brigham, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation member who has worked for 47 years to rebuild, protect and restore Columbia River Basin salmon
• Dave Johnson, Department Manager for the Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries Department and an enrolled member of the Navajo Tribe
• Amy Grondin, commercial salmon fisherman and fishes off the coast of Washington and Southeast Alaska
• Bryan Jones, fourth-generation wheat and cattle farmer living in the Palouse region

 WATCH THE MAY WEBINAR RECORDING

We're incredibly thankful to our Snake River Dinner Hour guest speakers for their leadership and for informing us about actions and urgent next steps to restore a free-flowing lower Snake River.

Snake River Dinner Hour is brought to you by American Rivers, Washington Conservation Action, Idaho Conservation League, Sierra Club, and Save Our wild Salmon.

American Rivers * American Whitewater * Association of Northwest Steelheaders
Audubon Society of Portland * Audubon Society of Lincoln City * Backbone Campaign
Coastal Trollers Association * Columbia Riverkeeper * Communities for a Healthy Bay
Defenders of Wildlife * Earthjustice * Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light
Endangered Species Coalition * Friends of Grays Harbor * Friends of the San Juans
Grays Harbor Audubon Society * Idaho Conservation League
Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association * Idaho Rivers United * Idaho Wildlife Federation
Institute for Fisheries Resources * Kalmiopsis Audubon Society
National Parks Conservation Association * Natural Resources Defense Council
National Wildlife Federation * Northwest Guides and Anglers
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association * NW Energy Coalition
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations * Olympic Forest Coalition
Rivers Without Borders * Salem Audubon Society
Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association * Save Our wild Salmon Coalition
Snake River Savers * Spokane Riverkeeper * Solutionary Rail * The Natural History Museum
Twin Harbors Waterkeeper * Washington Wild * Washington Wildlife Federation * Wild Orca
Whale Dolphin Conservation * Whale Scout * Whidbey Environmental Action Network
Wild Steelhead Coalition

July 11, 2022
Jim Kramer
Kramer Consulting, Inc.
6539 57th Ave. S.
Seattle, WA 98118

Mr. Kramer,

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition (SOS) and the
member and allied organizations signing below. SOS is a coalition of Northwest and national
conservation organizations, recreational and commercial fishing associations, clean energy and
orca advocates, businesses, and citizens committed to restoring abundant, self-sustaining
fishable populations of salmon and steelhead to the Columbia-Snake River Basin and healthy
populations of salmon-dependent Southern Resident orcas, for the benefit of people and
ecosystems.

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Lower Snake River Dams: Benefit
Replacement Draft Report. We want to begin by acknowledging the valuable and impressive
work you and your associates have done to bring this synthesis and analysis together for the
information of Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee, and Northwest Tribes, stakeholders, and the
concerned public. Thank you.

Multiple members of our coalition have, or will, submit their own detailed comments; we feel
little need to repeat what you will hear from them. Rather, we want to share a few big picture
points of emphasis and key things that we feel strongly need to be addressed in your final report
and kept in mind by Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee and all interested parties.

We will begin by noting that the Draft Report affirms some central facts which we and many
others have pointed to for years:

• ESA-listed Columbia-Snake Basin salmon and steelhead stocks, and salmon-dependent
  Southern Resident orcas, are genuinely in near-term peril of extinction.
• For all listed salmon and steelhead populations that utilize the Snake River and its
  tributaries, the lower Snake dams are a primary source of endangerment.
• There is broad agreement among salmon scientists that restoring a free-flowing lower
  Snake River is one essential component of a larger regional recovery strategy in order to
  prevent extinction and to recover abundant, harvestable Columbia Basin wild salmonid
  runs and support a healthy southern Resident orca population.
  • Replacement of the services these four dams now provide is feasible and affordable, can
  actually improve upon some of the existing services and can create new opportunities
  not available under the status quo approach.
• The status quo is unsustainable. It has proven costly, illegal and inadequate, and it has
  perpetuated an atmosphere of uncertainty for all involved. As the draft clearly says,
  “Change in the Lower Snake River and the Columbia River System Is Inevitable”.

These conclusions cannot be too heavily emphasized in your final report. Nor can the stakes for
Northwest Tribes. The draft report details the heavy reliance of Tribes on salmon, historically and
to the present day. It acknowledges their centrality to tribal cultures. But we are concerned that
it doesn't fully convey the way in which Tribes perceive the extinction of salmon as a genuinely
existential issue. We encourage you to ensure that the final report clearly communicates to nonNative readers the incalculable cost of salmon extinction especially for the People of the Salmon.

At least some aspects of this cost can be captured in existence value or passive use economic
analysis but even these afford only an incomplete picture of the cost of losing salmon for
everyone, but most especially tribes. Where economists have attempted to capture some of the
costs of extinction through passive use valuation, the costs of this loss (and the corresponding
benefits of sustaining healthy salmon) have dwarfed all other factors and made it clear that
keeping the dams will be far more costly than breaching them and replacing their services and
the benefits of restoring the river will far exceed any realistic assessment of dollar costs. Your
Final Report should acknowledge these important facts. The two analyses of passive use value
we are aware of are in the 2019 ECO Northwest Lower Snake River Report and in the technical
appendices of the 2002 Lower Snake River EIS prepared by the Army Corps of Engineers.

This is a key example of the most critical lacunae in the draft report: the lack of a well-structured,
understandable accounting or comparison of all of the costs and benefits of the two possible
paths before us: (i) dam removal and service replacement, and (ii) dam retention. The Draft
Report provides a range of cost estimates drawn from various sources, over 50 years, of
removing/breaching the lower Snake dams and replacing their services. It does not provide a
comparable estimate of the costs of operating and maintaining the lower Snake dams, ongoing,
and probably increasing costs of salmonid recovery programs, and quantification (monetized
where possible) of benefits flowing from recovery of salmon, steelhead, and orca populations,
benefits which would almost certainly not be realized if these four dams remain in place.

Media coverage and regional discussion of the Draft Report since its release have thus tended to
highlight the $10-27 billion figure for dam removal and services replacement. We doubt the
realism of some of the estimates that went into this total, especially at the high end of the range.
But the real problem is that the press, policymakers and the public have no comparable fifty-year
estimate of costs - and benefits not captured - if the dams remain in place, because the draft
does not provide such a figure.

The Report does include some of the specific elements for such a calculation but does not sum
them, consistently translate benefits and new opportunities from a free-flowing lower Snake into
dollar values or recognize the immense value of restored salmon abundance in the context of
costs and benefits. Specifically, the Final Report should provide a summary of both estimated
avoided costs if the dams are removed, and the anticipated value of benefits that would accrue
upon their removal. Some of the more obvious avoided costs would, for example, include:

• Annual operating and capital costs of $134-151 million summed over 50 years, plus major
  capital costs like turbine replacement and generator rewinding.
• Current annual LSRD fish and wildlife costs of $54 -159 million/year (from CRSO FEIS 2020,
  table 3-312) summed over 50 years.
• Costs of additional fish mitigation measures required if the dams remain in place. The draft
  provides an estimate of lost generation for the FCRPS from such measures (“hydropower
  generation could decrease by 1,300 average Megawatts (aMW) under average water
  conditions, and 870 aMW under low water conditions compared to the No Action
  Alternative”), but does not specify what portion of this reduction would occur at the lower
  Snake dams or provide a monetized estimate of the value of that lost generation, summed
  over 50 years.
• Parenthetically, the Report acknowledges the likelihood that climate change-driven
  reductions in river flows will reduce “the ability for the LSRD to produce peak generation
  levels and store water to achieve these sustained peaks.” In other words, at least some of the
  energy services that the dam removal case assumes will have to be replaced will have to be
  replaced in any case. The incremental cost of replacing the dams’ energy services, if
  breached, is thus lower than the estimates in the Draft.

The Draft Report also references multiple benefits of a free-flowing lower Snake that will not be
achievable if the dams remain in place. The available benefits, including the large benefits to the
region, tribes and the whole country of salmon/river restoration need to be added to the
avoided costs discussed above to present a comprehensive and balanced account of the costs
and benefits of both paths. Examples of these benefits from the report include:

• The Report includes an estimate that, with recovery of listed stocks, tribal harvest could
  increase by 29% annually. While this result has great cultural value for the Tribes, commercial
  and subsistence fishing also has quantifiable economic benefits which should at least be
  estimated and accounted for.
• Recreational fishing, and the individuals and commerce it supports, would also benefit. The
  Draft Report estimates that salmon and steelhead recovery “…could generate up to $1 billion
  annually in additional regional personal income benefits and support up to 25,000 new
  family wage jobs”. These annual figures should be summed over 50 years and added to the
  balance sheet for dam removal.
• The report concludes that, “While the overall trend of commercial salmon and steelhead
  harvest has been downward since the 1930s, the losses of these economic contributions can
  be recaptured if efforts to improve abundance, to levels like those laid out in the Columbia
  Basin Partnership, are successful.” This general statement can be quantified in several ways.
  For example, as late as 1978, there were over 3000 licensed commercial salmon trollers
  based in Washington with an average crew size of two (the draft is mistaken in characterizing
  these trollers as “usually employing at most one crew member; crew could hardly be less
  than one and, in fact, ranges from one to three). Today there are barely one hundred
  Washington-based salmon trollers, representing a loss of approximately 6000 jobs in the
  fishing fleet and more in onshore businesses providing services, supplies and equipment to
  the fleet. The value of fish landed by these trollers declined from an average in 1976-1980 of
  $31.4 million annually to $2.75 million in 2014-2018 (in constant dollars; documentation
  attached). Recovering these types of lost jobs and increasing the value of catch landed
  should be summed over 50 years and added to the balance sheet.

We will add several other observations. The first is that the successive “recovery” plans from the
federal agencies have hardly even pretended to aim for recovery; rather they’ve contented
themselves with a considerably lower bar - trying to avoid outright extinction. Even if there were
no imminent danger of extinction, prevention of extinction is only one of the core purposes of
the Endangered Species Act. The second is to recover populations of listed species to the point
where they no longer require the protection of the ESA. The failure to propose plans that have
any real probability of such full recovery has been one of the several reasons the courts have
rejected each and every plan offered thus far.

The second observation we want to share is this: The public debate over the Draft Report has
thoroughly validated Sen. Murray, Gov. Inslee and the Biden-Harris Administration - that only
political leadership can bring this endless wrangle to a conclusion in a manner that meets needs,
solves the impending challenges, and moves everyone forward together. We have spent two
decades demonstrating that the courts and federal agencies cannot develop and implement a
strategy that is legally valid, scientifically-credible, and fiscally-responsible. And, two decades
later, consensus is implausible.

The defenders of the status quo continue to dispute every one of the conclusions in the Draft
Report we highlighted at the beginning of these comments. They deny the fish are in peril,
pointing to slight upticks in still deeply depressed returns over the last couple of years. If the fish
are in any kind of trouble, they claim that the problem is poor ocean conditions, rather than the
quality and condition of freshwater habitat that has been transformed by the federal system of
dams and reservoirs. They ignore overwhelming scientific evidence and suggest that dam
removal would make little-to-no positive difference for salmonids and orcas and the people and
communities that value and benefit from them. You have further received specific comments
denying that change is inevitable. Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA), in a May 4
letter to you, flatly asserted, “There is no reason to assume the status quo will change if the
dams remain in place.” PNWA and Northwest RiverPartners doubled down on that assertion in a
May 6 letter: “The operations approved in the final EIS are very similar to those approved by the
court and will govern Lower Snake River operations moving forward, absent legislative action. In
that context, there is no reason to assume the status quo will change. If anything, spill is likely to
decrease in the future…”.

The failure to achieve a consensus – if consensus means near-unanimity among stakeholders –
must not, by default, result in the continuation of a failing status quo. There is clearly a critical
mass – a solid majority of Northwesterners – who will support a comprehensive salmon recovery
plan whose twin cornerstones are restoration of a free-flowing lower Snake River and full
replacement of the services and benefits the dams now provide. Such a plan can work for
salmon and orcas, for Tribes and utilities, for farmers and fishermen and for communities in the
Columbia Basin and on the coast.

Thank you for your work that helps show the way forward. Please contact us if you have
questions or we can assist in any way.
Sincerely,

Joseph Bogaard, Executive Director
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition

Nancy Hirsh, Executive Director
NW Energy Coalition

Erin Farris-Olsen, Regional Executive Director, Northern Rockies, Prairies, and Pacific
National Wildlife Federation

Todd True, Managing Attorney
Earthjustice

Liz Hamilton, Executive Director
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association

Miles Johnson, Senior Attorney
Columbia Riverkeeper

Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations
Institute for Fisheries Resources

Rev. AC Churchill, Executive Director
Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light

David Moryc, Senior Director of the Wild and Scenic Rivers and Public Lands Policy
American Rivers

Kathleen S. Gobush, Ph.D, Northwest Regional Director
Defenders of Wildlife

Thomas O’Keefe, PhD, Pacific Northwest Stewardship Director
American Whitewater

Giulia C.S. Good Stefani, Senior Attorney
Natural Resources Defense Council

Leda Huta, Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition

Rob Smith, Northwest Regional Director
National Parks Conservation Association

Colleen Weiler, Jessica Rekos Fellow for Orca Conservation
Whale Dolphin Conservation

Amy Morrison, Deputy Director
Backbone Campaign

Dr. Deborah Giles, Science & Research Director
Wild Orca

Bill Moyer, Campaign Lead
Solutionary Rail

Aaron Lieberman - Executive Director
Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association

Tom VanderPlaat, Board Co-President
Association of Northwest Steelheaders

Tom Uniack, Executive Director
Washington Wild

Nic Nelson, Executive Director
Idaho Rivers United

Brian Brooks, Executive Director
Idaho Wildlife Federation

Joel Kawahara, Boardmember
Coastal Trollers Association

Erin Dilworth, MS, Deputy Director
Communities for a Healthy Bay

Lee First, Waterkeeper
Twin Harbors Waterkeeper

Arthur (R.D.) Grunbaum, President
Friends of Grays Harbor

Stewart Wilder, President of the Board
Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association

Connie Gallant, President
Olympic Forest Coalition

R. Brent Lyles, Executive Director
Friends of the San Juans

William C. Patric, Executive Director
Rivers Without Borders

Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director
Audubon Society of Portland

Gary Piazzon, President
Whidbey Environmental Action Network

Steve Griffiths, Conservation Chair
Audubon Society of Lincoln City

Beka Economopoulos, Director
The Natural History Museum

Rhema Koonce, Co-Leader
Snake River Savers

Mitch Cutter, Salmon & Steelhead Associate
Idaho Conservation League

Greg Topf, Board Chair
Wild Steelhead Coalition

John McGlenn, President
Washington Wildlife Federation

David Harrison, Conservation Chair
Salem Audubon Society

Ann Vileisis, President
Kalmiopsis Audubon Society

Janet Strong, President
Grays Harbor Audubon Society

Jerry White, Jr., Riverkeeper
Spokane Riverkeeper

Whitney Neugebauer, Director
Whale Scout

Grant Putnam, President
Northwest Guides and Anglers

As part of our 2022 year-end fundraising, we choose six noteworthy books to give to six randomly-selected year-end SOS donors.

Book 'winners' (listed at bottom) were chosen from among all the people who make a gift (at any level) to SOS between Nov. 29, 2022 (Giving Tuesday) and Dec. 31, 2022 (year-end). Books were sent to winners in January 2023.

Our motivation for this give-away was two-fold. 

First, we wanted to gift these books to a set of year-end donors to make our year-end fundraising push a little more interesting and – in a small way – express our deep appreciation for the generosity and support for our work. Our success at SOS depends significantly on people like you and so many others in our broader community of partners and allies. Your advocacy for wild salmon and steelhead and their rivers and streams - and your financial contributions - allow us to do the work we do, and we are very grateful.

SOS is well known as a lean organization that punches well above our weight. SOS is a smart investment in support of healthier, more resilient and more just lands and waters, fish and wildlife, and communities and cultures across the Pacific Northwest.

Second, these are some of our team’s favorite books that we've read recently (when we have time to read!) – and we wanted to bring them to your attention in case your bedside stack is getting low and you're looking for some excellent reading material centered on the natural history, human history, and contemporary culture of the Pacific Northwest.

Here they are...

I. Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War (2017). 
By Daniel J. Sharfstein

After the Civil War and Reconstruction, a new struggle raged in the Northern Rockies. In the summer of 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard, a champion of African American civil rights, ruthlessly pursued hundreds of Nez Perce families who resisted moving onto a reservation. Standing in his way was Chief Joseph, a young leader who never stopped advocating for Native American sovereignty and equal rights. Thunder in the Mountains is the spellbinding story of two legendary figures and their epic clash of ideas about the meaning of freedom and the role of government in American life.

II. ORCA: Shared Waters, Shared Home (2021). 
By Lynda V. Mapes

2021 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in Nature and the Environment
2022 Washington State Book Award Winner in General Non-fiction

Orca whale J35, also known as "Tahlequah," gave birth in July of 2018 in the waters off British Columbia, but her calf died soon after, leading its mother to carry her for 17 days across 1,000 miles before finally releasing the calf and rejoining her pod. This extraordinary and caring behavior sparked not only worldwide sympathy, but also a revival of our awareness of the critical need to preserve orcas, the chinook salmon they feed on, and their habitat that together make up the core of Pacific Northwest identity.

In Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home journalist Lynda V. Mapes explores the natural history of the orca and the unique challenges for the survival of the Southern Resident group that frequents Puget Sound. These whales are among the most urban in the world, a focus of researchers, tourists, and politicians alike. Once referred to as "blackfish" and still known as "killer whales," orcas were for generations regarded as vermin to be avoided or exterminated, then later were captured live for aquariums all over the world. With greater exposure, scientists realized how intelligent the mammal is and are learning about their matriarchal family groups, vocalizations, behavior, and different subspecies. Today only 73 Southern Resident whales are left, and they are threatened by habitat degradation, lack of chinook salmon (their primary food source), relentless growth, and climate change. Can we reverse the trend?

This special project, co-published with the Pulitzer Prize winning Seattle Times newspaper, features stunning imagery by Times photographer Steve Ringman, as well as from partner organizations, including The Whale Museum, NOAA, and Center for Whale Research.

III. Messages from Franks Landing: A story of salmon, treaties, and the Indian way (2006).
By Charles Wilkinson

In 1974 Federal Judge George H. Boldt issued one of the most sweeping rulings in the history of the Pacific Northwest, affirming the treaty rights of Northwest tribal fishermen and allocating to them 50 percent of the harvestable catch of salmon and steelhead. Among the tribal members testifying in Judge Boldt’s courtroom were Nisqually tribal leader Billy Frank, Jr., and his 95-year-old father, whose six acres along the Nisqually River, known as Frank’s Landing, had been targeted for years by state game wardens in the so-called Fish Wars.

By the 1960s, the Landing had become a focal point for the assertion of tribal treaty rights in the Northwest. It also lay at the moral center of the tribal sovereignty movement nationally. The confrontations at the Landing hit the news and caught the conscience of many. Like the schoolhouse steps at Little Rock, or the bridge at Selma, Frank’s Landing came to signify a threshold for change, and Billy Frank, Jr., became a leading architect of consensus, a role he continued to play throughout his life - as one of the most colorful and accomplished figures in the modern history of the Pacific Northwest.

In Messages from Frank’s Landing, Charles Wilkinson explores the broad historical, legal, and social context of Indian fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest, providing a dramatic account of the people and issues involved. He draws on his own decades of experience as a lawyer working with Native people, and focuses throughout on Billy Frank and the river flowing past Frank’s Landing. In all aspects of Frank’s life as an activist, from legal settlements negotiated over salmon habitats destroyed by hydroelectric plants, to successful negotiations with the U.S. Army for environmental protection of tribal lands, Wilkinson points up the significance of the traditional Indigenous worldview - the powerful and direct legacy of Frank’s father, conveyed through generations of Native people who have crafted a practical working philosophy and a way of life. Drawing on many hours spent talking and laughing with Billy Frank while canoeing the Nisqually watershed, Wilkinson conveys words of respect and responsibility for the earth we inhabit and for the diverse communities the world encompasses. These are the messages from Frank’s Landing. Wilkinson brings welcome clarity to complex legal issues, deepening our insight into a turbulent period in the political and environmental history of the Northwest.

IV. Healing the Big River: Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty (2019).
Signed by the author, Peter Marbach.

Healing the Big River masterfully combines the art of visual storytelling with passionate essays. From the source, a tiny spring in the Canadian Rockies, to the sea, readers are guided on a journey back to the origins of the 1,243 mile river and learn about the complicated history and impact of the Columbia River Treaty. The twelve contributing authors, a mix of first nations, tribes, and salmon recovery advocates speak of their relationship to the Columbia and advocate for a new treaty that honors Indigenous knowledge and starts the process to restore one of the greatest salmon runs the world has ever seen.

“Peter Marbach’s photography captures the Columbia River’s awesome power and potential for ecological abundance. This book is important.”
—Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, author of “A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change”

“Nch’i Wana (Ichishkin for “Big River”) represents the lifeblood of Indigenous peoples of the Northwest, providing bountiful salmon runs benefiting communities well-beyond the Pacific Northwest. We have never given up on the vision to restore salmon runs above Grand Coulee Dam. This book is a testament of our tenacity to achieve this vision”
—Paul L. Lumley, Yakama Nation citizen, Executive Director, Native American Youth Association, former director, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

“Since time immemorial, the history of Oregon has been deeply connected with the history of the Columbia. The remarkable photographer, Peter Marbach, has devoted much of his career to capturing the astounding beauty of the mighty river. In “Healing the Big River…”, Peter’s imagery, combined with compelling essays from individuals concerned about the river’s future, provides us a unique window into this critical moment in the history of the Columbia.”
—Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society

V. Dancing on the Rim of the World: An Anthology of Contemporary Northwest Native American Writing (1990).
By Andrea Lerner (Editor).

This first anthology devoted to Native American writings from the Pacific Northwest gathers the work of thirty-four artists who testify to the vibrancy of its native cultures. The 137 selections--prose as well as poetry--represent works of such well-known authors as James Welch, Duane Niatum, and Mary TallMountain, and also showcase many lesser-known writers at the start of their careers.

VI. The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind (2019).
Signed by the author, Amy Gulick

Alaskans have deeply personal relationships with their salmon. These remarkable fish provide a fundamental source of food, livelihood, and identity, and connect generations and communities throughout the state. Yet while salmon are integral to the lives of many Alaskans, the habitat they need to thrive is increasingly at risk from large-scale development that threatens both the fish and valued ways of life.

As communities wrestle with how best to ensure that both salmon and people prosper in today’s world, it is clear that Alaskans are united in their desire for their salmon relationships to continue. Forever.

Intrigued that there is still a place in the world where the lives of people and wild salmon are inextricably linked, writer and photographer Amy Gulick ventured to Alaska to explore the web of human relationships that revolve around these extraordinary fish. Commercial fishermen took her on as crew; Alaska Native families taught her the art of preserving fish and culture; and sport fishing guides showed her where to cast her line as well as her mind. Alaskans everywhere, regardless of their wildly different beliefs, shared their salmon riches with her in their kitchens, cabins, and fish camps—it’s the salmon way.

And the lucky book 'winners' are...

I. Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War (2017). By Daniel Sharfstein. (Winner: Tracey T., Hood River, OR)

II. ORCA: Shared Waters, Shared Home (2021). By Lynda Mapes. (Winner: Stan K., Richland)

III. Messages from Franks Landing: A story of salmon, treaties, and the Indian way (2006). By Charles Wilkinson. (Winner: Carl K., Olympia, WA)

IV. Healing the Big River: Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty (2019). Signed by the author, Peter Marbach. (Winner: Jan C., Juneau, AK)

V. Dancing on the Rim of the World: An Anthology of Contemporary Northwest Native American Writing (1990). Edited by Andrea Werner. (Winner: Lindsey Z., Lonetree, CO)

VI. The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind (2019). Signed by the author, Amy Gulick. (Winner: Steve F., Couer d’Alene, ID)

Thank you as ever for your tremendous support and advocacy. We are grateful for and humbled by your partnership. Please reach out (joseph@wildsalmon.org; 206-300-1003) if you have questions about our priorities and program work in the coming year, how you can support us, or would like further information and to get more involved.

P.S. – You can make a year-end gift online or you can mail it to our office:

 Tickets can be purchased online at eventbrite.com

Space will be limited.

 YOU'RE INVITED...

FOR QUESTIONS - CONTACT JOSEPH@WILDSALMON.ORG

TICKETS ARE LIMITED. BUY ONLINE AT EVENTBRITE.COM

YOU'RE INVITED...

FOR QUESTIONS - CONTACT JOSEPH@WILDSALMON.ORG

TICKETS ARE LIMITED. BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT EVENTBRITE.COM

ACT TODAY: Complete the SNAKE RIVER SURVEY! Support leadership by Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee!

Last fall, Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee committed to develop and deliver a comprehensive solution to protect and recover Snake River salmon and invest in the region's communities by July 31, 2022.

More recently in February, they posted an online survey and invited people to share their thoughts about Snake River dam removal and salmon recovery. This survey is one part of the Murray/Inslee Snake River Initiative to determine how to restore endangered salmon as they consider removing the four Snake River dams and replacing their services with alternatives.

COMPLETE THIS SURVEY TODAY – AND ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO DO THE SAME! With your help, we can show strong public support for the leadership by Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee and their commitment to develop a comprehensive plan by July 2022 to protect/restore wild salmon and steelhead that includes lower Snake River dam removal. It is important to encourage engagement from as many different people and perspectives as possible. 

Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee have said they will announce their findings with an actionable plan by July 31, 2022. In mid-May, they will issue a draft report about how the services provided by the dams can be replaced. That will be followed by a public input process in mid-May through mid-June. It is important to engage with their initiative at every opportunity possible. 

Their decision in July will determine whether Snake River salmon will go extinct or recover.

ABOUT THE SURVEY:

- Anyone can fill out the survey; it is not limited to Washington residents. 

- You do not need to answer all the questions. At a minimum, fill out questions #2 and #9. You can hit “NEXT” to skip a question.

QUESTION #2 ("What is your primary interest?") allows people an opportunity to share why they - YOU - care about the issue.  

QUESTION #9 ("Other issues?") presents an important opportunity to talk about helping orca and other species that will benefit from restoring salmon and steelhead populations.  It’s also a chance to mention the urgency - how salmon are facing an extinction crisis, how our region needs justice for tribes, and how this is an opportunity for smart investments that help all Northwest people and communities.

At a minimum, complete Questions #2 and #9: These are the two most important survey questions.

For more information about the Murray/Inslee Snake River Salmon Initiative: www.LSRDoptions.org

SUMMARY OF SURVEY QUESTIONS AND SAMPLE RESPONSES:

QUESTION 1 - Select the box that best represents your affiliation.  Check concerned citizens - for most people.  You then fill in your zip code in a box for geographic location.

QUESTION 2 - What is your primary interest regarding the lower Snake River dams?  [This is the opportunity to say why you care about this issue.  Please fill it out with your interest and why this issue is important to you!]

Q2 Sample messages: Prevent salmon extinction; help starving orca; honor treaty rights and our promises to Native American people/social justice; the importance of salmon to our NW heritage; important for sport, commercial, and tribal fishing communities and our economy; ensuring a bright future for our region; want solutions that work for fishermen and for farmers, for tribes and utilities.

QUESTION 3 - Irrigated Agriculture:What benefits need to be replaced if the dams are breached? What actions could provide similar or greater benefits?

Q3 Sample messages: As a result of dam removal, some pumps and wells won't be able to provide the water that the reservoirs did.  Actions that address this are to adjust the pumps (longer intakes and more lift) so they will operate at river level and drill wells deeper as needed.

Question 4 - Navigation and transportation: What current benefits need to be addressed if the dams are breached? What actions could provide similar or greater benefits?  

Q4 Sample messages: Barging of grain on the Snake River would end with dam removal, as would substantial public subsidies that support current barge transportation. Actions that address this are investing in expanding railroad service, upgrading roads, and modernizing port facilities to handle rail and truck loading/unloading. With a focus on developing electric rail and truck transport, these investments can help reduce total greenhouse gas emissions from moving agricultural products to market.

Question 5 - Energy: What energy services need to be addressed if the dams are breached? What actions could provide similar or greater benefits?

Q5 Sample messages: There is a modest amount of power produced from the dams that would need to be replaced and the dams provide some other energy services.  Climate change is already affecting snowpacks and making hydropower less reliable during late summer and winter when it's most needed.  Actions to take—We can replace the lost power of the dams with clean energy from wind, solar, batteries, and energy efficiency. The NW has abundant renewable power that is already cost-effective and just gets cheaper. These investments will produce a clean, reliable, affordable, and more modern energy system

Question 6 - Tourism and Recreation: What benefits need to be replaced if the dams are breached?  What actions could provide similar or greater benefits? 

Q6 Sample messages: There are already abundant slack water recreation opportunities in the Columbia Basin from lakes and other reservoirs. Some campgrounds would be lost from around the reservoirs. Dam removal would make for more diverse and better recreation and tourism because it will restore 140 miles of a free-flowing river and will have more salmon and steelhead. Rafting, kayaking, fishing, and other river-based activities would increase. Guided trips would be in demand. Overall diversity of recreation would grow and benefit.

Question 7 - Community Well Being (environmental, social, & economic resources): What benefits need to be replaced if dams are breached? What actions could provide similar or greater benefits?

Sample messages: There are a modest number of jobs associated with dams, ports, and barges, but they're important to those who hold them; generous retraining and placement programs will be needed and obligatory. Environmental damage has occurred from wrecking a river with the dams. Climate change is overheating the water in stagnant reservoirs killing salmon and steelhead. Breaching the dams would restore salmon, honor our commitments to the tribes, and help reduce temperature impacts.

Question 8 - Economic Prosperity: What benefits need to be addressed if the dams are breached? What actions would provide similar or greater benefits?

Q8 Sample messages: The previous impacts to irrigation, navigation, energy can all be successfully replaced and provide a more modern and effective system in their place. A restored river and salmon and steelhead runs will increase economic opportunity for sport, commercial and tribal fishing communities from central Idaho to the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Restoring the river provides overall economic and environmental benefits to the region.

Question 9 - Other: This is an important opportunity to talk about helping orca and other species that will benefit from restoring salmon and steelhead populations. It is also a chance to mention the urgency for salmon that are facing an extinction crisis, the injustice to tribes and to their way of life that a dammed river has imposed, and the opportunity to address impacts with smart investments and planning and to build a better future for all together. 

Have any questions about the survey or this moment of opportunity? Reach out to carrie@wildsalmon.org

The future and health of Snake River salmon, Southern Resident orcas and Northwest communities depends on the urgent engagement and leadership of elected leaders in the Northwest. Please read on to learn of some recent developments – and how you can help.

The news is not good. Adult wild salmon and steelhead returns to the Snake and Columbia rivers in 2019 were some of the lowest on record and predictions for 2020 are no better. Just fourteen (!!) wild Snake River sockeye, for example, reached their spawning grounds in the Stanley Basin of central Idaho. All Snake River populations today struggle against extinction. Not so long ago, wild salmon and steelhead populations returned to the Snake River Basin by the millions.

To make matters worse, this orca scientists announced the presumed death of one more Southern Resident orca this fall. This heartbreaking news brings the population to a new low – just 73 whales remain.

The fates of salmon and orca, of course, are intertwined. Orcas rely on large, fatty chinook salmon to survive. These fish are scarce today and the orcas are literally starving to death as a result. Biologists tell us that restoring the lower Snake River by removing its costly dams will return up to 1 million adult Snake River chinook to Northwest coastal waters to help feed starving orcas and help struggling fishing communities.

The plight of salmon and orca today is urgent. Without leadership by Northwest policymakers, we will lose these special Northwest species forever - and the costs and uncertainities facing communities across the Northwest will increase.

Political leadership is starting to emerge - and we need your help to support and encourage and accelerate it.

Please contact these Northwest Governors and U.S. Senators today - urge them to act now to bring together stakeholders, sovereigns and citizens to support lawful, science-based solutions for salmon, orca and our communities. And please share this alert widely with your friends and family.

Below you will find all the information you need to send them an email and call their offices:

Deliver these messages:

• "Snake River salmon and Southern Resident orcas face extinction today and Northwest communities face increasing costs and uncertainty as a result. We need your urgent, bold leadership to help protect them!"
  
• "We urgently need a comprehensive regional solution that recovers abundant salmon populations and and invests in vibrant, prosperous communities. Restoring the lower Snake River by removing its four federal dams must the cornerstone of any effective plan for salmon, orca and our communities."
• "Please begin today - working with other policymakers, stakeholders, sovereigns and citizens to develop an effective, long-term plan to restore the lower Snake River, recover endangered salmon and orca, and invest in healthy fishing and farming communities. Thank you."

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee:
Write: bit.ly/govinslee
Call: 360-902-4111

Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA):
Write: bit.ly/sencantwell
Call: 206-220-6400

Senator Patty Murray (WA):
Write: bit.ly/senmurray
Call: 206-553-5545

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown:
Write: https://bit.ly/39TaoSP
Call: (503) 378-4582

Senator Ron Wyden (OR):
Write: https://bit.ly/2QgvkvA
Call: (202) 224-5244

Senator Jeff Merkley (OR):
Write: https://bit.ly/2ISIVop
Call: (202) 224-3753

Idaho Gov. Brad Little:
Write: https://bit.ly/2w8LPCL
Call: 208-334-2100

Senator Mike Crapo (ID):
Write: https://bit.ly/2ILwKdb
Call: (202) 224-6142

Senator Jim Risch (ID):
Write: https://bit.ly/2QeLBkD
Call: 202-224-2752 

Thank you for your support and advocacy,

Here are links to recent media coverage and resources on the SOS website. Please contact us to get more involved. Thank you!

(1) SOS -- Speak up for salmon! The Draft EIS for Columbia and Snake River Salmon – A Resource Page (March 2020)

(2) SOS -- An Update/Statement re: the Draft EIS, public comment process and coronavirus (March 2020)

(3) Lewiston Morning Tribune: Congressman Simpson offers critical remarks on river study (March 12)

(4) Idaho Statesman op ed: These groups are setting differences aside to work on salmon solutions (March 11)

(5) Lewiston Morning Tribune: Groups want more time to comment on river plan (March 7)

(6) Indian Country Today: Nez Perce Tribe calls for leadership on lower Snake River restoration and accurate, complete, and transparent information on impacts of four lower Snake River Dams (February 28)

From left to right: Ginna Owens (NextGen), Marin Plut (NextGen), Linda Behnken (Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association), Abby Dalke (SOS), Tanya Riordan (SOS), Keenan Sanderson (Tlingit Haida), and Amy Grondin (Duna Fisheries)

Recently, a team of advocates from Alaska, Washington, and Oregon flew to Washington, DC to advocate together on Capitol Hill for healthy abundant salmon populations and the benefits they bring to communities, cultures, and ecosystems across the entire Pacific Northwest.

Our team was two youth advocates with our NextGen Salmon Collective, two female commercial salmon fishermen, and a Tlingit & Haida member, along with Abby and myself from the SOS team. While geographically diverse, the unique, sacred thread that tied our team together was Columbia Basin salmon. As the map shows, some stocks of Columbia and Snake River salmon migrate as far north as Southeast Alaska – cycling nutrients from the Inland Northwest to the coast of Southeast Alaska and back. With a unified voice, our team asked policymakers to restore and protect these cherished species that connect us.

Show your support by taking action today!

We asked our Members of Congress to support the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI) a comprehensive plan to recover salmon and invest in communities developed by the “Six Sovereigns,” (the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the states of Oregon and Washington). The CBRI is the pathway to restore Columbia and Snake River salmon and other native fish populations, ensure a clean and socially just energy future, support local economic resilience, and uphold our nation’s longstanding unmet commitments to Tribal Nations. Implementation of this historic, regionally supported plan will bring salmon abundance, and the prosperity that accompanies it, to communities from Idaho to Southeast Alaska.

We urged Members of Congress to oppose harmful attacks that would undermine important progress and implementation of the CBRI, and to secure critical funding in the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget as requested by the Six Sovereigns.

You can be a part of this important advocacy work by urging your members of Congress to support the Six Sovereigns’ FY26 Appropriations request to support the implementation of the CBRI. To learn more and take action click here.

By Alison Morrow, on her personal Facebook page 
 
It’s been a week since I first learned that yet another Southern Resident Killer Whale, L-92, went missing and is presumed dead. I decided it’s time to say out loud what I’ve only grumbled about when my camera’s turned off.
 
 I am skeptical of Governor Jay Inslee’s executive order to save the Southern Resident Killer Whales. It’s not because I’m a journalist who is wary of most pitches until action follows. It’s also not because the whales are now at historic lows with the most recent death of L-92 bringing them down to just 75 total, with less than half capable of reproducing. I’m skeptical because I have covered these whales for several years now and I’ve seen what it’s like behind the polished media curtain of task forces and staged press events. The view has dampened my hope. Simply put, many of those entrusted with the SRKW’s fragile future often appear more concerned about territory and ego than collaboration and change.
 
 At least this is how it feels as the lone full-time television environmental reporter in Washington, one of the few in the entire country. And I want to qualify this by saying that I work with field crews like biologists and veterinarians and law enforcement all the time, and I’m beyond grateful for their passion and dedication. This message is not for those who put collaboration over control. It’s for those who prefer secrecy over transparency as a means of maintaining power instead of pursuing progress. If you’re confused by what I’m saying and have never heard of people like this, you’re probably one of them.
 
 Let me explain first how I arrived at my sour grapes. The angst had been building for a couple years when a gray whale stranded on a beach in the Olympic National Park in 2017. I tried everything short of buying my own sea plane to get out there so we could tell the public about another sick whale. We agreed to remain a necessary distance away. We agreed to jump through every hoop presented, frankly. A couple groups tried to be helpful but several others worked very hard to keep us from any kind of access. Because making decisions about media coverage of whales requires more discussion and lobbying than it takes to pass a healthcare bill through Congress, we lost. In the end, we flew our helicopter over the whale as a last ditch effort at transparency.
 
 We believe the public deserves to know about the plight of natural resources, especially those that need our help. After all, whales are not owned by the government or non-profits. These whales are wild animals who serve a higher purpose far from where any human can survive. They are God’s ultimately, and we are simply the stewards. But if we are going to use “belong” language for a second, let me be so bold as to say that these whales belong to the public. Their management is entrusted to the government. The government does not own them. Neither do non-profits with grant money from the government coffers which originates from tax dollars.
 
 The more I try telling stories about the SRKW, or whales in general, the more I hear the same complaints from others. Bureaucracy and power posturing paralyze action while the whales continue to go extinct. It’s certainly paralyzing my ability as a journalist to rally the public to save these whales. Experts are afraid to tell the truth because they might lose their permits. Newcomers are scoffed at for introducing original ideas because, well, how dare they. Don’t they know the fate of the SRKW belongs to a select few for whom all others do the bidding?
 
 Rarely if ever do the organizations most intimately involved in SRKW recovery contact me about media coverage. Same goes for all the other kinds of whales. Maybe a viewer will write us or a source will call me, I’ll contact a public information officer and they’ll make a few calls, and then when the story is entirely over or a whale is undeniably dead and a dozen department heads have been consulted, I’ll get to talk about it with five bad photos and a press release. It seems this is the trend with endangered species in general. The more at risk wildlife are, the more hesitant people are to talk about it. Why is this? Why are people so afraid? Why do journalists in my own newsroom continue to come up to me saying, “I had no idea it was this bad for the Southern Resident orcas!” It seems contrary to what wildlife need from us: awareness.
 
 One time I told a state wildlife officer that it’s gotten so bad, I would rather stick my head out of a moving car and roll the window up on my neck than cover whales. It’s a problem when someone with my ability and platform and passion to engage the public instead dreads whale news, because I know I will make a bazillion phone calls only to get stymied in the end and waste a day that could have been spent covering wildlife for which advocates are not just willing but excited to work with the media.
 
 As I attended Governor Inslee’s press conference when he announced his executive order to save the SRKW, I remember the scripted speeches and the applause and the dozen or so groups represented from state and federal agencies to tribes and non-profits. It was a rah-rah kum ba yah moment like many I’ve witnessed but this time with the real urgency of extinction propelling a “we can do it” moment like few I’d yet to see. And even then I rolled my eyes a little bit, hoping no one caught it, because I had a sinking feeling that nothing would change. When the event ended and we all returned to our daily routines, mine would include trying to tell the stories of these whales while many of theirs would include resistance to it.
 
 I was right. Not even a couple weeks later, I was set up to do a story about dams and fish and recent efforts at habitat restoration that would bring back the vital food the SRKW need to stop starving to death. The day before, it fell apart. Again. One organization didn’t know I planned to come so another organization obscurely told me it wasn’t a good time, and then I heard the word I hear so very often: “politics”. I don’t know exactly what imploded but I was told that, once again, the issue was charged with “politics”. Then came the typical apologies for wasting my time, some of which I believe are sincere. The scales fall off the eyes of others just as they’ve fallen off mine. And then comes that feeling of powerlessness.
 
 But there is power in truth and that’s why I am risking future collaboration by telling it. If a journalist can’t tell the truth, who can? Perhaps I will never get to cover another whale tale after this, but then again, I rarely get to tell the real story anyway. And if the SRKW pods go extinct, then I won’t have any stories to tell.
 
 I hate to be a Debby Downer but I continue to lose hope that these whales will survive. I would love for history to prove me wrong someday. More than that, I would love for our entrusted state and federal management teams to prove me wrong. Listen, I understand the issues facing the SRKW are deeply complex, charged with political and economic undertones, following decades of bad human behavior that’s screwed up ecosystems to the brink of no return. I do believe many field staffers are working tirelessly to do whatever they can. Those charged with fixing the problem didn’t create it, and I sympathize with the uphill battle. That said, we’ve known these whales have faced extinction for decades, and yet their plight has only gotten worse. Knowledge of the problem does not seem to be the hold up. There are plenty of cooks in this kitchen, so why do plates keep coming out empty? Something has to change, and fast. If it does, I hope I will be there to shout from the mountaintops, “We saved the whales!” Until then, consider this my plea. Help me help you. Help all of us help the whales. President Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

All Our Relations: Tribute to the Orca is a moving 7-minute film drawing from an Orca Action Month Indigenous-centered event hosted by Se’Si’Le, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization, in collaboration with Salish Sea and Northern Straits Native Nations and NGOs.

The film highlights the powerful voices of regional Indigenous leaders speaking on Indigenous communities' ancient kinship with orcas and salmon, and the importance of reciprocity in our relationship our caretaker: Mother Nature. The film provides a special focus on the Southern Resident orcas whose survival, like the survival of Indigenous lifeways here in the Pacific Northwest, depends on scha’enexw (the Salmon People).

Take Action: Urge your Senators and Representatives to recommit to upholding treaty rights and support tribal leadership in developing comprehensive solutions in the Salish Sea and the Columbia-Snake River Basin to protect salmon and orcas from extinction.

Take Action

Here's an update on (1) recent progress on Governor Inslee’s Southern Resident Orca Task Force, and (2) to share some media and public actions by SOS and friends, and (3) keep you posted on what’s ahead. First, THANKS to all of you that submitted comments recently on the latest set of Task Force recommendations. The extremely short public comment period generated thousands of comments and demonstrated overwhelming support for urgent action to protect and restore the healthy rivers and habitats that orca and salmon rely upon. The three actions that received the most public support:
(1) Restore a freely-flowing lower Snake River (Rec. 9 - 91% strong support)
(2) Increase ‘spill’ at federal dams (Rec. 8 - 90% strong support), and
(3) Protect and restore freshwater, estuary and marine habitat across the region (Recs. 1-4 - 72% strong support).

These recommendations are also top SOS' priorities! Unambiguous public support like this is critical to advance our work on the ground at the Task Force and in other venues. Thank you for taking action and speaking out! ACT NOW: Call the Governor - Speak Up for Orca and Salmon You helped send a clear message to the Task Force, Governor Inslee and other policymakers in the Northwest that there's public demand for bold, urgent action. Importantly, the science also strongly supports these three priority actions to help endangered salmon and orca. It’s a perfect match and one we'll highlight as we move forward. Second, the Orca Task Force’s final public meeting took place on Nov. 6. The Task Force's goal for the meeting was to finalize any outstanding recommendations and approve them. That is exactly what happened - and here is a quick report: SOS’ top two recommendations – (1) increased spill at Columbia-Snake dams and (2) the establishment of a lower Snake River dam removal planning forum – were both discussed and debated. Some Task Force members challenged these recommendations and their language, but many supported and advocated for them. Eventually, Task Force members settled on final language and added them with the other recommendations. By late afternoon, the Task Force had finalized and approved 36 recommendations. They are now scheduled for delivery to Governor Inslee in Olympia on Friday, Nov. 16. (we don’t have the final set of recommendations to share at this time; we have to wait until 11.16) Third, here are several thoughts on the Task Force and its recommendations at this important juncture:

• SOS is grateful to Governor Inslee for establishing the Task Force, and to the leaders and members of the Task Force for their hard work over the past 7 months.
  
• These recommendations aren't perfect, but they represent a critical first step on the path to protect and restore the Southern Resident orca and the salmon populations and Northwest habitats they rely upon.
  
• The plight of the orca is no less urgent today than it was when the Task Force was first established. It is critical that the Governor act quickly and decisively to fund and implement this initial set of recommendations – to increase spill, to establish a lower Snake River tribal/stakeholder forum, along with the others. The Washington State legislature also has a critical role to play – to provide funding, adopt new policy, and more.
  
• Public pressure and support must grow – not wane in 2019. Elected leaders rarely act without public support and relentless pressure. We have much work ahead.
  
• We must remind policymakers that doing what is right for orca and salmon will also improve the lives, health, communities and quality of life for Northwest people as well. All things are connected.
  
• The Governor’s Task Force will continue its work at least through the end of 2019. This is a good thing – because much work remains. SOS will remain vigilant and engaged – and we’ll continue to keep you informed and ask for your help.

Fourth, take a look at some recent press coverage:
(i) Seattle Times has published the first installment in a special series, Orca in Peril, by environment reporter Lynda Mapes:
Hostile Waters: Orca thrive in a land to the north. Why are Puget Sound’s dying? (ii) KOMONEWS on the OTF Meeting: Suspending whale-watching tours, breaching dams recommended to save orcas (11.6.2018) (iii) The Daily Astorian guest column - Orcas, fishermen are both endangered species, four low-value Snake River dams should be removed (By Glen Spain, SOS Board member, 11.8.2018)

Fifth, follow the links below to several public actions organized this weekend that help maintian the drumbeat on behalf of endangered orca and the chinook salmon populations they depend upon. Huge thanks to our friends at the Backbone Campaign for their partnership on behalf of orca, salmon and our communities.

KREM2-TV: Demonstrators create human orca in downtown Spokane (Sunday, Nov. 11) Human Orca Mural in Bellingham - Save Our wild Salmon and the Backbone Campaign (Saturday, Nov. 10)

With gratitude,

Save Our wild Salmon Coalition statement re: the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the federal agencies' flawed public comment process, protecting public health and the coronavirus – and how people can support political leadership and solutions for Snake-Columbia salmon and Northwest communities.

By Joseph Bogaard, executive director
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition
joseph@wildsalmon.org

March 13, 2020

Despite an inadequate Draft EIS, a deeply flawed public comment process, and very real community health risks associated with the rapid spread of the coronavirus – we ask for your help in the days ahead to (1) submit your public comment on the Draft EIS and (2) call for urgent leadership from Northwest elected officials to support and help develop effective solutions to protect and recover salmon and orca and invest in healthy communities and a reliable, affordable energy system in the Pacific Northwest.

The Draft EIS for Snake-Columbia salmon and steelhead: On February 28, 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Bonneville Power Administration released their Columbia River Systems Operations (CRSO) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS).

We are now in the midst of 45-day public comment. It began on February 28 and closes on April 13. 45 days is the minimum legal requirement for public review of a Draft EIS under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) - an inadequate period of time given the voluminous DEIS, the great importance of the issues at stake, and the confusion and disruption caused by the coronavirus and the high priority to protect public health and safety.

The CRSO Draft EIS is over 8,000 pages. The executive summary exceeds 35 pages. The issues at the heart of this court-ordered EIS are profound for the people of the Northwest and the nation: survival or extinction of salmon and steelhead populations and Southern Resident orcas; the prosperity of fishing, farming and other communities inland and on the coast; the well-being of many Northwest Tribal cultures and communities; the availability of reliable, affordable and increasingly carbon-free energy, and much more.

The Public Comment Period and the Coronavirus: In the last week, Save Our wild Salmon and 20+ partner organizations sent two letters to the federal agencies. The first letter sent on March 5 asked the agencies to extend their 45-day public comment period to 120 days in order to allow for more time for the public to study and understand this lengthy document, its findings and recommendations. We also asked that the NEPA review’s overall timeline be extended after the close of the public comment period on April 13 in order to allow adequate time for federal agency staff to carefully consider and address/respond to the issues and concerns that the public raise during the comment period.

Our second letter was sent on March 11 – triggered by the quickly changing circumstances and expanding risks posed by the coronavirus. Soon after sending our first letter, it became clear that participation in public hearings in March would be unwise and unsafe for the public, for our supporters and for our staff and leaders. This second letter made clear that the signatory organizations would not encourage our supporters or the public to participate in public hearings until a time when the community health risks posed by the coronavirus had passed. We asked the agencies to postpone all of the public hearings in March and to reschedule them at a later date when people could safely and fully participate.

While we received no response from the agencies, we learned on March 13 that they have decided to cancel all of the public hearings and to instead host a series of “phone meetings” during which people can call in, record their comments and listen to others’.

While the agencies absolutely made the right call not to host public meetings this month, they remain committed to a short 45-day comment period, no in-person public hearings and the overall NEPA schedule – with a Final EIS to be released in June and a Record of Decision in September. (You may recall that the agencies' original NEPA timeline was nearly a full year longer, but it was shortened based on a White House Administrative Order issued in late October 2016 – just two weeks before the midterm elections.)

The rushed NEPA review schedule, inadequate public comment period, and flawed Draft EIS all point toward the fact that federal agency-led process cannot and will not deliver the type of comprehensive solution that the people of the Northwest and nation deserve and require. The long-term, lawful and science-based plan that we need must originate in the Northwest. The region’s policymakers – Governors and Members of Congress - must work with stakeholders, sovereigns and citizens to develop and deliver a plan that protects and recovers endangered salmon and steelhead populations and invests in prosperous communities and a reliable and affordable energy system. The federal agencies cannot deliver this plan. The people of the Northwest must.

Here's how you can help:

First and foremost, stay safe and healthy. Follow the advice of health experts and do all that you can to minimize your potential exposure to and transmission of the coronavirus.

Second, despite a highly flawed public input process, submit your comments on the inadequacies of the Draft EIS and what a comprehensive solution for Columbia-Snake salmon and Northwest communities must include.

Third, call in to the federal agencies' 'virtual public hearings. Just today, the agencies announced “phone meetings” in lieu of in-person public hearings. They will occur on March 17, 18, 19, 25, 26, 31 – from 3:45 – 8:00 pm. See details and more information here: 'Speak Up for Salmon Resource Page'.

Fourth, contact Northwest policymakers – call for their urgent engagement and leadership working with stakeholders, sovereigns and citizens to develop and deliver the comprehensive, long-term solution we need to protect and recover abundant salmon that also brings everybody forward together.

Submit your public comment here - and we’ll deliver it to the federal agencies before April 13 and to Northwest policymakers – calling for their leadership to support a regional solution. Thank you.

On behalf of Se’Si’Le, we invite you to stand with Indigenous leaders and Tribal communities across the Northwest in support of a Snake River journey and the Indigenous-led movement to restore salmon by removing the Snake River dams. This important journey comes at a critical time for the Snake River, endangered salmon and orcas, and the region's Tribal communities.

The 2023 All Our Relations Journey, Snake River Campaign will travel through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to inspire and build community, and to press the Biden Administration and our region's members of Congress to protect salmon from extinction and restore them to abundance. Native peoples in the Northwest have depended on their relationship with salmon since time immemorial. To protect the salmon from extinction and uphold our nation's promises to Tribal communities, we must urgently replace the services of the four lower Snake River dams and restore a free-flowing river.

As Chairman Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce Tribe explains: “Time is running out to protect our sacred salmon. This is a crisis that threatens our way of life, and it is a violation of our treaty rights. The federal government is failing to uphold the promises made to our ancestors when we ceded our lands.”

Events will feature an 8-foot in diameter hand-crafted steel sculpture created for the journey by Lummi Nation members A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and Master Carver Jewell James that represents a vision of 'All Our Relations.'

Please support the 2023 All Our Relations Snake River Journey by attending the following events and sharing with your friends and family:

Olympia, WA
Date: Saturday, September 23
Time: 1:00-4:30 pm
Where: United Churches of Olympia with a Procession to Capitol steps
Contact: Rev. AC Churchill, ac@earthministry.org
Register Here

Portland, OR
Date: Monday, September 25
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Where: Ecotrust Building, Billy Frank Jr. Conference Room
Contact: Abby Dalke, abby@wildsalmon.org
Register Here

Pasco, WA
Date: Tuesday, September 26
Time: 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Where: Sacajawea Historical State Park 
Contact: Ione Jones, ione_jones@givingvoice.org 
Register Here

Spokane, WA
Date: Wednesday, September 27
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm 
Where: Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
Contact: William Rutt, wrutt@ipjc.org
Register Here

Lewiston, ID
Dates: Friday, September 29 & Saturday, September 30
Time: Evening gathering on Sept. 29 & 8:30 am - 2:00 pm on Sept. 30
Where: Hells Gate State Park
Contact: Julian Matthews, protectingnimiipuu@gmail.com
Register Here

Seattle, WA
Date: Sunday, October 1
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Where: Town Hall Seattle
Contact: Matt Dollinger, matthew.dollinger@sierraclub.org 
Register Here

Please register today to attend one or more of these events. Click here to add your support for treaty rights and the health of the Salish Sea bio-region.

All Our Relations ©A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner/creativecuzzin.com

In 2020-21, Northwest people and their leaders will decide if Snake River salmon and steelhead, after 6000-plus years in Idaho, will have a future here. This is the second in a series on these one-of-a-kind fish, our choices about them, and the people and enterprises, homes and communities, civics and politics involved. My intended audience is Idahoans working to keep salmon magic in our rivers, lands, and lives. -pf

B-RUN STEELHEAD - Extinction in the Heart of Idaho
From the desk of Pat Ford

May 10, 2018

Extinction is alive and much too well in central Idaho. One of Idaho’s two principal stocks of wild steelhead, B-run steelhead, are vanishing in the Clearwater and Salmon Rivers. In 2017-18 (steelhead return years run fall to spring), only 180 pair at most will mate across 2600 stream miles of habitat. This is a terrifyingly small number of a very valuable fish. If they go extinct, the gouge made in our state will not be filled.

I will come to what to do. First, let’s meet the fish, with a proviso that simplified summaries of this kind do not capture the intricate layered wildness of steelhead or salmon.

- - - - - - -

Wild B-run steelhead trout are the largest of Idaho steelhead – mostly six to sixteen pounds, though some giants exceed 25 pounds. Most put on that growth by spending two years in the ocean. They inhabit the Clearwater, the Middle and South Forks of the Salmon, and tributaries to the Main Salmon between those forks. They exist only in the Snake Basin.

They are mountaineers as well as mariners. As adults they climb 4,000 to 6,500 feet, and 500 to 800 miles, to mate and spawn, bringing the ocean up to the heart of Idaho. They migrate higher and farther inland than any steelhead on earth.

Over thousands of years, B’s have evolved adaptations so that adults can spawn, and newborn can rear, great distances from the ocean in mountain streams with low nutrient levels and short rearing periods. Size is one of these. Their unique upstream migration is another.

From the ocean, B adults enter the Columbia and Snake Rivers in late summer and early fall, after other Idaho salmon and steelhead. After migrating 400 miles, most of it now dammed, many then over-winter at low elevations in the lower Clearwater and Salmon, before climbing the next spring to their headwater spawning areas. This capacity to pace their migration confers flexibility for responding to varying river conditions across all four seasons. Pre-dams, it provided a survival edge that compounded over time into astonishing productivity. Post-dams, it has helped them hold on the last half-century despite losing half their spawning habitat to Dworshak Dam, and the severe degradation of their dammed migratory habitats in the Columbia and lower Snake.

Their size and power, plus a migration that makes them accessible fall to spring, has made them beloved, and desired, of fishing people. Idaho biologist Steve Pettit, who has fished all across and beyond the Northwest, says he hasn’t found a fish that comes close to his fights in the 1970s with B steelhead in the Clearwater River. I have talked to few dedicated Idaho fishermen who do not perk up, with tales of their powerful cartwheeling leaps, when asked about B-run steelhead. Today, their migratory adaptations also help B’s skirt the hot waters of human-caused climate change. Lethal and sub-lethal hot water now chronically afflicts the Columbia and Snake 45 to 60 days each summer. It is worst in 318 continuous miles of reservoir pools that have no cooler escapes or respites such as exist in flowing rivers. B’s late entry from the ocean into freshwater enables them to avoid more of this hot water than any other Idaho steelhead or salmon. They appear to be the best adapted of Idaho’s ocean fish for rising heat in their migratory waters.

Can their functions in wild Idaho, and imprints on human Idaho, be replaced if we drive them extinct? The Snake River has no other stocks with the genetic and behavioral characteristics B’s have evolved. Their gifts to central Idaho streams and watersheds, and Idaho people, are essentially irreplaceable.

- - - -

Wild B’s exemplify the main survival strategy of all steelhead and salmon: life history diversity. B steelhead are not all the same fish. They are a fluid assembly of populations in genetic, physical and behavioral motion and differentiation, driven by countless local differences in and across their habitats, which are of course also in motion through landscape disturbances small and large.

The result is a fan of diversity: different timings of life stages like spawning, migration, freshwater rearing and saltwater residence; different physical attributes like growth, size and reproductive capacity; different patterns of feeding and avoiding becoming food; different responses to differing elevations, gradients, temperature, chemistry – and so on. Diversity is their investment portfolio, resilient to the changes, predictable and random, that natural and human disturbances throw at ocean-running fish.

Steelhead evolved greater life history diversity than salmon. One example of many: at the top of the Middle Fork Salmon River, in Marsh, Bear Valley, Loon and other creeks, steelhead spawn as salmon do in the gradual S-curving valley reaches. But unlike salmon they also spawn in much steeper reaches. They can use more of each creek’s resources.

Their native diversity is one reason much of their spawning habitat – the Selway and Lochsa, the South Fork and Middle Fork Salmon – is managed for wild fish. These wild B’s have had little or no hatchery presence or influence where they reproduce.

Since it’s the main measure of steelhead health, life history diversity is also the main measure of steelhead extinction. The less diversity exists, the worse the odds to keep what is left. So the loss is double if wild B’s go: we lose the B’s themselves, and the diversity-generating capacities they give the ecological and cultural aggregate-in-motion that we call Snake River steelhead.

- - - -

Wild B steelhead evolved to seize opportunities. They have resilience and capacity to self-restore if we provide them better conditions. But we must do so quickly.

Most who read this will know what that means. Reducing severe, persisting mortality from dams and reservoirs in their migratory habitat must take priority, for B steelhead as for all Idaho’s ocean fish. So Idahoans must join
with others in the Northwest to restore the lowermost one-eighth of the Snake River. And to boost salmon spill, the safest way to get ocean-bound fish past dams, at eight dams until the lower Snake is freed, and four dams on the Columbia after that.

For Idahoans working to restore them, I think the work is best conceived in political terms. To achieve more spill and a restored Snake, we must walk a two-way street with some Idaho elected leaders so that they come to agree. We must also cause discomfort to those who choose not to agree.

For example, Congressman Raul Labrador. He is co-sponsoring legislation, HR3144, to enshrine the hydro status quo on the lower Snake and Columbia for the next four years, and to reduce spill rather than expand it. If passed, his bill will speed the extinction of B steelhead. Wittingly or not, his message to we who care about wild steelhead is “I don’t care, and Idaho voters don’t either.”

Will Idaho elected leaders whose actions speed steelhead extinction, and the loss of more steelhead fishing in our state, pay a price? What are we each doing to help exact it?

Over time, Idaho B-run steelhead will need more than dam changes. But now only dam changes can pull them back from extinction. Our path to achieve them lies through challenging, and changing, anti-steelhead policies of the State of Idaho and some of its leaders.

If you see a way, preferably public, to call out Congressman Labrador for abetting Idaho steelhead extinction, please take it. I hope knowing a bit more about Idaho’s B steelhead helps you take it. ###

From the desk of Marc Sullivan, Western Washington Coordinator 

September 16, 2022

(Note: This post follows, and complements executive director Joseph Bogaard’s Sept. 1 blog on the final report and recommendations from Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee: Sen. Murray & Gov. Inslee's historic decision: replace the services, remove the dams, restore salmon)

Sen. Murray’s and Gov. Inslee’s salmon recovery recommendations were released on August 26, accompanied by a final report on replacing the services of the lower Snake River dams. Their fundamental conclusion: to avoid salmon extinction, we must restore the lower Snake River and breach the four federal dams there and, in order to do that, we can and must replace the services the dams provide as soon as possible. Their recommendations followed by three weeks of a landmark agreement between the Biden Administration and salmon and fishing advocates who are challenging a grossly inadequate Trump-era salmon recovery plan in federal court.

These are two landmark steps forward to begin the pathway to remove the lower Snake River dams, invest in transportation, agriculture, and clean energy infrastructure our state desperately needs, end decades long litigation, and ensure Tribal Justice. This post explores the Biden Administration’s recent commitments that are the basis for the agreement to extend the pause in litigation - and how these commitments intersect with the work and initiative of Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee.

On August 4, the Biden Administration and plaintiffs challenging the Trump salmon plan, including the Nez Perce Tribe, the State of Oregon, and fishing and conservation groups represented by Earthjustice, jointly asked the U.S. District Court in Oregon to extend an existing pause in the litigation for an additional thirteen months - through August 31, 2023. The Court swiftly granted the motion. 

As part of the agreement, the Administration made a series of commitments toward the following stated purpose:

“The Biden Administration is committed to supporting development of a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels, honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region.”

A number of these detailed commitments under this overarching statement of purpose come with timelines and/or deadlines. The first - and critically important - of these is a promise to produce, by September 30, a final version of a July draft study on the science of “Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead”. That draft, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), concluded that, for endangered Snake River stocks, restoration of a free-flowing lower Snake River, via dam breaching, is “essential” to salmonid recovery. Plaintiffs, and other salmon and orca advocates, will be watching closely for any hint of retreat from that unequivocal scientific finding.

Then, the Administration, by December 1, 2022, promises to produce “a schedule of Administration actions and critical milestones to meet the Administration’s principles and commitments described herein and which the Administration intends to pursue.” While the Murray/Inslee recommendations did not include a schedule of “actions and critical milestones,” these are more appropriately identified by the Biden Administration and the relevant federal agencies. We will be encouraging the senator and the governor (and other policymakers) to work closely with the Administration to make sure Congress provides any funding or authorization that is necessary to implement the actions and timelines to replace the services of the Snake River dams so they can be breached and the river restored as quickly as possible.

December 1, 2022 is a doubly significant date, as the Biden Administration has also promised that, “By December 1, 2022, the Administration agrees to identify those short-term funding, operational, and other actions that can be implemented in 2023 based on actual and projected funding available from sources across the federal Departments and Agencies.”

Sen. Murray and Gov. Inslee also recognize the opportunity to use existing appropriations to move quickly on developing replacements for the services the lower Snake dams now provide, with their call to, “Leverage the historic investments made in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to support energy replacement, infrastructure enhancement, and salmon recovery and habitat restoration”.

The Northwest states, especially Washington, and the Biden Administration will need to effectively, and urgently, coordinate their work on this front, to start translating goals into actions - on the ground and in the river.

More broadly, the motion from the parties involved in the litigation to the Court noted that, “The United States also secured the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS; www.fmcs.gov) to facilitate meaningful engagement on comprehensive solutions by the United States, Tribes, States, and Stakeholders.” This promised engagement, involving plaintiffs, defendants and other stakeholders, broadens what were previously litigation “settlement” talks to include parties who are not part of the litigation, but will be key to long-term solutions. This is good news if, and only if, all participants engage in good-faith, solution-oriented conversations. Any attempt to use this process as a delaying tactic, or to re-argue settled questions, must be quashed by both FMCS and the Biden Administration or the plaintiffs will be forced to return to court to fight for the health of the river, its endangered fish and the irreplaceable benefits they bring to the Northwest and nation.

The forward-leaning leadership for salmon and orca recovery, justice for Northwest Tribes and investment in a prosperous and sustainable regional future by the Biden Administration and top regional elected officials is an historic opportunity. But a forward lean must become urgent movement and action if we’re not to waste the current opportunity.

For the full text of the Biden Administration commitments, go to: Save Our wild Salmon - Factsheets, Studies, Reports and Letters

© Wingspan Media ProductionsOn June 18th, the Department of the Interior, in collaboration and coordination with the Columbia Basin Tribes, released a comprehensive “Tribal Circumstances Analysis” that outlines the historic, ongoing, and cumulative damage and injustices that the federal dams on the Columbia-Snake River have caused and continues to cause to Tribal Nations, and provides critical recommendations for upholding the federal government’s Treaty and trust responsibilities.

“The United States – by telling the truth about the historic and ongoing injustices the federal dams have imposed on our people and by embracing its Treaty and trust obligations – is upholding the rule of law and highlighting the urgency to act to prevent salmon extinction. The Tribal Circumstances Analysis is a stark reminder that the federal dams were built on the backs of our Tribal Nations and our people, and continue to decimate our salmon populations and our culture, sovereignty, and way of life,” said Chairman Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee.

The Tribal Circumstances Analysis concludes: "Understanding, documenting, and better analyzing that history, much of which continues today, is only one part of the work that needs to be done. The next step is using this understanding to advance results on the ground." We must uphold treaties and commitments made to Tribes and urgently act to restore healthy and abundant Columbia-Snake River salmon and steelhead by replacing the services and breaching the four federal dams on the lower Snake River.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

• Tribal Circumstances Analysis: Historic and Ongoing impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes (June 2024) PDF

Press Releases:

• Nez Perce Tribe: United States Government’s Analysis of the Impacts of Federal Dams on Columbia Basin Tribes Restores the Rule of Law and Supports Immediate Action to Prevent Salmon Extinction, Nez Perce Tribe Says (June 2024) PDF
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation: CTUIR Lauds Report on U.S. Dams Negatively Impacting PNW Tribes (June 2024) PDF
• Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation: Federal Report: Decades of Hydro-System Impacts To Tribes (June 2024) PDF
• Department of Interior: Biden-Harris Administration Releases Report Highlighting Historic and Ongoing Negative Impacts of Federal Columbia River Dams on Tribal Communities (June 2024) PDF
• White House: Recognizing the History and Harms of Federal Dams in the Columbia River Basin (June 2024) PDF
• White House: Biden-Harris Administration Launches Task Force to Advance Historic Commitment to Restore Wild Salmon, Other Native Fish in the Columbia River Basin(June 2024) PDF
• Senator Ron Wyden: Wyden Applauds Biden Administration Launch of Columbia River Task Force(June 2024) PDF
• Earthjustice: Federal Report Underscores Need to Protect Columbia Basin Salmon for Tribal Justice (June 2024) 
• Sierra Club: Biden Administration Report: Protection of Columbia Basin Salmon Needed for Fulfillment of Tribal Treaty Rights (June 2024)

News Coverage: 

• The New York Times: Federal Dams Harm Native American Communities, U.S. Acknowledges (June 18, 2024)
• Seattle Times:Biden administration acknowledges harms of Columbia River dams on Indigenous people (June 18, 2024) 
• AP News:US acknowledges Northwest dams have devastated the region’s Native tribes (June 18, 2024) 
• Spokane-Review: For the first time, federal government acknowledges damage Columbia River dams caused tribes(June 18, 2024)
• The Guardian: US admits dams in Pacific north-west have devastated Native Americans (June 19, 2024)
• Lewiston Tribune: Report: Dams hurt salmon and tribes(June 19, 2024)
• KGW: ‘We have to start somewhere’: Tribal leaders react to report detailing damage done by Columbia River dams (June 19, 2024)
• Oregon Capital Chronicle: A first: Federal government acknowledges dams devastated Northwest tribes and fish stocks (June 21, 2024)
• Elkhorn Media Group: CTUIR’s Sams praises report on dams on the Columbia River (June 21, 2024)
• InvestigateWest: The Federal Government Just Acknowledged the Harm Its Dams Have Caused Tribes. Here’s What It Left Out(June 25, 2024)

Most salmon populations in the Columbia Basin are nowhere near healthy and abundant – and many are hovering on the brink of extinction. The development and operation of hydroelectric dams is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the reduction in Columbia Basin salmon runs. Take Action to defend fish, Tribal rights & a healthy Columbia Basin.

Salmon form the cornerstone of an entire ecosystem, providing essential food for species such as Southern Resident orca whales, which are highly endangered with lack of prey as a primary threat. Commercial and recreational fisheries support family wage jobs and communities from Alaska to California, and the decline in wild salmon populations has led to livelihoods lost and communities compromised, as harvest is constrained to protect dwindling wild fish. These closures have been especially dire for Tribes whose treaty rights and way of life depend on these fish.

Confronted with this alarming decline in Columbia River Basin salmon, Congress in 1980 enacted the Northwest Power Act, under which BPA has an obligation to “protect, mitigate, and enhance” fish and wildlife to the extent they are impacted by federal hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries. BPA, like all federal agencies, must honor the United States’ treaties with Tribes as the supreme law of the land—including treaties that reserve to Tribes in the Basin the right to catch these fish.

Despite these clear obligations, BPA is turning its back on its legal responsibility to protect and rebuild salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) is in the process of developing its 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program, which includes targets for salmon abundance and detailed measures to achieve those targets. Since 1987, NPCC has repeatedly reaffirmed a goal of 5 million salmon returning annually to the Basin. While only a fraction of historic abundance, this target is nonetheless more than double recent average annual returns of around 2 million fish.

But now, BPA is trying to wash its hands of this legal responsibility.

In recommendations recently filed to NPCC, BPA has requested NPCC to eliminate or adjust downward its target of 5 million salmon returning to the Columbia River Basin annually. BPA has also argued in its recommendations that it should not have any responsibility to meet the targets even if the NPCC does retain them.

TAKE ACTION: BPA Must Not Abandon Its Obligations to Salmon!

Submit a comment to Northwest Power and Conservation Council to:

• Reject BPA’s recommendations to eliminate salmon recovery goals and require BPA and the region to meet its long-standing obligations to protect, mitigate, and enhance our irreplaceable salmon. 
• Support NPCC staff’s proposal to model dam breaching and “fish-first, non-breach” hydro operations as part of their plan. With this proposal, the Council would be able to assess what the region’s power needs would be if we fully commit to the actions that fish need to recover to healthy and abundant levels – a key prerequisite to actually implementing these increased fish protections (i.e. dam breach or improved fish operations). This is a crucial step toward developing the information and solutions we need that support both abundant salmon AND affordable, reliable energy — and it reflects the recommendations of state and Tribal fish and wildlife experts across the region.

Use this form to submit a comment by July 3:

Write your own, or copy and paste our suggested comment below!

Comment template:

BPA Must Not Short-Circuit Our Region’s Future.

Choosing the right energy market in the Western U.S. is critical to meet the Pacific Northwest’s projected energy needs while keeping rates low and preparing for a more reliable and resilient energy future that includes abundant salmon and steelhead.

Unfortunately, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which sells power from federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, published a draft decision to join Markets+. If BPA joins Markets+, it will create significant problems for regional electric prices, decarbonization, and salmon recovery.

Now more than ever, smart energy choices will define the future. 
BPA needs to get it right.

U.S. Senators from Oregon and Washington recently voiced their concerns, urging BPA to delay their decision on a Day-Ahead Market decision. As we move forward to energize our economy, BPA must choose an energy market that fosters reliability and affordability for customers while also protecting our environment—including the salmon that define our Northwest way of life.

We need BPA to make a wise decision for everyone in our region.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP: 

BPA expects to finalize their decision to join an energy market in early May. We need your help to urge BPA, and Northwest elected officials, to unify the west, rather than split the market, in order to lower energy costs for consumers AND decarbonize the energy grid. 

TAKE ACTION

BACKGROUND: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) rushed through a major decision to join Markets+ that will have major long-term implications for the Northwest in terms of energy costs and reliability, our ability to integrate new renewables and to address climate change, our energy grid’s overall environmental footprint, including salmon recovery and the health of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and undermines our nation’s treaties and commitments to Northwest Tribes made more than 150 years ago.

WHAT ARE ENERGY MARKETS AND WHY DOES THIS DECISION MATTER? Energy markets are formal structures through which electric utilities can buy and sell energy. BPA is currently deciding which of the two energy markets in the Western U.S. to join: the Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) or Markets+. BPA’s hasty decision to join Markets+ creates a real risk for our region:

I. The Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM), and the development of a single larger market, provides greater benefits for ratepayers, the environment, and the region. It is a better path to begin transitioning away from our region’s high dependency on the changing and less reliable hydro system. The broad base of clean resources available through EDAM will allow BPA to generate less power from the federal hydro system and enable the development of new carbon-free resources and transmission with less duplication and more efficiency.

II. BPA is needlessly rushing to join Markets+, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, rather than the existing western EDAM. The impact of this decision will affect the reliability and affordability for Northwest power consumers for years to come. BPA is facing significant backlogs on the transmission and interconnection side of operations and staffing challenges. There are several studies still being completed and Markets+ doesn't yet have an approved proposal. All of the many regional market studies, including BPA's own, show that two markets in the Northwest would greatly increase cost and reliability risk.

III. If BPA joins Markets+, the Western region will be split into two energy markets, and potential benefits will be significantly diluted. Western utilities and BPA should be encouraged to organize into a single market, not a bifurcated and limited system. A single Westwide power market will allow broader use and development of lower cost, carbon-free power sources that will aid in decarbonizing the energy system and lowering electricity costs for consumers. 

See SOS' full-color, full-page ad that ran in the Seattle Times on Sunday, August 18.

LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION:

Press coverage:

• Portland Business Journal: OR, WA senators question Bonneville Power Administration on 'monumental' decision(July 2024)

• UtilityDive Guest Opinion: A single, unified Western power market will deliver affordability, reliability and climate benefits (April 2024)
  The expansion of the Western Energy Imbalance Market with a day-ahead market and a new independent governing authority can open big opportunities for customer benefits and increased grid reliability.

• RTO Insider: Seattle City Light, others urge BPA to pause Day-ahead Decision (March 2025)

• NewsData: Utilities Make Last-Minute Plea for BPA to Delay Market Decision (March 2025)

• Former BPA Administrators Randy Hardy and Steve Wright’s public letter: Major Health and Safety Impacts From Federal Staff Reductions to BPA (March 2025)

• The Seattle Times:Climate, energy upheavals roil NW power market (March 2025) 

• Portland Journal:Bonneville Power Administration advances controversial energy market decision (March 2025)

Factsheets:

• NW Energy Coalition: BPA’s public engagement for establishing a policy direction on potential Day-Ahead Market (DAM) participation (February 2025)

• NW Energy Coalition:BPA Day-Ahead Markets Decision (February 2025)

• NW Energy Coalition: Energy Market informationalpage (Spring 2024) 

Recent letters from regional policymakers and power utilities to BPA Administrator John Hairston and the Trump Administration:

• Four Washington and Oregon Senators' letter to BPA to delay their energy market decision (May 2025)
• Four Washington and Oregon Senators' letter to BPA to extend comment period (April 2025)
• Four Washington and Oregon Senators' letter to BPA to make a carefully considered choice (July 2024)
• Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeffrey Merkley's letter to President Trump on BPA staffing cuts and grid stability (February 2025)
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp, and Seattle City Light (March 2025)
• Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Rivian, Sila, CEBA, REC Silicon, Sabey, Vantage Data Centers, and Western Freedom (March 2025)
• Oregon and Washington’s U.S. Senators(July 2024) 
• OR Governor Tina Kotek (March 2024)
• WA Governor Jay Inslee (January 2024)
• Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (January 2024)
• WA Legislature Energy Committee Chairs (May 2024)
• Oregon Legislative Energy Committee Chairs (May 2024)
• Oregon and Washington State Agencies (July 2024)
• Portland General Electric Company (July 2024)
• Seattle City Light (March 2024)
• Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative Power (March 2024)

Other resources:

• Deficiency Letter: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s response to Markets+ application (July 2024)
• Earthjustice: New Federal Commitments to fight salmon extinction in the Columbia River Basin (Winter 2024)

Breaking development on our collective, ongoing efforts to restore healthy and abundant wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Snake and Columbia rivers.

Here’s what happened in a nutshell: On August 31, the U.S. District Court approved a request from the parties involved in the long-running litigation over the deadly effects of the federal system of dams and reservoirs on wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia-Snake River Basin to extend the ongoing pause in court action to allow 60 additional days for settlement talks. As a result, discussions to develop a durable, lawful solution to protect and recover salmon will continue through the end of October.

According to Earthjustice's 8/31 press release, this brief stay extension is based on U.S. government commitments to "supporting the development of a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels, honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region.”

In our SOS press release, we expressed appreciation for "the focused efforts recently to develop a lawful plan to restore salmon abundance in the Columbia and Snake rivers,” but also emphasized the need for urgent action. “[M]any populations, including all stocks remaining in the Snake River Basin – sockeye, spring/summer and fall chinook, and steelhead - face certain extinction without urgent, meaningful, science-based recovery actions. Salmon and steelhead – and the orcas and other fish and wildlife that depend upon them – are simply running out of time."

Here's some additional background - followed by links to the (i) SOS press release and (ii) two regional news stories: For the past 22 months, settlement talks have been underway between and among the various litigants and parties involved in the decades-long court case over the harmful effects on wild salmon and steelhead of the federal system of dams and reservoirs in the Columbia Basin. Steeply declining native fish populations in the basin began being listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the early 1990s. Since that time, five consecutive federal salmon plans required by the ESA have been rejected by the courts as inadequate and illegal. The latest plan - the federal government’s 6th - was finalized in 2020 during the Trump Administration. It was immediately challenged by the Nez Perce Tribe, State of Oregon and Earthjustice representing conservation and fishing NGOs (all SOS coalition members). It is this court challenge to the Trump Administration’s 2020 plan that has been paused to allow time for settlement talks.

As you may recall, back in February 2021 Congressman Simpson (R-ID) proposed his groundbreaking "comprehensive solution" for Columbia Basin salmon and Northwest communities that included removing the lower Snake River dams and replacing their services with alternatives. Soon after the Simpson announcement, other policymakers began to step forward, including Rep. Blumenauer and Gov. Brown in Oregon, and Senator Murray and Gov. Inslee in Washington State.

Then in October 2021 - 22 months ago - the court approved a request by the plaintiffs (Nez Perce Tribe, State of Oregon and conservation/fishing NGOs) and defendants (the Biden Administration) to begin confidential, mediated settlement discussions. The goal: to develop a durable, long-term, comprehensive regional plan to recover endangered wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia-Snake Basin and rebuild the irreplaceable benefits they bring to the Northwest and nation.

The list of participants in these talks has expanded over time to include, for example, intervening parties to the litigation - irrigators, public utility districts, barge operators and others - as well as a number of regional sovereigns - several additional Columbia Basin Tribes and the State of Washington.

In some respects, these talks - the confidential discussions as well as the very public, regional dialogue that has occurred simultaneously - can be seen as an extension or expansion of the debate and conversation that has been under way in various forums for several decades. But it also feels different today.

For perhaps the first time, high level leadership from within the federal government is engaged - as well as several Northwest state and tribal governments, members of Congress and various affected stakeholders. Not all interested parties have come to the table ready to negotiate in good faith and to collaborate on shared solutions. At SOS, we continue to hope they will.

Regardless, we are now in a moment of both great urgency and opportunity - for endangered salmon and orca, and for communities and the Northwest's special way of life. At SOS, we hope that the parties involved in the talks do all they can to take advantage of the next 60 days. We’ll be doing all we can in the public arena to educate and engage the public and our policymakers. And we’ll be reaching out to you for your help!

Follow these links to see the SOS press release on the stay extension / continued talks, and regional media stories.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Save Our wild Salmon Statement re: 8/31 decision to extend litigation pause

Seattle Times: Dam removal still on table as settlement talks over Lower Snake River operations continue (Lynda Mapes, Sept 1, 2023)

Spokesman-Review: Federal government, salmon advocates agree to continue talks that could lead to breaching the four lower Snake River dams (Orion Donovan Smith, Sept. 1, 2023)

Thank you as ever for your support and advocacy. We’ll keep you updated as we move forward from here.

Contact your legislator today!

The fate of Southern Resident orca and Columbia-Snake salmon is in our hands.



Thanks to your/our collective work in 2018, Governor Inslee recently included two key Orca Task Force recommendations in his budget proposal to the state legislature to:

(1) Expand spill at federal dams in the Columbia Basin to increase salmon populations,

(2) Convene a lower Snake River stakeholder forum to identify needed infrastructure transitions for when the four lower Snake River dams are removed. 



The Columbia Basin has the greatest chinook salmon restoration potential of anywhere on the entire West Coast! We need bold action in the Columbia Basin as an essential piece of an effective statewide plan that recovers robust salmon populations and protects orca from extinction.

We applaud the Governor’s leadership, and now we need to turn our attention on our Washington State legislators.

Contact your legislators today: "Starving orca need more salmon; fully fund the Governor’s request to increase spill at federal dams and convene a lower Snake River dam removal stakeholder forum in 2019!”


We've only made progress recently to aid endangered orca and salmon due to overwhelming pressure from you and so many others that policymakers and decisionmakers could not ignore us. We must keep this up or the legislature will buckle to pressure from the defenders of the status quo.

We must work together to ensure the legislature fully funds these two key items in the Governor's budget - more spill and the stakeholder forum. Both are low-cost, but exceptionally high-value actions for salmon and orca. And both are being vigorously opposed by anti-salmon forces in the state.


We need your help! Write and call your legislators today. Share this action alert with your friends and family. Contact us to get more involved! Thank you!


Joseph Bogaard, joseph@wildsalmon.org; 206-300-1003


Sam Mace, sam@wildsalmon.org; 509-863-5696

CALL GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE TODAY!

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR: 360-902-4111 (9 am - 5 pm PST)

Key messages (leave a voice mail and/or a message with his staff):

1. Thank Governor Inslee for his leadership in establishing the Orca Task Force earlier this year. Now it is time to fund a critically important recomendation - the establishment of a stakeholder forum to discuss dam removal.

2. There's no time to waste. Orca survival depends on Governor Inslee's urgent leadership.

3. Governor Inslee must act quickly make sure stakeholder forum funding is included in final state budget.

Additional details:

The Orca Task Force (OTF), Governor Inslee, and 43 legislators have all voiced their support for the creation of a stakeholder forum to discuss and develop community solutions in the event that the lower Snake River dams are removed. Meanwhile, opponents are trying to block funding and keep people from engaging with each other.

Orca today swim at the brink of extinction. Restoring the healthy, resilient, connected rivers and salmon populations in the Columbia-Snake and the Salish Sea Basins are essential pieces of a regional plan to feed starving orca. It is the Snake River, however, that scientists tell us has the greatest potential to produce very large numbers of chinook that orca need to survive and recover.

The stakeholder forum represents a much-needed, state sponsored opportunity to bring people together to talk, share concerns, and explore options relating to the lower Snake River and its dams and endangered salmon populations that orca rely on. This is a low-cost investment with high-impact potential - not only for salmon and orca but also for fishing, farming, and other communities across the state affected by the fate of these species.

*PLEASE ACT TODAY: Ask Gov. Inslee to ensure funding is secured for the formation of a stakeholder forum to develop solutions for salmon, orca and communities.

Thank you!

For further information and to get involved, contact:
Joseph Bogaard, joseph@wildsalmon.org; 206-300-1003
Sam Mace, sam@wildsalmon.org; 509-863-5696

Next week, the Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University will host a day-long conference: Energy, Salmon, Agriculture and Communities: Can we come together? On Tuesday, April 23, the Andrus Center will bring together policymakers, experts, stakeholders and citizens to discuss ideas and solutions to two crises facing the people of the Pacific Northwest – salmon and steelhead extinction and energy policy.

Save Our wild Salmon will be there: Sam Mace, our Inland Northwest Program Director will participate as a panelist; Joseph and Angela will also attend. A number of our board members and friends will be there as well. Interest in the conference is growing; more than 300 hundred people are expected – and, importantly, it won’t be just salmon and steelhead advocates.

Speakers will include Congressman Mike Simpson (ID), Governor Brad Little, and Bonneville Power Administrator Elliott Mainzer. Panelists will represent a range of interests from the Columbia Basin and Pacific Northwest, including rural communities that depend on fishing for their economy, farmers, utilities, conservationists and concerned citizens. Representatives and members of Tribal Nations will also attend and present.

You can see the full agenda with speakers and panelists listed here.

SOS is excited to participate in this conference – to share our thoughts about the plight of wild salmon and steelhead and benefits they deliver to our region. We are also eager to listen to others about their concerns and, we hope, to open the door on a new conversation about shared solutions and a way forward that works better for endangered wild salmon and impacted communities across the Northwest.

In recent years, SOS has been reaching out to and talking with stakeholders, especially those with whom we may disagree, in an effort to start a dialogue and explore new approaches to addressing some difficult problems. Here is a statement, for example, we released last fall a few days before the ‘Free the Snake!’ Flotilla near Lewiston (ID) and RiverFest Celebration in the Tri-Cities (WA).

We worked hard last year as part of Governor Inslee's Orca Task Force and are still working hard today in the Washington State legislature to secure funding in the state budget to convene a lower Snake River stakeholder forum. If funded, this forum will bring together people to identify and detail the kinds of community investments and transitions that would be needed if these four federal dams are removed to protect salmon, help feed orca, or for other reasons. This may not be the only conversation we need in the region on these topics, but it is a critical one.

The late Cecil D. Andrus served as a four-term Governor for Idaho and U. S. Secretary of the Interior. He was a passionate and articulate advocate for natural treasures in Idaho and the nation – including wilderness and wild salmon. As Governor, Andrus played a key role to win support in the U.S. Congress to establish the Sawtooth Wilderness Area and he successfully opposed mining in the White Cloud Mountains – both important spawning and rearing habitats for native fish in central Idaho. During his tenure as Secretary of the Interior under President Jimmy Carter, Andrus helped expand Redwoods National Park and pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

He was honored with countless environmental awards, including the William Penn Mott Park Leadership Award from the National Parks Conservation Association, Conservationist of the Year from the National Wildlife Federation and the Ansel Adams Award from the Wilderness Society.

Cecil Andrus was well respected, had a long and successful career in public service, and was known widely for abilities to bring people together to solve tough problems. We hope that his commitment to natural resources, healthy communities and problem-solving will be present with us next week in Boise.

Thank you for your support,

Posted on Friday, July 20, 2018

Members of a regional partnership kicked off by NOAA Fisheries in early 2017 have agreed in principle to a vision statement and provisional goals.
 
The Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force first met in Portland January 24, 2017 seeking an all-inclusive region-wide effort to connect various salmon recovery efforts. That first meeting was a long-time in the making with NOAA having first announced its intentions to convene the Partnership in October 2015.
 
Multiple, sometimes overlapping, recovery plans are present across the region, Barry Thom, regional administrator of NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, told the group of more than 35 people at the January 2017 meeting.
 
The idea of a Partnership actually took form out of NOAA’s 2012 Columbia Basin Assessment. Thoms said that the Assessment effort pointed out an absence of long-term integrated salmon recovery goals in the region, although there are many different plans for recovery, and that those plans are not all working in the same direction. The Assessment also highlighted NOAA’s leadership role and that the region needed to have a broad conversation about recovery, he concluded.
 
Today the Task Force has 28 members and one ex officio member, all organized under NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee representing tribes, states and diverse stakeholders.
 
The Partnership, according to a Northwest Power and Conservation Council July 5 Memorandum (https://www.nwcouncil.org/sites/default/files/2018_0710_f3.pdf) is focused on developing goals for 24 stocks of fish listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
 
“These stocks represent groupings of the recognized 327 salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia Basin, consisting of the 210 extant, 117 extirpated, and 18 reintroduced populations,” the memo says. “142 of the extant populations are ESA listed.”
 
The Task Force is seeking comments from its constituents during a June to October outreach period. That input will be taken up at the Partnership meeting Oct. 2-3 in Portland.
 
“By the end of the October meeting the CBP Task Force members will finalize what elements they support moving forward as part of their Recommendations Report to MAFAC,” the Council memo says. “This Recommendation Report may include a description of the Task Force process, related work products, provisional goals, vision statement, and description of a Phase 2 process to continue the Task Force’s work in integrating the goals across species and to begin analyzing how these goals can be achieved.”
 
“Now the Partnership has its products out and wants feedback (from the Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee) on it,” Tony Grover, Fish and Wildlife Director at the Council, told the Committee at its meeting July 10 in Missoula. That feedback, he said, would be shared with the Columbia Basin Task Force during August and October Partnership meetings.
 
The Council “agreed to merge their efforts of refining Program salmon and steelhead quantitative goals with the NOAA’S Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force effort,” the memo says.
 
The Task Force vision statement and proposed guiding principles (http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/publications/col_basin_partnership/2018_outreach/mafac_cbptf_vision___proposed_guiding_principles_-_6.21.18.pdf) were completed and released June 21, 2018.
 
Vision Statement:
A healthy Columbia River Basin ecosystem with thriving salmon and steelhead that are indicators of clean and abundant water, reliable and clean energy, a robust regional economy, and vibrant cultural and spiritual traditions, all interdependent and existing in harmony.
 
Proposed Guiding Principles:
Fairness: Foster a culture of respect, equity and generosity and be accountable for our interests.
Openness & Transparency: Everything is on the table – recognize yours and others’ needs, acknowledge fears, threats and limitations to success, and be willing to re-evaluate them together.
Obligations & Responsibilities: Honor legal, statutory, treaty/trust and regulatory obligations, rights, and responsibilities.
Clarity: Collaboratively arrive at solutions that improve regulatory and legal certainty.
Sustainability: Strive for durable and practical outcomes, seeking clarity while acknowledging a dynamic social/cultural, economic and natural landscape.
Knowledge & Wisdom: Ground decisions and recommendations in science, while accepting that science may not be definitive.
Innovation & Adaptiveness: Plan for the long term, act in the short term and be bold in the face of uncertainty and change.
Interconnection & Complexity: Envision a healthy and resilient ecosystem. Assume there are multiple solutions to resolving Basin issues.
 
The four provisional goals are:
1. Restore salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin to healthy and harvestable/fishable levels.
2. Provide diverse, productive, and dependable tribal and non-tribal harvest and fishing opportunities for Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead in fresh and marine waters.
3. Produce hatchery salmon and steelhead to support conservation, mitigate for lost natural production, and support fisheries, in a manner that strategically aligns hatchery production with natural production recovery goals.
4. Make decisions within a broader context that reflects, and considers effects to, the full range of social, cultural, economic, and ecosystem values and diversity in the Columbia Basin
 
Each of the goals has sub-goals and timing on achieving the sub-goal out 25 years, 50 years and 100 years. Goal 1 has four sub-goals: prevent declines, achieve ESA delisting, achieve broad sense recovery and expand spatial and temporal range.
 
Goal 2 sub-goals are ensure sustainability, optimize harvest and fishery opportunity and share benefits.
 
Goal 3 sub-goals are support natural production, mitigate for lost production and support fisheries, and fish protection.
 
Goal 4 sub-goals are broader goals that pervade the entire process and have no particular timing. They are social goal, cultural goal, economic goal and ecosystem goal.

Posted on Friday, July 13, 2018 (PST) 

The first few phases of a long-range plan by tribes to restore Pacific lamprey runs into Columbia River tributaries through artificial propagation and translocation was given a tentative approval this week by the Fish and Wildlife Committee of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
 
However, given the uncertainty of Bonneville Power Administration funding and whether the Columbia River Fish Accords will be extended beyond 2018, the Committee at its meeting in Missoula, Montana, Tuesday, July 10, approved the first couple of implementation phases of the lamprey Master Plan, but sent the tribes back to the drawing board to determine the actual costs of such a restoration effort.
 
The Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation want to implement the first steps of the Master Plan for lamprey – Pacific Lamprey Artificial Propagation, Translocation, Restoration and Research Plan – that will cost between $100,000 and $200,000 per year through fiscal year 2021, according to the Council’s Mark Fritsch. Also involved with the lamprey master plan are the Nez Perce Tribe and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
 
Initially, the tribes are seeking a three-year commitment of money to begin Master Plan implementation, Fritsch said. He said the Council should recommend to the Bonneville Power Administration to fund the program through Phase 3, Objective 5 for FY2019 – 2021. The project already is funded in FY2018.
 
That money could come from the Accords (separate BPA funds for fish and wildlife projects with tribal sovereigns), but the current 10-year agreement is set to expire in September, Fritsch said. While BPA and tribes are negotiating a new agreement, Bonneville is reviewing all its fish and wildlife projects seeking to reduce costs. That could take up to a year, according to Bryan Mercier, executive director of BPA’s fish and wildlife division.
 
Idaho Council member Bill Booth said that before final approval at the Council level, funding for the Master Plan implementation must be resolved.
 
“If we don’t address the funding issue when we move this to the full Council, they won’t approve it,” Booth said.
 
The Master Plan received a qualified approval from the Independent Scientific Review Panel in March, which said it meets scientific review criteria, but added six qualifications, including providing more information on the tribes’ supplementation strategy that will be addressed in the first two phases of the project, said Brian McIlraith, Pacific lamprey project lead with CRITFC.
 
The translocation strategy collects adult lamprey from downstream in the Columbia River and transports them upstream, helping the lamprey “avoid the difficult migration channel” upriver through dams on the river. Translocation has been used by the tribes since the early 2000s, McIlraith said.
 
Artificial propagation is the other strategy and the Master Plan is focused on hatcheries, he said.
 
The most important aspects of the plan are to continue translocation and to develop and implement artificial propagation as a component of a regional research and supplementation plan. Ultimately, McIlraith said, the Tribes want to restore lamprey to its historical geographic range.
 
The Master Plan outlines three overlapping phases:
 
Phase 1 is largely done in the laboratory, or in hatcheries, and has already begun with phase 1 beginning in 2012 and ending in 2020.
 
Phase 2 is the field phase, Brian said, taking lamprey from the laboratory and strategically releasing them and monitoring the outcome. This phase began this year and will conclude in 2026.
 
Phase 3 is the synthesis phase when the tribes will evaluate supplementation results to determine the most successful strategies and develop new strategies as needed. This phase is 2022 through 2029.
 
Phase 4 is the implementation phase that begins in 2027.
 
The Yakama Nation and the Umatilla Tribe are doing complementary work, Brian said.
 
For the Yakama Nation, adult translocation will continue into the lower Yakima and Methow subbasins, while they will focus artificial propagation research in the upper Yakima and Naches watersheds.
 
The Umatilla Tribe will continue translocation into the Umatilla and Grande Ronde subbasins and will release larvae/juveniles in watersheds within the Walla Walla and Tucannon subbasins over the next ten years.
 
Both tribes have developed hatchery capacity to maintain adult lamprey and to propagate larval lamprey, McIlraith said.
 
The Yakama’s have established the capacity to spawn, fertilize, incubate and rear lamprey at the Marion Drain Fish Hatchery and at the Prosser Fish Hatchery.
 
Also, the Umatilla Tribe has developed hatchery capacity at the Water and Environmental Center at Walla Walla Community College and at the Mukilteo Research Station, owned by NOAA Fisheries, and plans an expansion at a South Fork Walla Walla facility.

February 22, 2019

In the United States, the removal of dams now outpaces the construction of new ones--with more than 1,400 dams decommissioned since the 1970s--and a new study suggests that the ecosystem effects of dam removal can be predicted.

Published in the journal BioScience, the study identifies a consistent set of physical and biological processes that control ecological responses to dam removal. These processes, combined with the unique environmental conditions found at each dam, ultimately determine how the ecology of the river will respond.

"We found that each dam removal is unique because of the location, size, and history of the watershed," said Ryan Bellmore, a Juneau, Alaska-based research fish ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station who is lead author of the study. "Nevertheless, we found that ecological responses generally follow similar patterns."

Although dams are primarily removed because they are aging and are costly to repair or upgrade, ecosystem recovery also is a common objective, particularly for fish species such as salmon,

Bellmore and 14 other government, university, and nonprofit organization colleagues synthesized more than 125 dam removal studies and ecological theory into conceptual models.

These models reveal the key physical and biological factors responsible for driving ecological responses to dam removal and show that these factors--and associated ecological responses--are distinctly different upstream and downstream of removed dams.

Upstream of former dams, the major driver involves aquatic species recolonizing habitats that they were not able to access with the dam in place.

Downstream of former dams, the river often receives a surge of sediment that had accumulated in the former reservoir, which can lead to major--although temporary--effects on aquatic organisms.

Finally, in the former reservoir itself, species that are adapted to slower, deeper water are replaced by those adapted to shallower, faster moving water.

“One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams,” says the study abstract.

“We define models for three distinct spatial domains: upstream of the former reservoir, within the reservoir, and downstream of the removed dam. Emerging from these models are response trajectories that clarify potential pathways of ecological transitions in each domain. We illustrate that the responses are controlled by multiple causal pathways and feedback loops among physical and biological components of the ecosystem, creating recovery trajectories that are dynamic and nonlinear. In most cases, short-term effects are typically followed by longer-term responses that bring ecosystems to new and frequently predictable ecological condition, which may or may not be similar to what existed prior to impoundment.”

Managers and dam-removal practitioners can use the study's models to gauge the potential range of ecological responses to dam removal and the most likely future conditions, helping generate more realistic expectations for ecological recovery.

"This research expands our conceptual understanding and improves our ability to predict response to future dam removals," said Jill Baron, co-director of the U.S. Geological Survey's John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, which sponsored the work.

The study was conducted by the Dam Removal Synthesis Working Group, a team of 22 scientists from the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA Fisheries, Oregon State University, University of Montana, Dartmouth College, Bowling Green State University, and American Rivers.

The Pacific Northwest Research Station--headquartered in Portland, Ore.--generates and communicates scientific knowledge that helps people make informed choices about natural resources and the environment. The station has 11 laboratories and centers located in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon and about 300 employees.

February is Black History Month!

Black History Month is a time to honor and celebrate Black and African American rich history and cultural heritage and pay tribute to the innumerable contributions of Black and African American communities.

Join SOS in celebrating Black History Month with our favorite Black literature, short films, podcasts, and events!

READ

Non-fiction:

• The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just by Mélina Mangal (Author), Luisa Uribe (Illustrator)
• The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas 
• Born on the waterby Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson, Nikkolas Smith
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Landby Leah Penniman
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
• Counting the Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematicianby Lesa Cline-Ransome
• Changing the Equation 50+ US Black Women in STEMby Tonya Bolden
• Young, Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present by Jamia Wilson Andrea Pippins (Illustrator)
• Young, Gifted and Black Too: Meet 52 More Black Icons from Past and Presentby Jamia Wilson (Author) Andrea Pippins (Illustrator)
• Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed (author) Stasia Burrington (Illustrator)
• Climate Justice: Black and Native Attention as Miracle by Loam

Fiction:

• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler and listen to ‘Octavia’s Parables’podcast with hosts Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown

Poetry:

• Celebrating Black History Month with poems, articles, and podcasts that explore African American history and culture collected by the Poetry Foundation
• 'Black Nature': Poems Of Promise And Survivaledited by Camille T. Dungy
• The idea of ancestry after Etheridge Knight by Rio Cortez

WATCH

• Out & Back, hosted by author, activist and runner Alison Mariella Désir. This series brings PNW residents and groups working to bring Black, Indigenous and People of color to reclaim space in the outdoors, and encouraging others to get outside with them.
• Expedition Reclamation is a documentary seeking to redefine “outdoorsy” and reclaim belonging in the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color by highlighting their joyful, resilient, & transformative relationships to outdoor recreation.
• Where I Belong, featuring angler and conservationist Christine Hill, a series by The Outbound Collective
• Resilience,featuring Lesford Duncan & Outdoor Outreach as they strive to connect youth with the transformative power of the outdoors, a series by The Outbound Collective
• Our Parks Too!, series with Kristen Walker and Diamon Clark on their journey to visit all 63 National Parks in the United States.
• Here We Stand featuring Teresa Baker, a series by The Outbound Collective

LISTEN

Podcasts:

• ‘I've Known Rivers’episode on Langston Hughes’ poetry with Elizabeth Alexander
• ‘1619’hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• ‘HIstorically Black’ by APM Reports & The Washington Post 

ATTEND

Events: 

• Northwest African American Museums: Upcoming and current exhibits and events.
• The National Museum of African American History and Culture: Black History Month online events and read more about Black History Month 2023 theme - Black Resistance.

Did you know November is National Native American Heritage Month? To celebrate the invaluable and innumerable contributions of Indigenous people and communities, we have compiled some staff favorites of Native American literature, art, and recent news! Enjoy and please let us know if you have recommendations to learn more about Indigenous heritage from Native voices. 

Read

Non-Fiction:

• A River’s Gift: The mighty Elwah River Reborn by Patricia Newman. Illustrated Natasha Donovan 

• Required Reading: Climate Justice, Adaptation and Investing in Indigenous Power - curated, edited, and produced by the NDN Climate Justice Campaign

• Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez, PhD 
• The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well by Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins 
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
• Children of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua by Gloria Amescua. Illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh 
• Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene. Illustrated by Ciara Sana 

• As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays 
• Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur (pre-order today!)


Fiction:

• Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for KidsEdited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (great for kids!)
• I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day (great for young teens!)
• The Sea in Winter by Christine Day (great for young teens!)
• The Sockeye Motherby Hetxw’ms Gyetxw Brett D. Huson. Illustrated by Natasha Donovan (great for kids!)
• Nibi’s Water Songby Sunshine Tenasco. Illustrated by Chief Lady Bird (great for little kids!)
• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom. Illustrated by Michaela Goade (great for little kids!)


Poetry:

• Dancing on the Rim of the World (PNW Native American poetry collection)
• The Larger Voice: Celebrating the Work of Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Literature Fellows Curated and Edited by Rena Priest(Lhaq’temish [Lummi] Nation) Includes Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Literature Fellows: Michael Wasson (Nimíipuu) and Elizabeth Woody (The Confederated Tribes of the Reservation at Warm Springs, Oregon) 

Articles:

• NRDC: "We Are the Same as the Salmon": A Story of Suffering and Perseverance
• NRDC:Saving Salmon—from One Generation of Fisherwomen to the Next
• NWPB: First foods lead the way in Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation natural resource management(Nov. 3)
• Seattle Times Guest Opinion: Stop sacrificing Indigenous sacred sites in the name of climate changeBy Jeremy Takala and Lauren Goldberg (Sept. 25) 
• Seattle Times Guest Opinion: Make salmon restoration a policy and budget priorityBy Rep. Debra Lekanoff (Oct. 3)
• Canary Media: With renewables, Native communities chart a path to energy sovereignty(Oct. 10)
• KUOW: Youth rally to protect salmon in the Snake River(Sept. 27)
• OPB Reporter's Notebook: The racism, and resilience, behind today’s Pacific Northwest salmon crisis(Sept. 24)
• Seattle Times: How Northwest tribes are leading the push to restore eel-like lampreys (Sept. 23)


Watch

• A Healing Journey (2019) (15 min) 
• sčədadxʷ (salmon)narrated by Billy Frank Jr. (5 min) (great for kids of all ages!)
• Land of the Yakamas (10 min) 
• Reciprocal Sacrifice(12 min) 
• River of Return(27 min)
• Spirit Rangers on Netflix (great for tv show for kids!) 
• Reservation Dogs on Hulu
• Preyon Hulu (Action/Sci-fi)

Listen

Podcasts:

• All My Relations 
• Raíces Verdes 
• NDN Book Nerd 
• On the Land
• While Indigenous
• Young & Indigenous


Attend

Events:

• Seattle Times: 5 exhibitions to see during Native American Heritage Month 
• Washington Tribes Newsletter: Events to honor Native American Heritage Month


This March is Women’s History Month, a month dedicated to celebrating all women worldwide! The Save Our wild Salmon Coalition team has compiled our favorite books by women authors and articles highlighting women working to restore our rivers, species, and ecosystem! 

READ

Articles: 

Saving Salmon—from One Generation of Fisherwomen to the Next by Nicole Greenfield, NRDC

"Keyen Singer, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, carries on a maternal legacy of conserving salmon and preserving culture. Their efforts could soon pay off.

If Keyen Singer had her way, she would be out on the family boat, fishing for salmon in the Columbia River alongside her mother, just like the generations of women who came before them. But the high school senior, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), realizes that her relationship with one of her tribe’s first foods will be different than that of her foremothers. Singer knows her work to recover the Columbia Basin’s disappearing salmon population won’t take place on the river but instead in the classroom, out in the field, at conferences, and online.” Read more here.

Five Women Work to Keep U.S. Rivers Clean and Free-Flowing by Nicole Cordan

To mark Women's History Month, The Pew Charitable Trusts celebrates five women who are leading efforts across the U.S. to ensure that our rivers remain clean and free-flowing for future generations. The article features Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association - a SOS partner organization. 

"Liz Hamilton has spent the past three decades working to ensure that healthy rivers and the fisheries they sustain will be around for future generations. 'Recovering salmon and steelhead is about so much more than saving a fish,' Hamilton says. 'Our entire ecosystem, culture, and Northwest economy is built on the backs of salmon and steelhead.'"Read more here.

Books: 

• ORCA: Shared Waters, Shared Home by Lynda V. Mapes. Watch Lynda V. Mapes presents the history and future of Southern Resident orcas in Puget Sound and more on her book.
• The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind by Amy Gulick
• The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas 
• Born on the waterby Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson, Nikkolas Smith
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Landby Leah Penniman
• A River’s Gift: The mighty Elwah River Reborn by Patricia Newman. Illustrated Natasha Donovan
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
• Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene. Illustrated by Ciara Sana 

• Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur

WATCH

• Out & Back, hosted by author, activist and runner Alison Mariella Désir. This series brings PNW residents and groups working to bring Black, Indigenous and People of color to reclaim space in the outdoors, and encouraging others to get outside with them.
• Expedition Reclamation is a documentary seeking to redefine “outdoorsy” and reclaim belonging in the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color by highlighting their joyful, resilient, & transformative relationships to outdoor recreation.
• Where I Belong, featuring angler and conservationist Christine Hill, a series by The Outbound Collective

Posted on Friday, June 29, 2018

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission last week appointed Kelly Susewind of Olympia as the new director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
 
The commission, a citizen panel appointed by the Governor to set policy for WDFW, voted unanimously to select Susewind after interviewing seven candidates in May and narrowing the field to three finalists, who were interviewed for a second time earlier this week.
 
Susewind accepted the appointment as permanent director following the commission's vote. He will oversee an agency of 1,800 employees and an operating budget of $460 million for the current two-year budget period. WDFW is charged with conserving fish and wildlife and providing sustainable recreational and commercial opportunities.
 
Susewind has worked at the state Department of Ecology since 1990 in a variety of roles, most recently as the director of administrative services and environmental policy. He also worked several years during the 1980s as a private-sector environmental consultant.
 
Susewind received a bachelor's degree in geological engineering from Washington State University and an associate degree in engineering from Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen. He grew up in the Grays Harbor area.
 
"All of the commissioners look forward to a fresh start for WDFW under Kelly's leadership, particularly in the approach our agency takes to improving our working relationships with the Legislature, native American tribes, and the people of Washington to manage the state's wonderful fish and wildlife resources," said Commission Chairman Brad Smith.
 
"Today's appointment marks the beginning of a new era in the department's history," Smith added. "We have an immensely dedicated, talented, and energetic staff, and we are confident that with Kelly in the director's position, WDFW will achieve the high level of success we expect."
 
Susewind said, "I'm honored to have the opportunity to serve the people of Washington at an agency whose effectiveness is critical to our ability to conserve fish and wildlife resources while providing outdoor recreation and commercial opportunities throughout the state. The public has high expectations for WDFW, and I'm excited about being in a position to deliver the results they deserve."
 
Susewind's salary will be $165,000 per year. He will assume the director's position on Aug. 1.

Friday, June 15 2018

Without offering an explanatory opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a tie vote Monday affirming the position of Washington Indian tribes in a lengthy litigation series requiring the state to modify road culverts that block salmon passage.
 
The decision was hailed by the tribes, and it was met with acceptance from top Washington political leaders.
 
“This Supreme Court ruling means more salmon for everyone,” declared Lorraine Loomis, chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “It will open hundreds of miles of high-quality salmon habitat that will produce hundreds of thousands more salmon annually for harvest by Indians and non-Indians.”
 
Loomis said it was a “common-sense ruling that treaty rights require there to be fish available for harvest. It affirms that the state can’t needlessly block streams and destroy salmon runs.”
 
She said the ruling confirms “that our treaties are living documents. They are just as valid today as the day they were signed” by the tribes and Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens in 1854-1855.
 
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, commented on Twitter, saying the “ruling offers the parties finality in this long-running case. For some time now I’ve hoped that instead of litigation we could focus together on our ongoing work to restore salmon habitat.”
 
Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said the ruling “affirms that it is our collective responsibility to ensure survival of Pacific salmon. This decision is fair under the letter of the law, but it is also just. Protecting salmon is an issue not just of importance to Washington’s tribes, but to all of us.”
 
Franz pledged that her agency, the state Department of Natural Resources, “stands ready to work with tribes, state agencies, counties, private landowners and federal partners to restore and protect our treasured salmon.”
 
Franz noted she wrote to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson last August urging him not to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Ferguson pursued the appeal, and he also commented on this week’s ruling.
 
He said the ruling forces the state to pay 100 percent of the cost of replacing barrier culverts, even though the federal government provided the design for those culverts, and regardless of whether other barrier culverts block salmon to the state culverts.
 
“It is unfortunate that Washington state taxpayers will be shouldering all the responsibility for the federal government’s faulty culvert design. The Legislature has a big responsibility in front of it to ensure the state meets its obligation under the court’s ruling. It’s also time for others to step up in order to make this a positive meaningful ruling for salmon. Salmon cannot reach many state culverts because they are blocked by culverts owned by others.”
 
He noted that King County alone owns several thousand more culverts than are contained in the entire state highway system, and the federal government owns even more in the state.
 
“These culverts will continue to block salmon from reaching the state’s culverts, regardless of the condition of the state’s culverts, unless those owners begin the work the state started in 1990 to replace barriers to fish,” he said.
 
SCOTUSblog.com offered an analysis of the case, pointing out how the lack of an explanatory opinion is significant.
 
The analysis explains that the tie 4-4 vote could only come about because Justice Anthony Kennedy recused himself due to his involvement in an earlier phase of the case, more than 30 years ago, as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
 
The effect of the vote was to affirm a 2013 District Court ruling and a Ninth Circuit decision supporting that ruling, which amounted to an injunction requiring Washington to modify road culverts that obstruct salmon passage within 17 years. The state objected, claiming that a $2 billion disputed price tag would be excessive and state culvert improvements would be ineffective on waters where there are also salmon barriers on federal and private lands.
 
But the Ninth Circuit’s review did not support those arguments.
 
“The Ninth Circuit also indicated that the tribal fishing right conferred on the state an obligation to protect fish, rather than just to allow the tribes a share of otherwise available fish. In their briefs before the Supreme Court, both sides vigorously disputed both the scope of the treaty right and the principles governing equitable remedies like the injunction at issue here,” the analysis states.
 
“The absence of an opinion means, of course, that the court did not clear up these broader disputes. It also means we do not know how each justice voted. Given the case’s cross-cutting currents — of federalism, judicial remedies, environmentalism and more — it is not obvious that the justices divided along the lines that are sometimes regarded as predictable.
 
“And, finally, it is not clear exactly how much yesterday’s ruling will help the salmon population overall. Rather, the effect of the ruling is more limited: It seems to close the door on this phase of a long-running dispute, and by doing so, at least open doors (or culverts) to increased fish passage in the state of Washington.”
 
For the tribal plaintiffs, the heart of the case filed back in 2001 has been asserting treaty fishing rights that were established in the mid-1800s under Stevens treaties, named for the territorial governor at the time. The tribes ceded millions of acres of land but reserved the right to fish traditional waters. That right was first affirmed by U.S. District Judge George Boldt in 1974, and the culvert case is a direct descendant of the so-called “Boldt decision.” U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled in 2007 that the tribal fishing right includes the right to have salmon and their habitat protected, and in 2013, Martinez issued a ruling requiring the state to remove or improve 450 of 800 culverts that are the biggest impediment to salmon passage and to do so within 17 years.

http://www.cbbulletin.com/440948.aspx

© Peter Marbach

On July 11, 2024, after years of negotiations to modernize the Columbia River Treaty, the United States and Canada announced an “Agreement in Principle.” The long-awaited announcement was met with frustration and disappointment by Save Our wild Salmon Coalition and civic, faith, clean energy, and conservation organizations across the Northwest.

In its current form, the new Agreement in Principle continues to prioritize hydropower and flood control over the needs of imperiled salmon and the river’s ecosystem. It leaves critical, unresolved questions regarding the health of the river and uncertainty and risk for fish populations facing extinction today.

“The health of the Columbia River must become an explicit purpose and priority in a new, modernized Treaty, stated Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalitionand chair of the Columbia River Treaty NGO Caucus. The Columbia Basin is out of balance today. A modernized Treaty must become a tool for restoring balance. Salmon advocates have serious concerns with this Agreement in Principle. In its current form, it means continued risk and uncertainty for this historic river, its native fish populations and the many benefits they bring to our communities."

Columbia Basin Tribes were not consulted in the initial 1964 agreement, though the Treaty’s heaviest costs were imposed upon them. SOS and our NGO partners support the Tribes’ request that the U.S. add Ecosystem Function to the Treaty’s purposes and a formal Tribal role in Treaty implementation – both important pieces given only lip service in the Agreement in Principle. A final Columbia River Treaty must elevate river health to the same level as power production and flood control as the Treaty's primary purposes, and include meaningful, clearly articulated Tribal consultation.

“The ecosystem-based function should have been the third leg of this discussion. Restoration work that has been happening in the past and currently has not been enough to recover salmon species; they have remained barely above extinction,” said Nez Perce Tribe Chairman Shannon Wheeler in a recent Seattle Times article.

Now that the confidential negotiations are largely concluded, we expect – and are actively calling for – far greater transparency and public involvement moving forward. Public review and opportunities for providing feedback must be held before the Treaty language becomes final. This will be your opportunity to speak up for the health of the river and justice for Native nations. We'll let you know when and how to ensure your voice is heard, so stay tuned! 

Fisherman Randy Friedlander, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, conducts ceremony placing carcasses of salmon at the base of Grand Coulee Dam to honor ancestors and show salmon the way when fish runs are restored. © Peter Marbach

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Press Releases:

• Columbia River Treaty Non-Governmental Organization Caucus Press Release: Columbia River Treaty “Agreement in Principle” prioritizes hydropower and flood control over the needs of imperiled salmon and river health
• White House Press Release: Statement from President Joe Biden on Reaching an Agreement in Principle on Modernization of the Columbia River Treaty Regime PDF
• US Department of State Factsheet: Summary of the Agreement in Principle to Modernize the Columbia River Treaty Regime PDF
• Senator Murray Press Release: Statement on Columbia River Treaty Agreement in Principle
• Senator Cantwell Press Release: Statement on New Columbia River Treaty Agreement in Principle.

News Coverage:

• Idaho Statesman: Northwest U.S., Canada reach vital Columbia River pact. Some worry it’s not enough to protect salmon (July 11, 2024)
• OPB: US would keep more hydropower under agreement with Canada on treaty governing Columbia River(July 11, 2024)
• Seattle Times: U.S. and Canada reach deal on Columbia River Treaty (July 11, 2024)
• E&E News: Columbia River Treaty deal would boost US energy capacity (July 11, 2024)
• NWPB: Preliminary agreement reached for a modernized Columbia River Treaty (July 12, 2024)

Visionary initiative would couple lower Snake River dam removal with region-wide investments in clean water and natural resources, fishing and farming communities, energy and transportation infrastructure, and more.

From the desk of Joseph Bogaard
February 9, 2021

On February 7, Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID) unveiled an ambitious proposal to comprehensively address a set of inextricably linked issues facing the Pacific Northwest today, including salmon (and orca) recovery; energy, agricultural and transportation infrastructure; Native American Tribes; coastal and inland fishing communities; outdoor recreation and more.

Make no mistake – this is an unprecedented initiative – and it presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Northwest people and place. With his $33B proposal, Rep. Simpson has kicked off an ambitious and urgently-needed conversation about how our region can work together to solve shared problems, seize big opportunities, invest in our communities – and help position the Northwest to meet the challenges we face in the 21st Century.

"I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to solve this problem...We can create a Northwest solution that ends the salmon wars and puts the Northwest and our energy systems on a certain and secure and viable path for decades, and restore Idaho salmon.”– Congressman Mike Simpson

The Save Our wild Salmon Coalition (SOS) welcomes Rep. Mike Simpson’s (R-ID) leadership and commitment to protect and restore abundant and harvestable salmon and steelhead populations in a manner that also supports our region’s farming and waterfront communities, expands our clean energy economy, and upholds our nation’s responsibilities to Tribal Nations in the Northwest. 

With this proposal, Rep. Simpson has started a discussion about how to comprehensively address a set of challenges facing the region’s communities, economies and natural resources. We urge other members of Congress to work together with sovereigns and stakeholders to help refine and advance it. At SOS, we look forward to contributing to this conversation and working with others in the Northwest to seize this opportunity.

You can hear directly from Rep. Simpson in his 5 minute video introducing his proposal. He has also posted this slide deck to help people understand his proposal’s overall scope, framework and key issue areas.

** If you live in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana or Alaska), we urge you to contact your Member of Congress and both United States Senators – to highlight this groundbreaking proposal from Rep. Simpson – and to encourage their careful consideration and constructive engagement to refine and advance this proposal in Congress.

Where did this proposal come from? Back in April of 2019, Congressman Simpson delivered a keynote speech at a salmon recovery conference in Boise, Idaho. For nearly an hour, Mr. Simpson spoke to a rapt audience of 300. Using personal stories, a blizzard of facts, and thoughtful reflection, he communicated his deep appreciation of salmon and the myriad benefits they bring to Idaho and the Northwest. And he announced his commitment to do all he could to bring back “Idaho’s salmon” and encouraged others to join him in asking the difficult “what-if?” questions.

"If the lower Snake River dams were removed, what would be needed to replace their services to bring everyone forward together?”

After decades of conflict; many billions of dollars in spending, and Columbia-Snake River Basin salmon and steelhead populations still facing extinction, he emphasized his focus on improving outcomes, increasing certainty and reducing conflict – for all involved.

Nearly two years later, after more than 300 meetings with other regional policymakers, sovereigns, stakeholders and citizens, Rep. Simpson has offered his best thinking about how to answer this question – and he’s inviting the people of the region to work with him and each other to refine and advance this proposal.

“I want people to think about not what exists now, but what we want the Pacific Northwest to look like 20, 30, 50 years from now,” Simpson said. “Everything we do on the Columbia and Snake River we can do differently … Salmon don’t have that option. They need a river.”– Congressman Mike Simpson

What’s in this proposal? Rep. Simpson’s proposal is ambitious and comprehensive. SOS will work in the coming weeks to help you understand what’s in it, what it means, and how you can join the conversation to help make it the best that it can be - and, we hope, move it forward in Congress.

• This is a $33B proposal. Its policies and funding substantially focus on the communities, infrastructure and lands and waters of the Columbia-Snake River Basin, but it would also address important needs across the Northwest.
• It is ambitious and comprehensive. It includes both (1) targeted funding and (2) a set of policies designed to solve specific problems, address important needs and bring everyone forward together.
• It designates significant funds on a range of linked issues: (1) protecting and recovering salmon and steelhead, (2) improving water quality, and (3) investing in clean energy, irrigation and shipping infrastructure, and (4) redeveloping the waterfront communities of Lewiston (ID) and Clarkston (WA), and more.
• It would authorize and fund the removal of the four lower Snake River dams by 2030, and it designates funds for important salmon recovery projects elsewhere in the Columbia Basin, on the Washington coast and in Puget Sound.
• It would create a new Lower Snake River National Recreational Area between Lewiston (ID) and Tri-Cities (WA) – new public lands bordering a newly restored river that will provide boating, hiking, fishing, hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation – and establish a valuable corridor for wildlife connecting central Washington and the Rocky Mountain range.
• It would cap BPA’s annual Fish and Wildlife expenditures and transfer these funds for management by a new council led by the four Northwest states and four tribal representatives.

Importantly, this proposal also recognizes the pressing need to address historic injustices imposed upon Native American Tribes. It would expand the Tribes’ role as co-managers of fish and wildlife in the Columbia Basin, take important steps to restore access to harvestable salmon and help to uphold our nation’s trust and treaty responsibilities.

This move by Congressman Simpson is courageous and visionary. It aims to tackle a set of costly, persistent and challenging problems that have been holding back the Northwest for decades. It sets up increased abundance for the Northwest – salmon, clean energy, inland and coastal communities and Native American Tribes. With this proposal, Rep. Simpson is incentivizing a new era of collaboration rather than continuous and costly conflict. In order for this to succeed, people will need to carry water for each other, including and especially, for folks with whom we’ve/they’ve previously disagreed.

Finally for now, while this proposal offers a tremendous opportunity for the Northwest and the nation, it’s not perfect. Salmon – and the Southern Resident orcas that rely upon them – don’t have much time. Our region must act urgently and meaningfully – or we risk losing these species and the irreplaceable benefits they bring - forever. In addition, there are some challenging provisions including, for example, proposed limitations on litigation and automatic license extensions for a set of privately owned dams in the Columbia Basin. These are serious issues; we're going to need time to study and better understand this proposal - and work with the Northwest Congressional delegation as well as stakeholders and others refine this package to be the best it can for the people of the Northwest and the nation. Stay tuned.

For now - thank you for your advocacy, your persistence and your support. Congressman Simpson’s courageous move has transformed the conversation. Our work together across many years has helped to bring about this “once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity - and now it's going to take a whole lot of hard and determined work to seize it. We look forward to continuing our partnership with you to do just that.

Northwest governors, members of Congress and the Biden Administration need to hear from you. Send them your strong support for urgent leadership working with other public officials, Northwest Tribes and key regional stakeholders to develop and deliver a comprehensive legislative solution in Congress in 2022!

We are at the crossroads today. The Northwest and nation must decide – and act - to remove four dams to restore health and resilience, and salmon and steelhead to the historic Snake River. The choice is clear: it's either extinction or restoration.

With strong advocacy by salmon, orca and fishing advocates, 2021 has been a pivotal year for the Snake River, its endangered fish and the irreplaceable benefits they bring to the Northwest and nation.

OUR TOP GOAL IN 2022: To support – and hold to account – Northwest policymakers and the Biden Administration to develop and deliver a comprehensive package in Congress that (i) authorizes the removal of the four lower Snake River dams in southeast Washington State and (ii) invests in critical infrastructure – clean energy, irrigation and transportation – to create jobs, ensure prosperous communities, and uphold our nation’s promises to the region’s tribes.

ACT NOW: It is critically important that public officials hear from you about your values and priorities - and the importance of their leadership to develop a plan that restores salmon abundance and invests in prosperous communities. 

Here's a list of important Northwest public officials - Governors, Senators and Representatives - and how you can contact them!

Not currently living in any of these Pacific Northwest state? You can still sign our petition addressed to President Biden calling for his leadership to restore the Snake River and its salmon!

Please write and call your elected officials. Here are some message points to deliver:

•  Protecting and restoring endangered Snake River salmon and Southern Resident orcas is very important to me!
• Please work with your colleagues in Congress, Northwest tribes and with Northwest people to develop and deliver a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of Snake River salmon and our region's communities.
• Our region’s salmon and orca populations face extinction today – and there is great urgency to act. There are also urgent challenges facing Northwest Tribal and non-tribal fishing communities, and energy, and agricultural sectors. We have no time to waste.

It's important when writing or calling your elected officials to tell them who you are and where you live -  and what a free-flowing lower Snake River and healthy salmon populations mean to you and your community.

Please call and write them today!

WASHINGTON STATE:

Senator Maria Cantwell (D)
Call Senator Cantwell's office! (206) 220-6400
Send her an email! https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/contact/email/form
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Senator Cantwell
915 Second Avenue, Suite #3206
Seattle, WA 98174

Suzan DelBene (D) - District 1
Call Congresswoman DelBene's Office! (360) 416-7879
Send her an email! https://delbene.house.gov/contact/
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman DelBene
204 W. Montgomery St.
Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Rick Larsen (D) - District 2
Call Congressman Larson's Office! (425) 252-3188
Send him an email! https://larsen.house.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Larson
Wall St. Bldg. 2930 Wetmore Ave. Suite #9F
Everett, WA 98201

Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) - District 3
Call Congresswoman Herrera Beutler's Office! (360) 695-6292
Send her an email! https://jhb.house.gov/contact/
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman Herrera Beutler
O.O. Howard House (Officers Row)
750 Anderson St. Suite #B
Vancouver, WA 98661

Dan Newhouse (R) - District 4
Call Congressman Newhouse's Office! (509) 452-3243
Send him an email! https://newhouse.house.gov/contact/email
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Newhouse
402 E Yakima Ave. Suite #1000
Yakima, WA 98901

Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) - District 5
Call Congresswoman McMorris Rodger's Office! (509) 353-2374
Send her an email! https://mcmorris.house.gov/contact/
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers
10 N Post St. Suite #625
Spokane, WA 99201

Derek Kilmer (D) - District 6
Call Congressman Kilmer's Office! (360) 797-3623
Send him an email! https://kilmer.house.gov/contact/email-me
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Kilmer
332 E Fifth St.
Port Angeles, WA 98362

Pramila Jayapal (D) - District 7
Call Congresswoman Jayapal's Office! (206) 674-0040
Send her an email! https://jayapal.house.gov/contact/
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman Jayapal
1904 Third Ave. Suite #510
Seattle, WA 98101

Kim Schrier (D) - District 8
Call Congresswoman Schrier's Office! (425) 657-1001
Send her an email! https://schrier.house.gov/zip-code-lookup?form=/contact/email-me
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman Schrier
1445 NW Mall St. Suite #4
Issaquah, WA 98027

Adam Smith (D) - District 9
Call Congressman Smith's Office! 1-888-764-8409
Send him an email! https://adamsmith.house.gov/contact
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Smith
101 Evergreen Bldg. 15 S Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057

Marilyn Strickland (D) - District 10
Call Congresswoman Strickland's Office! (360) 459-8514
Send her an email! https://strickland.house.gov/contact
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman Strickland
Lacey City Hall - 3rd Floor
420 College St SE
Suite 3000
Lacey, WA 98503

IDAHO:

Governor Brad Little (R)
Call Governor Little's Office! (208) 334-2100
Send him an email! https://gov.idaho.gov/contact-us/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Governor Little
State Capitol
PO Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720

Senator James E. Risch (R)
Call Senator James' Office! (208) 342-7985
Send him an email! https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Rich
350 N. 9th St., Suite 302
Boise, Idaho 83702

Senator Mike Crapo (R)
Call Senator Crapo's Office! 208-743-1492
Send him an email! https://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email-me
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Crapo
313 'D' Street
Suite 105
Lewiston, ID 83501

Congressman Russ Fulcher (R)
Call Congressman Fulcher's Office! (208) 667-0127
Send him an email! https://fulcher.house.gov/contact?p=email-me
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Fulcher
1250 West Ironwood Drive, Suite 200
Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814

Congressman Michael (Mike) Simpson (R)
Call Congressman Simpson's Office! (208) 334-1953
Send him an email! https://simpson.house.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Simpson
802 West Bannock
Suite 600
Boise, ID 83702

OREGON:

Governor Kate Brown (D)
Call Governor Brown's Office! (503) 378-4582
Send her an email! https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/share-your-opinion.aspx
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Governor Brown
900 Court Street NE, Suite 254
Salem, OR 97301-4047

Senator Ron Wyden (D)
Call Senator Wyden's Office! (503) 326-7525
Send him an email! https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Wyden
Portland: 911 NE 11th Ave.
Suite 630
Portland, OR 97232

Senator Jeff Merkley (D)
Call Senator Merkley's Office! (503) 326-3386
Send him an email! https://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Merkley
121 SW Salmon Street., Ste. 1400
Portland, OR 97204

Suzanne Bonamici (D) - District 1
Call Congresswoman Bonamici's Office! (503) 469-6010
Send her an email! https://bonamici.house.gov/zip-code-lookup?form=/contact/email
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Congresswoman Bonamici
12725 Southwest Millikan Way
Suite 220
Beaverton, OR 97005

Cliff Bentz (R) - District 2
Call Congressman Bentz's Office! (541) 776-4646
Send him an email! https://bentz.house.gov/contact
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Bentz
14 N. Central Avenue
Suite 112
Medford, OR 97501

Earl Blumenauer (D) - District 3
Call Congressman Blumenauer's Office! (503) 231-2300
Send him an email! https://blumenauerforms.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Blumenauer
911 N.E. 11th Ave
Suite 200
Portland, OR 97232

Peter DeFazio (D) - District 4
Call Congressman DeFazio's Office! (541) 465-6732
Send him an email! https://defazio.house.gov/contact/email-me
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman DeFazio
405 East 8th Ave #2030
Eugene, OR 97401

Kurt Schrader (D) - District 5
Call Congressman Schrader's Office! 503-557-1324
Send him an email! https://schrader.house.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Schrader
621 High Street
Oregon City, OR 97045

MONTANA:

Governor Greg Gianforte (R)
Call Governor Gianforte's Office! (855) 318-1330
Send him an email! https://svc.mt.gov/gov/contact/shareopinion
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Governor Gianforte
PO Box 200801
Helena, MT 59620-0801

Senator Jon Tester (D)
Call Senator Tester's Office! (406) 449-5401
Send him an email! https://www.tester.senate.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Tester
208 North Montana Avenue
Suite 104
Helena, MT 59601

Senator Steve Daines (R)
Call Senator Daines' Office! (406) 443-3189
Send him an email! https://www.daines.senate.gov/connect/email-steve
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Dianes
30 West 14th Street, Ste. 206
Helena, MT 59601

Matt Rosendale (R) - District at Large
Call Congressman Rosendale's Office! (406) 502-1435
Send him an email! https://rosendale.house.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Rosendale
7 West 6th Avenue
Suite 3B
Helena, MT 59601

ALASKA:

Governor Mike Dunleavy (R)
Call Governor Dunleavy's Office! (907) 465-3500
Send him an email! https://gov.alaska.gov/contact/email-the-governor/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Governor Dunleavy
3rd Floor, State Capitol
PO Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811

Senator Lisa Ann Murkowski (R)
Call Senator Murkowski's Office! (907) 271-3735
Send her an email! https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email
Write her a letter!
The Honorable Senator Murkowski
510 L Street
Suite 600
Anchorage, AK 99501

Senator Dan Sullivan (R)
Call Senator Sullivan's Office! (907) 271-5915
Send him an email! https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/contact/email
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Senator Sullivan
510 L Street
Suite 750
Anchorage, AK 99501

Don Young (R) - District at Large
Call Congressman Young's Office! (907) 271-5978
Send him an email! https://donyoung.house.gov/contact/
Write him a letter!
The Honorable Congressman Young
471 W. 36th Avenue
Suite 201
Anchorage, AK 99503

This is the first in a five-part series by SOS and American Rivers spotlighting the ecological and community benefits associated with previously completed dam removal/river restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Restoring the Rogue River: The removal of Savage Rapids Dam
By Isabella Bledsoe

Location: Southwest Oregon; the ancestral homelands of the Tututni, Tolowa-Dee-ni, Cow Creek Umpqua, and Takelma people.

The Rogue River is located in southwestern Oregon and flows from Mt. Mazama in Crater Lake National Park to the Pacific Ocean at Gold Beach, Oregon. The river provides extensive habitat for Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, cutthroat trout, and Pacific lamprey. Like many rivers across the United States, dams were built on the Rogue River to provide irrigation, hydraulic mining, and electricity and drinking water for nearby towns. Yet, along with these services, dams also frequently fragment river ecosystems and disrupt access by native fishes to their ancestral spawning habitat. In an effort to restore the river system, multiple dams on the Rogue have been removed over the past fifteen years, including the focus of this case: Savage Rapids Dam. So far, dam removal and modification projects have restored and reconnected 157 miles of free-flowing river in the Rogue River basin. According to John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon, “[i]t is estimated that these dam removal projects will greatly improve salmon and steelhead returns and provide millions of dollars in economic benefits to local communities each year.”

“[t]hese dam removal projects will greatly improve salmon and steelhead returns and provide millions of dollars in economic benefits to local communities each year.” - John DeVoe, WaterWatch of Oregon

Savage Rapids Dam was built in 1921 by the Grants Pass Irrigation District (GPID) to divert water from the Rogue River for irrigation. The dam was 39 feet tall and 465 feet long. From its inception, Savage Rapids Dam created fish passage problems and interrupted salmon migration. In an effort to mitigate these harmful impacts, a fish ladder was built on the dam to allow passage for fish – but the dam’s pump-turbine system and irrigation diversions were installed without fish screens, sweeping juvenile salmon into irrigation canals. According to reports, “one farmer scooped hundreds of salmon out of his fields.” Though screens were later installed, as were other improvements, screening and passage issues remained and unsustainable fish mortality continued.

In 1987, because of large inefficiencies in its irrigation system, GPID applied for expanded water rights that would allow it to withdraw additional water from the river. WaterWatch challenged the proposal to expand water use. A 1990 settlement between WaterWatch, GPID, and Oregon allowed GPID to continue, temporarily, its existing water use, if GPID studied water conservation and fish passage alternatives, including dam removal. At this same time, many organizations began advocating to remove Savage Rapids Dam, viewing it as the only long-term solution for solving fish passage issues. American Rivers named the Rogue to its annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® list multiple times, because of the threat of outdated dams. In 2001, after years of lengthy legal and political battles, GPID agreed to remove Savage Rapids Dam and replace it with a pumping facility that would allow continued irrigation while at the same time greatly improving conditions for salmon survival and recovery. Bob Hunter, a retired attorney from WaterWatch, emphasizes that “[o]ur many successes so far for the Rogue River and its fish and wildlife populations are the result of persistence, patience, partnerships, and people willing to enforce state and federal environmental laws.”

“Our many successes so far for the Rogue River and its fish and wildlife populations are the result of persistence, patience, partnerships, and people willing to enforce state and federal environmental laws.”- Bob Hunter, retired attorney and river advocate

The dam removal process began in October 2006 and concluded in October 2009. 

Benefits of River Restoration on the Rogue

It has now been eleven years and dam removal on the Rogue is showing promising results, though the long-term positive effects of dam removal are still unfolding. Scientists tell us that it could take 20 years before we have definitive results of fish population recovery. That said, current trends are encouraging. In the stretch of river that used to be inundated behind Savage Rapids Dam, 91 redds were counted in 2010 and that number more than doubled just three years later. Further, in 2017, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), counted 193 Coho Salmon between July and October by seining the waters near Huntley Park. In 2018, ODFW counted 465 Coho between July and October. There are other signs of an ecosystem-in-recovery as well. Researchers from Oregon State University, for example, monitored changes in the macroinvertebrate communities before and after Savage Rapids Dam removal. Macroinvertebrate communities are useful indicators of the ecological recovery trajectory following dam removal. The researchers found that dams created a stronger ecological disturbance to the downstream river than the disturbance created by the pulse of sediments caused by dam removal. While upstream and downstream sites had differing presence and composition of macroinvertebrate communities before dam removal, indicating fragmentation, upstream and downstream sites showed no differences post-dam removal, indicating the natural flow had been restored. Recovery of macroinvertebrate communities occurred within a year following dam removal; this pattern suggests that ecological recovery occurred rapidly once dam removal had finished.

Beyond the ecological benefits, as part of the Savage Rapids Dam removal, a new electric pumping station was built to be operated by GPID. This pumping station, capable of diverting 150 cubic feet of water per second, is more reliable and efficient than the 88-year old, failing diversion system at Savage Rapids Dam. Prior to dam removal, John Thorne, a rancher and orchardist stated, “Most of the time I get water on my days, but there's at least once or twice a month that there's a dry ditch.” He continued, "They had to truck water here to keep that orchard alive; I almost lost it.” The infrastructure investments that accompanied the removal of the Savage Rapids Dam resolved these types of water delivery problems.

What’s next?

Removing dams can create positive economic, community, ecological, and social justice outcomes and has become an increasingly accepted mechanism of river restoration. Bob Hunter emphasizes that "dam removal is one of the most significant types of river restoration that we can do. It allows natural river processes to resume and benefits fish and other aquatic organisms. Its benefits are many and long-lasting."

“Dam removal is one of the most significant types of river restoration that we can do. It allows natural river processes to resume and benefits fish and other aquatic organisms. Its benefits are many and long-lasting"  - Bob Hunter

These benefits must prompt us to invest in the future of the Pacific Northwest and support comprehensive solutions including dam removal and realize the values of fish, justice, clean energy, and a revitalized economy.

Appreciation for the hard work by many...

The successes on the Rogue River would not have been possible without the committed work of many groups and individuals including WaterWatch of Oregon, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, World Wildlife Fund, Earth Justice, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Rogue Group of the Oregon Sierra Club, Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Rogue Flyfishers, Oregon Water Resource Department and Commission, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Gov. John Kitzhaber, Grants Pass Irrigation District manager Dan Shepard, and Senator Ron Wyden.

Isabella Bledsoe is an intern with SOS while she attends the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, pursuing a master's degree in Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Sciences.

References

• Arman, F., & Wooldridge, G. (1982). The Rogue: A River To Run. Grants Pass, OR: Wildwood Press.
  
• Benik, R. D., Hamilton, R., & Redding, J. (2010, February 8). Removing Savage Rapids Dam. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/features/featureremoving-savage-rapids-dam/
  
• Freeman, M. (2009, April 04). Hope for irrigators. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://mailtribune.com/news/since-you-asked/hope-for-irrigators
  
• Freeman, M. (2013, November 19). There's a redd revival on the Rogue. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://waterwatch.org/theres-a-redd-revival-on-the-rogue/
  
• McDermott, W. D. (2016). The life cycle of dams: An analysis of policy change on the Rogue River, Oregon (Unpublished master's thesis). Central Washington University. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/359
  
• Native Fish Society. (2018, July 6). Abundant wild fall Chinook salmon in the Rogue show us what's possible. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://nativefishsociety.org/news-media/abundant-wild-fall-chinook-salmon-in-the-rogue-show-us-whats-possible
  
• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. (2019). Rogue River Seine Counts at Huntley Park. Retrieved January 27, 2021, from https://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/fish_counts/rogue_river/index.asp
  
• Rogue Riverkeeper. (2018). The River. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.rogueriverkeeper.org/the-river
  
• Tullos, D. D., Finn, D. S., & Walter, C. (2014). Geomorphic and Ecological Disturbance and Recovery from Two Small Dams and Their Removal. PLoS ONE, 9(9). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108091
  
• WaterWatch. (2020). Rogue Basin. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from
  https://waterwatch.org/programs/rogue-basin/
  
• Weiser, M. (2018, June 26). Salmon Are Booming in Oregon's Rogue River. Dam Removal May Be Why. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://deeply.thenewhumanitarian.org/water/articles/2018/06/26/salmon-are-booming-in-oregons-rogue-river-dam-removal-may-be-why
  
• Whitworth, J. S. (2001). Relic dam dislodged by dormant doctrine: The story of beneficial use and savage rapids dam. University of Denver Water Law Review, 5(1), 183-203.

This is part of a five-part series by SOS and American Rivers spotlighting the ecological and community benefits associated with previously completed dam removal/river restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Fifth and Final in the Series: Restoring Sandy River
By Isabella Bledsoe

Location: Sandy River, Oregon - and the ancestral homelands of the Clackamas, Cascades, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

The Sandy River is 56 miles long and flows from its headwaters high on the slopes of Mt. Hood into the Columbia River near Troutdale, Oregon. The Sandy River and its tributaries provide essential habitat for coho salmon, chinook salmon, steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, and rainbow trout. However, this river system was disrupted when Portland General Electric (PGE) completed the Bull Run Hydropower complex in 1913. This complex included the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, the Little Sandy Dam on the Little Sandy River, and an intricate system of tunnels and canals used to route water to a remote powerhouse. Marmot dam diverted water into the Little Sandy River and to the Little Sandy Dam; the Little Sandy dam fed a storage reservoir, Roslyn Lake, and a powerhouse. The Marmot and Little Sandy Dams generated electricity for the city of Portland and powered a trolley line that brought residents to Roslyn Lake for boating and swimming. Although the dams produced valuable electricity, they significantly harmed coho salmon, chinook salmon, and steelhead trout populations and blocked access to approximately 280 miles of excellent habitat upstream.

“It's only been two-and-a-half salmon generations in that 10 years, but even in two-and-a-half salmon generations, we're seeing more wild Chinook and more wild steelhead returning to the Sandy.”      - Steve Wise, Executive Director of the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council

Marmot Dam was 47 feet tall, 350 feet wide, and constructed 30 miles upstream from its confluence with the Columbia River. The Little Sandy Dam was 16 feet tall. These dams severed and disrupted the hydrologic system in the watershed, ultimately contributing to the addition of winter steelhead, spring chinook, and coho salmon to the Endangered Species Act. Many hydroelectric dams across the nation were built in the early 1900s. Licenses for these dams are typically issued for 30 to 50 year periods, and when they expire, dam owners must decide whether to renew their licenses and make upgrades to comply with new environmental regulations. In the late 1990s, PGE needed to renew the federal license for the Bull Run complex and face new requirements to comply with the Endangered Species Act, including constructing fish passage infrastructure.

In the process of negotiating a new license, PGE realized that it would be required to install a fish ladder to help adult fish return upstream and to develop an improved means for moving migrating juveniles downstream. Given the costs of the required infrastructure, in 1999, PGE decided to remove the Marmot and Little Sandy Dams. Collaboratively, multiple agencies and conservation groups began planning for dam removal. In the end, PGE agreed to remove the dams, transfer water rights to the state, donate approximately 1,500 acres of land to public ownership, and invest in watershed restoration. Marmot Dam was removed from the Sandy River in 2007, and the Little Sandy Dam was removed from the Little Sandy River in 2008.

Benefits of River Restoration

The Bull Run Hydropower complex was removed over 10 years ago, and the Sandy River today is showing clear signs of an ecological recovery-in-progress. Crews monitor the Sandy annually to count adult salmon and steelhead carcasses and redds (in-river “nests”) and use these metrics to assemble fish counts. According to a recent Sandy River Basin Watershed Council report, spring chinook, winter steelhead, and coho all show increases in 10-year average populations, particularly in the second generation of adult fish returns, after dam removal. Fall chinook have unfortunately continued to decline for reasons that are not well understood at this time. Still, overall, chinook populations overall have increased by 90 percent, coho populations by 137 percent, and steelhead populations by 123 percent. Further, the analysis comparing Sandy steelhead numbers with other steelhead populations in nearby dammed rivers show stronger growth in the Sandy following dam removal.

Click here to watch the NGS time-lapse video of the Marmot Dam removal!

On the ten-year anniversary of the Marmot Dam removal, Steve Wise, executive director of the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council stated, “It's only been two-and-a-half salmon generations in that 10 years, but even in two-and-a-half salmon generations, we're seeing more wild Chinook and more wild steelhead returning to the Sandy.”

Dam removal has also united many community members by bringing stakeholders together to collaborate on restoration and stewardship efforts in the watershed. Environmental organizations and local citizens are working on extensive invasive species removal and are replanting native trees, shrubs, and other plants. Additionally, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde provided $30,000 to support restoration work in the Sandy River basin. This grant is being used by The Freshwater Trust (TFT) to add boulders and large wood structures to the river system that will help develop pool habitat and refuge for salmonids, open new side channels on the Salmon River, and generally improve habitat to aid in native fish recovery. Sandy River restoration has brought nonprofits, government, tribes, educational institutions, and private funders together to work towards the common goal of a healthy watershed and healthy and abundant native fish populations.

“We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean.”- Peggy Fowler, CEO and President of Portland General Electric

What’s next?

Removing dams can create positive economic, community, ecological, and social justice outcomes and has become an increasingly accepted river restoration mechanism. “We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean,” stated Peggy Fowler, the CEO and President of PGE. It is these kinds of benefits that lie at the heart of SOS’ mission and drive our work on the ground Restoring rivers and reconnecting watersheds is a valuable investment in the Pacific Northwest and its indigenous people, its fish and whales, and injustice, clean energy, and communities and economy.

Thank you

The successes on the Sandy River would not have been possible without the work of groups and individuals, including American Rivers, American Whitewater, City of Sandy, Clackmas County, East Multnomah Conservation District, The Freshwater Trust, Portland Water Bureau, Multnomah County, The Nature Conservancy, NOAA, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Northwest Steelheaders, National Marine Fisheries Service, Native Fish Society, Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of State Lands, Oregon Trout Association, Oregon Water Resources Department, Sandy River Basin Watershed Council, Trout Unlimited Association, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, WaterWatch of Oregon, Western Rivers Conservancy, Portland General Electric, and many others.

Isabella Bledsoe is an intern with SOS while she attends the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, pursuing a master's degree in Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Sciences.

References

• Ennis, S. (2017, September 28). Ten years of a free-flowing Sandy River. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://www.theintertwine.org/outside-voice/ten-years-free-flowing-sandy-river
• The Fresh Water Trust. (n.d.). The Sandy. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://www.thefreshwatertrust.org/case-study/sandy-river-basin-partnership/
• Grant, G. (2009, March). A Ravenous River Reclaims Its True Course: The Tale Of Marmot Dam's Demise (Rep.). Retrieved April 18, 2021, from Pacific Northwest Research Station website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/pnw/publications/ravenous-river-reclaims-its-true-course-tale-marmot-dams-demise
• Horizon International Solutions Site. (n.d.). Marmot Dam, Oregon’s largest dam, is being removed: Salmon and wildlife habitat and public recreation to benefit. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://www.solutions-site.org/node/271
• Native Fish Society. (2016, June 16). Sandy River. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://nativefishsociety.org/watersheds/sandy-river
• Native Land. (n.d.). Native Land. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://native-land.ca/
• Sandy River Basin Watershed Council. (2017, October). State of the Sandy (Rep.). Retrieved April 18, 2021, from Sandy River Basin Watershed Council website: https://sandyriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/State-of-Sandy-Report-Dec2017.pdf
• Sandy River Watershed Council. (n.d.). About the Sandy River. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://sandyriver.org/about-us/about-the-river/
• Sandy River Watershed Council. (n.d.). Marmot dam removal. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://sandyriver.org/projects/marmot-dam-removal/
• Thomas, K. (2017, July 29). Group removes some of last visible remnants of Marmot dam, Celebrate restoration. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://katu.com/news/local/group-removes-some-of-last-visible-remnants-of-marmot-dam-celebrate-restoration
• Walker, H. (2018, October 10). The confederated tribes of Grand Ronde Provides $30,000 for Salmon River Restoration. Retrieved April 18, 2021, from https://www.thefreshwatertrust.org/the-confederated-tribes-of-grand-ronde-provides-30000-for-salmon-river-restoration/

This is the second in a five-part series by SOS and American Rivers spotlighting the ecological and community benefits associated with previously completed dam removal/river restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Second in the Series: Removing the Middle Fork Nooksack Dam (2020)
By Isabella Bledsoe

Location: Northwest Washington State - and the ancestral homelands of the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Lummi Nation

The Middle Fork Nooksack River, as its name suggests, lies between the North Fork and the South Fork of the Nooksack River. All three rivers converge into the mainstem Nooksack River, draining glacier water from Mt. Baker into Bellingham Bay. This 75-mile-long river system historically supported abundant populations of Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, steelhead, mountain whitefish, bull trout, and other fish species.

The river is also a vital life source for local indigenous communities including the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the Lummi Nation. However, the river system was disrupted when the Middle Fork was dammed to divert water to the nearby city of Bellingham in 1961. Shortly after the dam was built, it obstructed fish passage and disrupted the traditional practices of the surrounding indigenous communities, who used the watershed for hunting, gathering, and cultural and spiritual practices. The Middle Fork Nooksack Dam was 25 feet tall and 125 feet wide and sat approximately 20 miles from the City of Bellingham. For 60 years, the dam served to divert water from the river to supplement the city’s main water supply source, Lake Whatcom. Flowing through tunnels and pipes into Mirror Lake, then onto Anderson Creek, and finally into Lake Whatcom, diverted water contributed to drinking water for over 100,000 residents.

Yet, the dam was built without fish passage and immediately blocked access to 16 miles of river, further harming and stressing fish species, including three species now on the Endangered Species Act list: Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout. The Nooksack Tribe and Lummi Nation began advocating for dam removal, and in the early 2000s, entered into an agreement with the City of Bellingham and the state of Washington to find a solution to fish passage issues.

“Rivers are vital to life, and when we remove a dam and let a river flow freely, people, fish and wildlife, and the economy can all benefit,”  - April McEwen, associate director of American Rivers’ River Restoration Program and project manager.

Unable to find a feasible solution, the project completely stalled in 2016. The following year, American Rivers joined the dam removal effort and contributed funding provided by Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. This formal backing and financial assistance drew key interests back to the negotiating table, and eventually developed an agreement on how to remove the dam and, importantly, continue to serve Bellingham’s water needs. Collaboration between tribes, the city, the state, and federal agencies, as well as private funding and partner organizations like American Rivers, ultimately made dam removal possible. The final cost of the project was about $20 million. To restore the river system, almost 60 years after construction, the Middle Fork Nooksack Dam was breached in the summer of 2020, restoring access to 16 miles of river and tributary stream habitat. “Rivers are vital to life, and when we remove a dam and let a river flow freely, people, fish and wildlife, and the economy can all benefit,” said April McEwen, associate director of American Rivers’ River Restoration Program and project manager.

Benefits of River Restoration

Given that the Middle Fork Nooksack Dam was removed just last year, the ecological, cultural, and economic benefits of this dam removal project are still unfolding. However, there is already cause for celebration. First, relocating Bellingham’s water supply intake slightly upstream and positioning it so that the city can remove water throughout the year, regardless of flow conditions, allows the city of Bellingham to continue to meet its water needs. Additionally, this new intake structure has a sophisticated design to protect migrating fish, including a fish exit pipe that allows fish to escape the intake structure to return to the river and fish screens to protect fish from entering into the structure. This new water diversion infrastructure will continue to supply water to around 100,000 residents in a reliable manner.

Middle Fork Nooksack Dam removal was also essential for restoring salmon populations. Before dam removal, NOAA Fisheries listed removing the Middle Fork Nooksack Dam as one of their top recommended actions for recovering Puget Sound Chinook salmon populations. Scientists expect that dam removal will catalyze an increase in Chinook salmon runs in the river by around 30 percent. Importantly, an increase in Chinook can help aid the Southern Resident orca whale populations that hunt in the Puget Sound/Salish Sea seasonally. Chinook salmon are an essential food source for this endangered species – and the lack of sufficient prey numbers is the leading cause of their decline. Just 75 individual whales remain, and this population has altered their traditional migration and feeding patterns in search of more fish along the coast and elsewhere. Scientists are confident that other fish species will benefit as well; with dam removal, steelhead now have access to 45 percent of their ancestral habitat in the river.

“Our natural resources are our cultural resources. With this removal we get a little piece of our home back — a place where our people have visited for hundreds of generations.” - Trevor Delgado, the Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer

Dam removal is also one important step to address issues of justice for indigenous communities. Nooksack and Lummi people identify as Salmon People; their relationship with salmon since time immemorial is at the heart of their culture, economy, and traditions. Increasing fish populations on the Nooksack River is a small step toward upholding our nation’s promise to sustain fish populations for local native peoples. Keeping this promise of maintaining – and restoring – healthy, resilient, life-giving rivers is essential for the well-being, heritage, and identity of the Nooksack Indian Tribe and Lummi Nation. Trevor Delgado, the Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer stated, “Our natural resources are our cultural resources. With this removal we get a little piece of our home back — a place where our people have visited for hundreds of generations.”

What’s next?

Removing dams can create positive economic, community, ecological, and social justice outcomes and has become an increasingly accepted mechanism of river restoration. “It is possible to create a more sustainable future by restoring a free-flowing river to provide critical habitat for threatened species and to meet the needs of communities,” said McEwen. “We hope this example of tremendous collaboration and innovation can inform and inspire other river restoration efforts in the region and nationwide.” The benefits seen on the Middle Fork Nooksack River prompt us to support comprehensive solutions, including dam removal, as an investment in the Pacific Northwest and its indigenous people, its fish and whales, and in justice, clean energy, and a revitalized economy.

“It is possible to create a more sustainable future by restoring a free-flowing river to provide critical habitat for threatened species and to meet the needs of communities. We hope this example of tremendous collaboration and innovation can inform and inspire other river restoration efforts in the region and nationwide.”- April McEwen.

Appreciation for the hard work by many...

The successes on the Middle Fork Nooksack River would not have been possible without the work of groups and individuals including American Rivers, the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Lummi Nation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the City of Bellingham, Vulcan Inc., the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Resources Legacy Fund/Open Rivers Fund, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Puget Sound Partnership, Washington Recreation Conservation Office, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration Fund, Long Live the Kings, American Whitewater, Pew Environment, and many others. 

Isabella Bledsoe is an intern with SOS while she attends the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, pursuing a master's degree in Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Sciences.

References

• American Rivers. (2020, June 17). Middle Fork Nooksack River Fish Passage Project Begins. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resource/middle-fork-nooksack-river-fish-passage-project-begins/

• American Rivers. (n.d.). Reimagining a River: The Middle Fork Nooksack. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/reimagining-a-river-the-middle-fork-nooksack/

• Lohan, T. (2020, July 14). A Dam Comes Down — and Tribes, Cities, Salmon and Orcas Could All Benefit. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://therevelator.org/nooksack-dam-removal/

• Native Fish Society. (2016, June 16). Nooksack River. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://nativefishsociety.org/watersheds/nooksack

• NOAA Fisheries. (2020, July 16). Dam Removal Brings Hope for Salmon in Washington’s Middle Fork Nooksack River. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/dam-removal-brings-hope-salmon-washingtons-middle-fork-nooksack-river

• Puget Sound Partnership. (2020, June 23). The Middle Fork Nooksack River Fish Passage Project will benefit people, fish, and orcas. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://medium.com/puget-sound-partnership/the-middle-fork-nooksack-river-fish-passage-project-will-benefit-people-fish-and-orcas-f94d12fa2d58

• Whatcom Watch Online. (n.d.). Middle Fork Diversion Dam. Retrieved February 03, 2021, from https://whatcomwatch.org/index.php/article/middle-fork-diversion-dam/

This is the fourth in a five-part series by SOS and American Rivers spotlighting the ecological and community benefits associated with previously completed dam removal/river restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Fourth in the Series: Removing Bloede Dam
By Isabella Bledsoe

Location: Patapsco River, Maryland - and the ancestral homelands of the Nanticoke, Piscataway, and Susquehannock.

The Patapsco River mainstem is 39 miles long and flows from its headwaters in central Maryland into the Baltimore Harbor. This renowned river system and watershed historically supported thriving fish populations, including American shad, alewife, blueback herring, smallmouth bass, and American eel. Beyond its natural beauty, the Patapsco River also supported the industrial revolution, and dams were built in the early 1900’s along the river system to provide hydropower for nearby industry including iron mills, flour mills, textile factories, and foundries. While dams helped support the booming industry for a time, they also blocked fish species' migratory routes, significantly harming historically abundant fish populations.

Four large dams sat on the Patapsco River; Bloede Dam stood closest to the river mouth, and Simkins Dam, Union Dam, and Daniels Dam all sat upstream. Union Dam was removed in 2010, and Simkins Dam was removed in 2011. The focus of this case study, Bloede Dam, was built in 1906 and, at that time, was the first underwater hydroelectric dam in the world. Given its placement closest to the river’s mouth, the removal of Bloede Dam was essential to comprehensive ecosystem restoration in the Patapsco River watershed. Historically, this dam provided power mainly to towns, including nearby Catonsville and Ellicott City. It stood 34 feet tall and spanned 220 feet wide. The dam’s ownership shifted between multiple electrical utilities, but in 1924 the dam went dormant. In 1938, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources purchased the dam, though it served no functional purpose. Maintaining the structure was extremely expensive--the dam was damaged by Hurricane Agnes, suffered a major flooding event in 1972, and required improvements, including a fish ladder in 1992. Beyond its lack of functionality and expensive upkeep, the dam blocked the river's natural flow, harmed fish populations, and was a public safety hazard.

“Today, we can give Bloede Dam the death sentence that it rightfully deserves. Removing the dam is not a financial option; it is a moral obligation.” - Paul J. Travers, Ranger

After years of ecological damage, federal, state, and non-governmental partners came together (led by American Rivers) to compile the funding needed for dam removal. Bloede Dam was removed in 2018, restoring access to more than 65 miles of spawning habitat for blueback herring, alewife, American shad, hickory shad, and over 183 miles for American eel. At the dam removal initiation, Ranger Paul J. Travers stated, “Today, we can give Bloede Dam the death sentence that it rightfully deserves. Removing the dam is not a financial option; it is a moral obligation.”

Benefits of River Restoration

Though Bloede Dam was only removed a few years ago, there are immediate signs of river recovery. Sediment that had built up behind the dam has flushed downstream. In 2020, following the first spring after dam removal, white perch, quillback, and gizzard shad were found upstream of the now-demolished Bloede Dam. Juvenile Striped Bass were also seen upstream. Alewife and blueback herring, jointly known as river herring, are slowly returning as well. These two fish species made up the second-largest fishery in the Chesapeake in the 1930s, but due to unsustainable fishing practices and limited habitat, a fishing moratorium was established in 2011 in Maryland. In 2021, two researchers found an alewife upstream of the previous site of the Bloede dam. “That single fish was able to swim unimpeded from the Atlantic Ocean to that spot in the Patapsco River,” William Harbold, a researcher for the Department of Natural Resources, said. “That’s something that hasn’t been possible for well over 100 years, maybe longer. It’s quite possible that we were the first people to see a wild, freely migrating herring in that part of the Patapsco in over a century. I personally think that’s pretty cool.”

"It’s quite possible that we were the first people to see a wild, freely migrating herring in that part of the Patapsco in over a century. I personally think that’s pretty cool.” - William Harbold, Department of Natural Resources Researcher

Beyond signs of ecological recovery, removing Bloede Dam has expanded recreational opportunities and removed a major public safety hazard. Before dam removal, Bloede Dam sat within the Patapsco Valley State Park and created dangerous currents, contributing to injuries and ultimately to nine dam-related deaths before 1980, and a more recent one in 2015. With the dam removed, hikers, anglers, campers, and kayakers frequently enjoy the beautiful river, oak-hickory forests, and steep valley sides from the 16,000-acre state park. Visitors to the Patapsco Valley State Park can fish near the former dam impoundment, and families can safely explore riverside trails.

“The Patapsco River is free, after years of hard work by so many. It’s wonderful to see the Patapsco rushing back to life, and to watch park visitors discover and enjoy the free-flowing river,” said Serena McClain, project manager and director of River Restoration for American Rivers. “This major river restoration project would not have happened without the collaboration and dedication of many public and private partners. This success is proof that when we come together, we can accomplish great victories for our rivers and our communities that will resonate for generations to come.”

“Completion of this project means improved safety for our park visitors, restoration of the Patapsco River System, and healthier habitats for aquatic species – all of which are important to our department.” - Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Secretary for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources

 What’s next?

Removing dams can create positive economic, community, ecological, and social justice outcomes and has become an increasingly accepted river restoration mechanism. “Removal of the Bloede Dam has been a long-term priority for both public safety and environmental reasons, so the department is very grateful for the strong partnerships that have finally made it a reality,” Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio said. “Completion of this project means improved safety for our park visitors, restoration of the Patapsco River System, and healthier habitats for aquatic species – all of which are important to our department.” It is exactly these types of benefits that inspire SOS and its supporters to advocate for a comprehensive regional solution, including lower Snake River dam removal, as a tremendous investment opportunity in the Pacific Northwest for tribal and non-tribal communities, its endangered fish and whales, clean energy, and a revitalized economy.

Thank you

The successes on the Patapsco River would not have been possible without the work of groups and individuals, including American Rivers, Friends of the Patapsco Valley State Park, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Department of Transportation State, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Maryland Biological Stream Survey, Maryland Geological Survey, University of Maryland Baltimore County, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Coca Cola Foundation, Keurig-Green Mountain, and many others.

Isabella Bledsoe is an intern with SOS while she attends the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, pursuing a master's degree in Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Sciences.

References

• American Rivers. (2019, August 31). Bloede dam removal project complete: Patapsco River surges back to life. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resource/bloede-dam-removal-project-complete-patapsco-river-surges-back-to-life/
• American Rivers. (n.d.). Patapsco River. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/river/patapsco-river/
• American Rivers. (n.d.). Removing Bloede American Rivers' Quest to Free the Patapsco River. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/patapsco/index.html
• Karel, R. B. (2019, June 14). Opinion | Removing Maryland's Bloede dam was a moral obligation. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/removing-marylands-bloede-dam-was-a-moral-obligation/2019/06/14/97284d4c-8c8e-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html
• Maryland Department of Natural Resources. (n.d.). Patapsco River restoration - Bloede dam removal. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/pages/fishpassage/bloede.aspx
• Maryland Department of Natural Resources. (n.d.). Patapsco River. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/hotspots/patapsco.aspx
• NOAA Fisheries. (2019, August 2). With removal Of Bloede Dam complete, Patapsco river flows more freely. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/removal-bloede-dam-complete-patapsco-river-flows-more-freely
• Parson, W. (2020, May 22). With fewer dams, a River near Baltimore flows more freely. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/with_fewer_dams_a_river_near_baltimore_flows_more_freely
• Rodricks, D. (2021, April 01). Obama's herring: Removing dams on the Patapsco brings back a silvery little fish: Commentary. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/dan-rodricks/bs-md-rodricks-0401-env-patapsco-river-herring-20210401-gdvlxvowtzakhbwr4vxstfkirq-story.html

This is the third in a five-part series by SOS and American Rivers spotlighting the ecological and community benefits associated with previously completed dam removal/river restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Third in the Series: Restoring the Elwha River
By Isabella Bledsoe

Location: Elwha River, Washington State - and the ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish and Klallam.

The Elwha River is 45 miles long and flows from its headwaters high in the Olympic National Park in Washington State to the salt waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This renowned river system and watershed historically supported thriving populations of five salmon species, including Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink, and Sockeye, and other fish species such as Steelhead and Bull Trout, as well as robust populations of elk, black bear, cougar, river otter, and eagle. Since time immemorial, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has relied heavily on this river system for salmon and other fishes. Salmon provided nutrition and supported Tribal trading; these fish are central to their culture, traditions, and spiritual practices. However, with the construction of two dams – Elwha and Glines Canyon - in the early 1900s, this flourishing river system was disrupted and damaged and the once-abundant salmon and steelhead populations plummeted. Several populations including coho and sockeye disappeared completely.

"The story of the Elwha is: We can do it. We can overcome a century of harm. We can work together. We can restore a river. We can show our grandchildren what commitment, responsibility, and stewardship look like." - Bob Irvin, previous President of American Rivers

The Elwha Dam was completed in 1913 and was built to harness hydropower to support the booming logging industry in the greater Port Angeles area. It stood 108 feet tall, 450 feet wide, and sat five miles upstream from the river's mouth. A few years later in 1927, the Glines Canyon Dam was built eight miles upstream of the Elwha Dam. The Glines Canyon Dam stood 210 feet tall and 150 feet wide. Both dams were built without fish passage, harming migrating salmon by restricting access to the river system to just 5 miles of spawning habitat near the mouth of the river. Large dam walls also blocked sediments, creating eroded riverbanks and beaches, while simultaneously holding water from flowing downstream and therefore flooding the ancestral homelands and religious sites of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. In 1968, Crown Zellerbach Corporation, the owner of the dams, applied to license the Elwha Dam and applied in 1973 to renew the Glines Canyon Dam's operating license. The Tribe opposed the licenses, as did multiple conservation organizations. This opposition catalyzed a multi-decade campaign for dam removal. After many years of Tribal leadership, community organizing, and active leadership by key public officials, in 1992 Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystems and Fisheries Restoration Act initiating a study to identify possible avenues to fully restore the Elwha River. In 1995, the resulting Environmental Impact Statement identified removing the Elwha and the Glines Canyon Dams as a preferred option for restoring the river system. In 2000, the U.S. Department of the Interior purchased the dams for $29.5 million, and in 2011 the federal government and partners led the deconstruction of the dams. At the time, this was the world's largest dam removal project. It provided restored access to 70 miles of ancestral spawning grounds and fish habitat.

"The story of the Elwha is: We can do it. We can overcome a century of harm. We can work together. We can restore a river. We can show our grandchildren what commitment, responsibility, and stewardship look like. We can be the beneficiaries of an abundance of riches that flow from a river that runs free," said Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers.

Benefits of River Restoration

Almost a decade after dam removal began, there are many signs of an ecosystem in recovery. Before dam construction, over 400,000 adult salmon returned annually to the Elwha River to spawn; just before dam removal, salmon returning to the Elwha had fallen to approximately 4,000. Now, salmon are starting to recover and return. More than 4,000 spawning chinook were counted above the deconstructed Elwha Dam after the first season it was removed. In 2014, approximately 32,000 Coho salmon fry swam out of the middle reach of the Elwha River, an area that previously had no Coho salmon. As these fish populations recover, other wildlife, including bears, cougars, mink, otters, and even America's only aquatic songbird, the American dipper, are returning to the area. Scientists are hopeful that dam removal and river restoration efforts will lead to fish populations near 400,000 in the next 20 to 30 years.

Further, the river's natural flow has been reestablished as 33 million tons of sediment that were once trapped behind the dams have shifted and moved. About 8 million tons of this sediment has resettled along the river and its mouth, and another 14 million tons settled along the coast and in the ocean. The sediment movement has created new habitats for river organisms, including 70 acres of estuary habitat near the river's mouth. Healthy nearshore environments are important for salmon, herring, and smelt, and they often are home to sardines, anchovies, crabs, shrimp, gulls, and other birds. Before dam removal, the nearshore ecosystem was starved for sediment and, as a result, was greatly reduced and damaged.

"What the Elwha can show, though, is that systems with dams on them can be recovered pretty rapidly if bold steps are taken. And I think it holds a lot of hope for regional recovery if we can get our hands around that problem."- Kim Sager-Fradkin, wildlife biologist for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

Removing Elwha River dams and rebuilding its salmon populations is an important step toward upholding our nation's promises to sustain fish populations for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Keeping this promise of maintaining – and restoring – healthy, resilient, life-giving rivers is essential for the well-being, heritage, and identity of local tribes. There is still extensive restoration work to be done. A fishing moratorium to protect depleted salmon populations has been in place since 2011 and is set to end in July of 2021; this means that tribes are still unable to fish in the Elwha River.

Kim Sager-Fradkin, a wildlife biologist for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, acknowledges that "Restoration takes a long time. People want to tell this story that the river is restored and move on. And it's not quite as clear as that." Yet, recovery trends are encouraging, and Mike McHenry, a fisheries biologist with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, stated, "What the Elwha can show, though, is that systems with dams on them can be recovered pretty rapidly if bold steps are taken. And I think it holds a lot of hope for regional recovery if we can get our hands around that problem."

Watch the film Return of the Riverabout the Elwha dam removal to learn more!

What’s next?

Removing dams can create positive economic, community, ecological, and social justice outcomes and has become an increasingly accepted river restoration mechanism. “The success on the Elwha shows we can actually fix things,” states John Gussman, a photographer and filmmaker that has been documenting the restoration of the Elwha. These benefits prompt us to support comprehensive solutions, including dam removal, as an investment in the Pacific Northwest and its indigenous people, its fish and whales, clean energy, and a revitalized economy.

Appreciation for the hard work by many...

 Thank you, first and foremost to the leadership of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe as well as American Rivers, Olympic Park Associates, Seattle Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, The Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service – Olympic National Park, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA, United States Geological Survey, University of Washington, Trout Unlimited, Coastal Watershed Institute, and many others.

Isabella Bledsoe is an intern with SOS while she attends the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, pursuing a master's degree in Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Sciences.

References

• American Rivers. (n.d.). Elwha River: (Re)Born to be wild. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/river/elwha-river
• American Rivers. (n.d.). Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/elwha-and-glines-canyon-dams
• American Rivers. (n.d.). Elwha River Restoration. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20110926132831/http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/restoring-rivers/dams/projects/elwha-river-background.html
• American Rivers. (2014, August 25). Elwha river's health rebounding as biggest dam removal in history nears completion. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/conservation-resource/elwha-rivers-health-rebounding-biggest-dam-removal-history-nears-completion/
• Emery, B. (2020, December 15). The Elwha: A roadmap for River Restoration across the Northwest Region. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://blog.nwf.org/2020/12/the-elwha-a-roadmap-for-river-restoration/
• Hill, M. (2020, April 22). How a dying river came roaring back to life. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/04/how-a-dying-river-came-roaring-back-to-life
• Howard, B. C. (2016, June 2). River revives After largest dam removal in U.S. History. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/largest-dam-removal-elwha-river-restoration-environment
• Kober, A. S. (2016, September 09). Five years later, the Elwha reborn. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.americanrivers.org/2016/09/five-years-later-elwha-reborn/
• Mapes Seattle Times environment reporter, L. V. (2016, February 13). Elwha: Roaring back to life. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/elwha/
• National Park Service. (n.d.). History of the Elwha. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/history-of-the-elwha.html
• National Parks Traveler Staff. (2019, April 11). Groups agree to extend fishing closure on Elwha River through Olympic National Park. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/04/groups-agree-extend-fishing-closure-elwha-river-through-olympic-national-park
• Tucker, A. (2011, September 14). On the Elwha, a new life when the dam breaks. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/on-the-elwha-a-new-life-when-the-dam-breaks-79981416/
• USGS. (2018, September 5). Moving Mountains: Elwha River Still Changing Five Years After World’s Largest Dam-Removal Project: More than 20 million tons of sediment flushed to the sea. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from https://www.usgs.gov/news/moving-mountains-elwha-river-still-changing-five-years-after-world-s-largest-dam-removal

View the following set of factsheets that debunk misinformation and myths associated with the removal of the four lower Snake River dams (LSRDs). These factsheets provide clarity on the following topics and use credible data and statements from experts in the relevant fields. Please share these factsheets broadly, including with your elected officials.

Questions? Contact Abby Dalke, abby@wildsalmon.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Salmon Returns 
2. Transportation
3. Economics
4. Flood Control
5. Irrigation
6. Energy
7. Carbon Emissions

SALMON RETURNS: 

When proponents of the LSRDs discuss salmon returns, they do not accurately reflect the status of the 13 ESA-listed threatened or endangered populations on the brink of extinction and minimize the impacts of dams on salmon survival.

The salmon returns factsheet debunks myths regarding the true status of salmon recovery and the role that the LSRDs play in preventing populations from reaching healthy and harvestable levels. The factsheet illustrates that LSRD removal is critical for restoring salmon runs by connecting fish to prime salmon habitat in central Oregon and central Idaho.

Download Factsheet

TRANSPORTATION:

Advocates for the LSRDs often overstate the importance and use of barge transportation on the lower Snake River between Tri-Cities, WA and Lewiston, ID, and overlook the opportunities to create a more affordable, robust, modernized transportation system for important eastern and central Washington agricultural exports.

This factsheet debunks the myth that the LSRDs are needed for agricultural transportation. The factsheet clearly conveys that this is not true as barging has been in decline for the last two decades, and rail is already being widely utilized by farmers.

Download Factsheet

ECONOMICS:

Those who oppose the removal of the LSRDs often promote unfounded and exaggerated claims associated with the cost of dam breaching and dismiss the significant economic benefits of breaching the four lower Snake River dams.

This factsheet addresses myths about the true economic costs of continuing to maintain and operate the LSRDs. The factsheet demonstrates that the most cost-effective salmon recovery strategy is removing the LSRDs.

Download Factsheet

FLOOD CONTROL: 

Politicians often falsely claim that the four lower Snake River dams are needed for flood control. This factsheet debunks the common narrative that the LSRDs have flood control capacity.

Download Factsheet

IRRIGATION:

Advocates for the LSRDs often spread the false narrative that breaching the dams will significantly impact the region’s agriculture when we have clear data suggesting otherwise.

This factsheet addresses the myth that the LSRDs are extensively used for irrigation throughout the region by small farmers. The factsheet emphasizes that only one reservoir is actually used for irrigation and that nine prominent landowners manage nearly all of the irrigated land.

DOWNLOAD FACTSHEET

ENERGY: 

Defenders of the lower Snake River dams often use deceptive data to mislead the energy output of the four lower Snake River dams and often exaggerate the reliability and importance of the hydropower produced by the LSRDs.

View the following energy factsheet that debunks myths regarding the true output, reliability, and necessity of LSRD energy production. The factsheet highlights the seasonal energy generation of the LSRDs and emphasizes the diverse portfolio of new, affordable, and reliable clean energy sources that will replace the energy output of the lower Snake River dams.

Download Factsheet

CARBON EMISSIONS:

Proponents of the LSRDs often deny the carbon impacts of hydropower entirely. Yet, there is clear scientific evidence that hydropower is a significant contributor of harmful carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

The carbon emissions factsheet debunks the myth that hydropower is a carbon free energy source. The factsheet explains the carbon impacts of methane emissions created by hydropower reservoirs.

Download Factsheet

Download all factsheets

Questions? Contact Abby Dalke, abby@wildsalmon.org

June 30, 2018

The corporation created to remove four Klamath River dams that block fish passage and impair river quality has filed its “Definite Plan for the Lower Klamath Project” with the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission, or FERC.

The 2,300-page document provides analysis and detail on project design, deconstruction, reservoir restoration and other post-deconstruction activities related to the proposed removal of the J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and the Iron Gate dams, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation announced Friday.

The plan was filed Thursday as part of the corporation’s application to FERC for the transfer of the FERC license to operate the dams. The commission will review the definite plan to confirm the corporation has the technical, legal and fiscal capacities to become the licensee.

The dam removal project is currently the largest in U.S. history and is expected to improve water quality, revive fisheries, create local jobs and boost tourism and recreation, according to a KRRC press release.

The Definite Plan addresses KRRC’s plans to manage construction impacts, impacts to groundwater wells, perform flood-proofing, improve roads and bridges, replace a water line in Yreka, protect aquatic resources and provide for ongoing fish hatchery operations, according to the press release. The plan also provides updated information on project costs and risk management.

A panel of experts convened by KRRC, an Independent Board of Consultants, will work with FERC to review and provide guidance on the Definite Plan. Once it receives approval, KRRC will begin site preparations in mid-2020 with dam removal and restoration activities beginning in 2021, according to the press release.

Stakeholders, including federal regulators, the states of California and Oregon, tribes and interest groups, began working towards dam removal in the early 2000s, with a target date of 2020, the Triplicate reported in April.

Stakeholders lobbied Congress from 2010-2016 to pass a bill tying the Klamath dam removal to a water settlement agreement that would have provided millions of federal dollars for river restoration and guaranteed water to in-stream use for fisheries interest and tribes and guaranteed water for agriculture. Congress declined to pass the bill, the Triplicate reported.

The Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s creation was mandated by the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, signed in Requa by the federal government, the states of California and Oregon and PacifiCorp., owner of the dams.

The reservoirs formed by the four dames slated for removal have contributed to toxic algae blooms that harm fish and make the river dangerous for humans. PacifiCorp determined the cost to retrofit the dams to meet environmental standards — estimated at $400 million — was not preferable for power rate payers. Dam removal is estimated to cost $200 million, the Triplicate reported in November 2017.

Shifts of market and region

By Randy Stapilus, JUNE 1, 2018

Forty years ago one of the big ongoing news stories, and one of the big serious issues, facing the Northwest was the impending shortage of energy supply. We just weren’t producing enough electricity, we were told, to satisfy the growth needs of the region.

All sorts of things happened in those years in an attempt to deal with this problem, not least the massive nuclear power building in Washington state (remember the wonderfully-acronymed WPPSS?) that resulted in economic collapse and massive debt.

What never did happen was this: The Northwest never did run out of power.
Idaho, Washington and Oregon have kept on growing, economically and demographically, in the years since, and adequate supply of electric power has never been a significant problem. Neither, for that matter, has cost; juice has been about as inexpensive in the region through these years as it has anywhere in the country.

One of several reasons for that has been the existence, for 80 years so far, of the Bonneville Power Administration. Headquartered at Portland, the BPA has the job of taking the immense amount of electric power generated by the federal dams in the Columbia River system and selling it to customers, mainly regional and local utilities. Idaho utilities get some of this power, and the state benefits more broadly from the way the cheap hydropower has helped keep electric rates low.

Political threats to BPA’s existence have surfaced from time to time – there’s been a rumbling from the Trump Administration most recently – but the most immediate and maybe most intractable threat right now is economic. It comes not from anyone trying to do it in, but from broader conditions.
These are laid out in a fascinating short report by Idaho economist Anthony Jones and activist Linwood Laughy (he was involved in the Highway 12 megaload battle), who with several others began looking into the economic changes surrounding electric power in the Northwest. Their report (you can see it at http://rmecon.com/examples/BonnevillePower%20May%202018.pdf) concluded that BPA could be facing extinction unless something dramatic changes.

They’re not alone in issuing warnings. Elliott Mainzer, BPA’s current administrator, warned in March, “We’ve taken huge hits in the secondary revenues market just like every other hydro provider up here, with cheap gas, low load growth, and the oversupply conditions. It’s been a bloodbath for folks in the wholesale market. I’m not in a panic mode, but I am in a very, very significant sense of urgency mode.”

That concisely lays out some of the issues. Oversupply – of electric power – has become real, as solar, wind and other power sources have become major factors in the Northwest. As supply has grown, prices have fallen. The big drop came around 2008 and 2009, when “the open market price of power dropped from $90 to $25.” It has not much rebounded in the years since. The declining need for additional power already has reduced the use of coal-fired plants in the region.

BPA has been protected somewhat by long-term contracts with many of its utilities, but some of those utilities are agitating for lower prices from other sources, and negotiations are likely to be fierce as contracts come up for renewal. Traditionally, BPA has made money by selling excess power to California, but California also is seeing a massive increase in renewable energy: It is being flooded with additional power as well. Meantime, BPA has a number of costs, from environmental requirements to pension funds to compensation for dam maintenance, that it cannot reduce. It is being squeezed, hard.

That started about a decade ago, and there’s an easy way to measure it. In 2008 BPA had financial reserves of almost $1 billion; now, only about $5 million of that is left, the rest of it gone to pay for costs when income hasn’t kept up.

The Northwest energy world has been turned on its head since those energy-shortage days of 40 years ago. It may look a lot different a decade from now.

http://www.ridenbaugh.com/index.php/2018/06/01/shifts-of-market-and-region/ 

Mobilizing for Snake River salmon, orcas and Northwest communities -

Washington State’s U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell need to hear from you today!

Snake River salmon and Southern Resident orcas and Northwest communities need their urgent leadership. With your help this fall, SOS and its partners and allies will deliver a strong clear message that Washingtonians strongly support the senators leadership to restore the lower Snake River, recover its endangered salmon and steelhead and rebuild the many benefits they bring to Northwest ecosystems, cultures and communities.

We urgently need solutions that:

Ask Senators Murray and Cantwell to develop and deliver a comprehensive solution that restores Snake River salmon, helps feed endangered orcas, and invests in our communities!

Here’s how you can help:
SEND them an email – WRITE them a personal letter – CALL their office.

CONTACT SENATOR PATTY MURRAY:
1)SEND Sen. Murray an email message using SOS' email system.

CONTACT SENATOR MARIA CANTWELL:
1)SEND Sen. Cantwell an email message using SOS' alert system.
2) MAIL a personalized letter to her office:

Read on for background information, suggested message points, links to media and further information, and people to contact to get more involved.

The federal government’s latest plan was released this summer. It is disappointing but not surprising. It offers only modest tweaks on a status quo approach and ignores calls from federal judges in the 1990s for “a major overhaul”.

Now is the time for people and policymakers in Washington State to lead, to come together and develop solutions that recover endangered salmon and invest in our communities. A successful plan must include restoring the lower Snake River, upholding our obligations to Native American Tribes, and investing in our region’s communities and its energy system. We need bold action and we need this opportunity to invest in a better future for the salmon, orca and people of the Northwest.

II. SUGGESTED MESSAGE POINTS TO DELIVER TO SENS. MURRAY AND CANTWELL -Pick and choose as suits you. Personalize your messages to increase your impact. ***Be sure to include your city - where you live in Washington:

- Time is short! Your leadership and action is urgently needed. All four populations of Snake River salmon and steelhead face extinction today and along with all the benefits salmon deliver to Northwest communities, cultures and ecosystems.
- Southern resident orcas are starving due to lack of chinook salmon in our coastal waters. Just 73 whales survive today. They need many more salmon – quickly – or we could lose them forever.
- Restoring the lower Snake River is one of our nation’s greatest salmon and river restoration opportunities. Scientists predict runs of more than one million spring chinook annually if we restore this river. Orcas desperately need more spring chinook as they are available in winter months when few other stocks are.
- Your leadership is urgently needed today.The federal government’s efforts to protect salmon from the federal dams has failed salmon and people; has been rejected six times by the courts; has been costly - $18B – and woefully inadequate.
- We need your help to bring people together to develop a comprehensive plan or solution that (1) restores endangered salmon and helps starving orcas, (2) upholds our nation’s responsibilities to Native American Tribes, and (3) invests in our communities and the region’s energy system.
- Restoring the lower Snake River must be a cornerstone of any effective plan to recover salmon abundance in the Columbia-Snake Basin and meet the needs of Northwest Tribal and fishing communities.
-Hot waters in the Snake River reservoirs in summer months are killing our salmon as they migrate out to the ocean or return to their natal spawning grounds. Restoring the lower Snake River is our best – and likely only – way to cool the river and recover our salmon.

Add your own words, feelings and ideas. You can personalize your message by adding your own words too – Why are salmon important to you? What is your connection to them? Why is it important to you to restore the Snake River and its salmon?

• The Everett Herald:Editorial - Debate regarding Snake River dams is far from over…
• The Columbian: Local View: Snake River dams too costly
• Peninsula Daily News: Kilmer comments on Snake River dams
• Lewiston Tribune: Simpson offers critical remarks on river study
• Lewiston Morning Tribune: Federal plan keeps lower Snake River dams; legal challenges expected to follow

IV. FOR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS AND TO GET MORE INVOLVED:
Contact Carrie Herrman – carrie@wildsalmon.org // 515-230-9003

New federal commitments and investments were announced on December 14, 2023 by the White House, the States of Oregon and Washington and four Columbia Basin Tribes - marking an important step towards a comprehensive solution to restore healthy and abundant salmon populations, and essential to honoring Tribal Treaty obligations.

The agreement provides a multi-year pause in litigation to allow for the implementation of commitments, actions, and federal investments advancing the recovery of salmon, steelhead and other Native fish populations throughout the Columbia River Basin, including more than half a billion dollars in NEW federal funding to the region and additional resources for habitat restoration and fish passage infrastructure.

The federal commitments, actions, and investments identified respond directly to The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI), a groundbreaking and visionary joint proposal from the “Six Sovereigns” (the states of Washington and Oregon and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Spring Reservation, and the Nez Perce Tribe).

The CBRI offers a comprehensive roadmap to rebuild imperiled native fish populations, honor Tribal treaty rights, and restore healthy ecosystems while supporting a robust Pacific Northwest economy.

The Federal investments and actions to restore the lower Snake River and replace and modernize irrigation, energy, and transportation infrastructure provide significant economic benefits to Tribes and communities throughout the Columbia and Snake River Basins, while addressing the impacts of climate change and the crisis facing salmon and orcas.

We are not at the finish line, but today’s announcement brings us much closer to a free-flowing Snake River, abundant salmon and steelhead, and a healthy ecosystem.

Save Our wild Salmon Coalition is deeply grateful for Tribal, State, Federal, and NGO partners' leadership in advancing a comprehensive solution, and securing important investments to begin to recover imperiled fish populations throughout the Columbia/Snake River Basin.

Urgent action, continued leadership, and strong support from policymakers across the Northwest is essential - to seize this historic opportunity, end the harmful status quo, and move forward a comprehensive plan and investments - benefiting the entire region and future generations.

Please join us in thanking the administration for these important steps forward, and urge your members of Congress to pledge their strong support and leadership to ensure we implement the actions necessary to recover Northwest salmon. 

Take Action

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Press Releases: 

• The White House: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Ten-Year Partnership with Tribes & States to Restore Wild Salmon, Expand Clean Energy Production, Increase Resilience, and Provide Energy Stability in the Columbia River Basin
• Washington Governor Jay Inslee: Six Sovereigns and Biden Administration partner in historic fashion to find solutions that benefit salmon and the Pacific Northwest
• Oregon Governor Tina Kotek: Biden Administration Announces Historic Commitments with Six Sovereigns
• Washington Senator Patty Murray: Murray Statement on Columbia-Snake River System Agreement Between Federal Government and Six Sovereigns
• Rep. Adam Smith: Statement on Columbia River Basin Agreement
• Rep. Pramila Jayapal: Statement on the Columbia-Snake River System Agreement
• Earthjustice: U.S. Government Sets a Path to Breach the Four Lower Snake River Dams
• Save Our wild Salmon: Biden administration commits significant federal resources to rebuild Columbia Basin salmon, honor obligations to Tribes, and prepare for lower Snake River dam breaching
• American Rivers: Biden Administration Announcement Marks Historic Step In Salmon Recovery In The Columbia River Basin
• Columbia Riverkeeper: Important step toward removing the Lower Snake River dams, replacing their services, restoring abundant salmon, and honoring America’s promises to Tribes
• Idaho Conservation League: U.S. Government commits to restore salmon in Northwest and honor obligations to Tribes, sets path to breach four lower Snake River dams
• Idaho Rivers United: U.S. Government Sets a Path to Breach the four Lower Snake River dams, while honoring Tribes, and restoring salmon to the Northwest
• Idaho Wildlife Federation: New Course Set For Snake River Basin
• National Wildlife Federation: U.S. Government Sets New Course on Lower Snake River, Toward ‘Right Side of History’
• Sierra Club: White House Plan for Snake River a Victory for Tribes, Communities, and Wildlife
• Trout Unlimited: Biden Administration Agreement: Step Toward Comprehensive Solution for Columbia Basin Salmon and Energy Infrastructure
• Washington Conservation Action and Oregon League of Conservation Voters: Biden Admin Sets a Clear Path to Breach Four Lower Snake River dams

Court Documents: 

• Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative(PDF)
• Snake River Litigation Memorandum of Understanding(PDF)
• Litigation Stay(PDF)
• Federal commitments(PDF)

Factsheets and Resources:

• Biden-Harris Administration Factsheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces 10-Year Partnership with Tribes and States to Restore Wild Salmon, Expand Clean Energy Production, Increase Resilience, and Provide Energy Stability in the Columbia River Basin
• Earthjustice Factsheet: New federal commitments to fight salmon extinction in the Columbia River Basin 
• Earthjustice Explainer: The Government Just Took a Big Step Toward Breaching Salmon-Killing Dams 
• Earthjustice: A Long Fight to Restore Snake River Salmon: Timeline of selected events, court rulings, and more recent development 
• NRDC Blog: Six Sovereigns Achieve Pathway to Snake River Dam Retirement

MEDIA COVERAGE:

• AP News: Conservationists, tribes say deal with Biden administration is a road map to breach Snake River dams 
• E&E News: White House pledges $1B to restore Pacific Northwest salmon, steelhead 
• NPR: Tribes celebrate historic deal with White House that could save Pacific Northwest salmon 
• Tri-City Herald: ‘Historic’ Columbia River agreement called ‘roadmap’ to breaching Snake River dams
• Seattle Times: Biden administration promises $1 billion more for salmon, clean energy — but punts on Lower Snake River dam removal in major agreement 
• Lewiston Tribune: It’s official: Dam agreement announced
• Spokesman-Review: Biden administration puts off dam breach talks, partners with tribes to restore salmon habitats
• The Hill: White House orders studies of Snake River dam removal to restore salmon populations 
• Oregon Capital Chronicle: NW states, tribes reach ‘historic’ deal with feds over Columbia River Basin fish and dams 
• Capital Press: Biden administration, tribes: Dam breaching on table 'as soon as practical’ 
• Spokane Public Radio: Federal-state-tribal agreement aims to help salmon, leaves future of Snake River dams open
• Outdoor Life: Biden Takes Steps Toward Breaching Four Snake River Dams 
• Sierra Club Magazine: Biden Administration Supports Removal of Four Dams on the Snake River
• High Country News: Lower Snake River dams closer to coming down with new agreement
• Northwest Public Broadcasting: "Historic agreement seen as a harbinger to Snake River dam removal"
• Everett Herald - Comment: "Agreement restores hope for salmon of Snake River" By Brian Brooks, executive director of Idaho Wildlife Federation
• The Oregonian: Efforts of tribes pay off in historic agreement on Snake River dam removals
• The Spokesman-Review Op-Ed: Dan McDonald: Significant progress in the race against extinction
• Yakima Herald-Republic Guest Commentary: Columbia-Snake agreement charts the course to a clean-energy future by Nancy Hirsh, NW Energy Coalition 

by Rev. Liv Larson Andrews - Salem Lutheran Church, Spokane

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” 

Columbia, Clark Fork, Elwha, Spokane—rivers gladden the cities and communities of the Northwest. Right now, one local river needs our help to make it “glad” again. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers is pushing harmful legislation regarding the Snake River. Her bill, H.R 3144, would forbid new analyses and public input on Snake River salmon restoration, halt even the study of dam removal, and roll back current protections for salmon. This bill passed in the House of Representatives on April 25, but there is still time to prevent it becoming law. HR 3144 is regressive and damaging. I ask all people of faith and good will to join me in fighting against Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and her backwards bill, H.R. 3144. 

As a lifelong Lutheran, I’ve sung or prayed that line about glad rivers from Psalm 46—a favorite of Martin Luther’s—many times. I serve as the pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in the West Central neighborhood, just blocks from the Spokane River. On Mondays, I walk the neighborhood in prayer with a friend. Sometimes we end up along the banks of the Spokane, pausing near the falls to let the mist sprays our faces. We are standing in holy water. 

From the rivers in Genesis that flow out of Eden, to the Nile which carried Moses, to the Jordan that cleansed Naaman and baptized Jesus, all the way to the end of Revelation where the promised river of life flows “bright as crystal,” rivers run through the whole biblical story of salvation. For people of the Christian faith, water matters. Rivers matter. 

For people of faith in the Inland northwest, the salmon matter, too. Salmon are already in steep decline and threatened with extinction on the Snake and Columbia rivers. This should trouble Christians: extinction is lousy stewardship. Yet we also know from examples like the renewed Elwha River that life can thrive when rivers are rightly managed: for people, for salmon, for the glory of their Creator. How can we sing Psalm 46 while many of our rivers groan under the weight of misuse?

Some argue that helping return salmon to the Snake River preferences one group over another. We hear stories of enmity: farmers vs. tribal leaders, environmentalists vs. sportsmen. Recent opinion pieces in regional newspapers have highlighted Governors Inslee and Brown’s opposition to McMorris-Rodger’s bill. On the local level, however, a diverse community of people has already begun working together for a healthy, thriving, free-flowing Snake River, useful to humans and full of salmon. H.R. 3144 would splinter that unifying work. 

Martin Luther was no environmentalist. Yet, by faith, and perhaps by praying Psalm 46, he knew that rivers matter. In a blessing for a newly baptized child, Luther prays to God: “through the Baptism in the Jordan of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, you sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood, and a lavish washing away of sin.” God has blessed this region with beautiful, life-giving rivers. They bear the presence of Jesus to us. My first Christmas as a pastor here in Spokane, a church member greeted me by saying, “There’s fresh steelhead for you in the refrigerator, Pastor. Caught it last week on the Snake. Filleted and de-boned. Merry Christmas.” 

The gifts of the Creator are meant for all of us to enjoy. For that to be true, we need to act. Join me in standing up for our planet’s health, especially for the sacred waters, creatures and people of the Snake River.

Contact your legislators today and tell them to oppose this harmful legislation

On Monday, November 27, a group of faith leaders met with Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’ office to ask her to withdraw her bill HR 3144.

The message from religious leaders in Eastern Washington expressed that, “the Earth is a sacred gift given to us by God. In exchange for this life-giving and sustaining bounty, we have an obligation to care for the Earth and the people who depend on it. We believe we have a mandate to protect our wild salmon, defend the livelihood of commercial and sport fishing families, as well as farming families.” HR 3144 would defy these obligations by codifying an illegal management plan for the Lower Snake and Columbia River dams and requiring an act of Congress to make any changes to that plan. The low returns of wild fish this year have shown that Snake River salmon don’t have time for inadequate and wasteful plans.

Earth Ministry Outreach Coordinator Leda Zakarison, former Salem Lutheran pastor Tom Soeldner and I delivered 40 letters from faith leaders in Washington’s 5th district. We were introduced to Colin, a staff member who took time out of responding to Net Neutrality and Tax Reform calls to hear our concerns about HR 3144. We may have made a convert of Colin after Leda explained her understanding of the Christian obligation to steward the Earth, a sentiment which Colin shared. I left him with a fact sheet on the dismal 2017 wild salmon returns.

Giving a message to Cathy McMorris Rodgers that voters from her district are concerned about this bill is important as the new year approaches. December is the season for last ditch bills to be passed before the holiday and January brings must-pass budget bills, both of which present opportunities for H.R. 3144 to be added on as a rider.

As important as letting Representative McMorris-Rodgers know that the faith community cares about wild salmon and fishing families, is informing the faith community about the current threats to wild salmon. This letter is another stepping stone in the process of involving a larger and more diverse sector of the Eastern Washington faith community in the conversation surrounding the Lower Snake River. This conversation will continue throughout the winter and spring in the form of community gatherings and conversations among people of faith and salmon stakeholders, including tribal members who are promised salmon under Treaties.

The letter represents a diverse group of pastors and parishioners from across Eastern Washington, with members of Leda’s own Pullman-based farming family joining members of my own church, Salem Lutheran, a Whitworth University theologian, and many others, to declare their opposition to this salmon-killing bill. Signers included pastors who daily care for and weekly preach to thousands of people. Many of these faith leaders added their own comments to their personal letters, including one curate from Moses Lake who himself is a supporter of Rep. McMorris-Rodgers.

A similar letter is being circulated in the Idaho faith community. If you are a person of faith from Idaho or know someone who is, follow this link and share it with your friends: http://earthministry.org/help-protect-wild-salmon-in-idaho/

- Jacob Schmidt, Outreach Coordinator

This full-page ad supporting salmon recovery and standing in solidarity with Northwest tribes is running on Wednesday and Thursday (July 7 and 8) in these Northwest newspapers: Spokesman Review, Olympian, Tacoma News Tribune and the Oregonian.

Here's how you can help: Call and write your members of Congress in Washington, Oregon and Idaho - ask them for their urgent leadership in 2021 to "save salmon, deliver justice and invest in the Northwest."

Questionnaire, public comment, and January 2020 workshops: Governor Jay Inslee is sponsoring a critical conversation about the future of lower Snake River salmon and steelhead, Southern Resident orcas and Washington State communities.

This fall, Governor Inslee began an important project in Washington State to interview stakeholders and gather information about the lower Snake River dams, salmon and communities to better understand people’s perspectives and to identify the kinds of transitions that will be needed if/when we remove the four lower Snake River dams.

Scientists have told us for many years that restoring the lower Snake River by removing its dams is essential in order to protect and rebuild its endangered salmon and steelhead populations, help feed starving orcas, and restore the benefits these native fish deliver to people and ecosystems across the Northwest. With thousands of miles of pristine, protected habitat upstream from these dams, this is our nation’s very best river/salmon restoration opportunity anywhere on the West Coast today.

Washington State is sponsoring a conversation about restoring the lower Snake River and its salmon by removing its four federal dams. This is a critical opportunity to learn more about this issue and ensure your voice is heard!

Here’s what’s happening in December and January - and how to get more involved:

(1) Fill out the Stakeholder Process Questionnaire: An online questionnaire asks questions and seeks comments about the lower Snake River and its roles and importance for salmon recovery and communities. Comment deadline: Jan. 24 at 5:00 pm.

(2) Submit your comments on the Draft Report (coming soon): In mid-December, Governor Inslee’s team will release a draft report based on interviews and fact-finding and seek public comment about it. Comment deadline: TBA.

(3) Attend a public workshop in Clarkston (Jan. 7), Vancouver (Jan. 9) and Tri-Cities (Jan. 13). The Governor’s office is hosting three public workshops in early January to present the draft report, hear from select stakeholders, and encourage citizen dialogue on these important issues.

Find more details at Governor Inslee’s Lower Snake River Stakeholder Process webpage.

Finally, here are some links to recent press coverage on Washington State’s Lower Snake River Stakeholder Process:

Tri-City Herald: Republicans, outraged by no dam-breaching session in Tri-Cities, get their way - After complaints and demands by Republican leaders, the Tri-Cities will get its own workshop on a state study on the impacts of breaching the lower Snake River dams (Nov. 17, 2019).

Idaho Statesman Guest Opinion: Removing lower Snake River dams is best chance for salmon, steelhead recovery (Nov. 18, 2019).

Seattle Times: State budgets $750,000 for outreach over impacts of breaching Lower Snake River dams (April 30, 2019).

For further information and to get more involved:
SOS contacts in eastern Washington:
Carrie Herrman: carrie@wildsalmon.org
Jacob Schmidt: jacob@wildsalmon.org

SOS contacts in western Washington:
Amy Grondin: ajgrondin@gmail.com
Joseph Bogaard: joseph@wildsalmon.org

By LeeAnne Beres 

I thought you might like to hear my Top 10 reasons why I’ll be making a gift to Save Our wild Salmon as part of GiveBIG, alongside so many of our generous supporters.

10. Salmon are amazing, resilient, spiritual creatures. As author David James Duncan wrote so eloquently, “There is a fire in water. There is an invisible flame, hidden in water, that creates not heat but life. And in this bewildering age, no matter how dark or glib some humans work to make it, wild salmon still climb rivers and mountain ranges in absolute earnest, solely to make contact with that flame. Words can't reach deep or high enough to embody this wonder. Only wild salmon can embody it. Each migration, each annual return from the sea, these incomparable creatures climb our inland mountains and sacrifice their lives, that tiny silver offspring may be born of an impossible water flame.”

9. SOS has a long successful history – over 30 years! – of bringing together diverse partners and stakeholders from around the region for strategic, coordinated, and collaborative action to rebuild salmon abundance by protecting their habitats and restoring and reconnecting their rivers. SOS has been effective at securing more water in the river for salmon, holding federal agencies accountable for their obligations under federal laws, and pushing for a stronger Columbia River Treaty. We’re making progress and securing these wins – and many others – together.

8. Restoring the lower Snake River is one of our nation’s great fish and wildlife initiatives today. Removing four federal dams on the lower Snake River will re-establish a 140-mile free-flowing river and 14,000+ acres of riparian habitat in the heart of Pacific Northwest salmon country. Working in collaboration with our member organizations and other regional allies, SOS has the organizing and policy expertise to continue moving the region toward a comprehensive plan that removes these dams, invests in our communities, and modernizes our region’s energy, transportation, and irrigation infrastructure.

7. The diversity of the SOS Coalition is our strength. SOS is comprised of more than 50 organizations: conservation groups, commercial and sportfishing associations, businesses, and salmon, orca, and clean energy advocates – as well as citizen activists – all working to protect and recover critically endangered salmon and steelhead populations that call the Columbia-Snake River Basin home.

6. I’m excited about SOS’ NextGen Salmon Collective, which trains and empowers up-and-coming youth advocates to amplify their voices through strategic outreach and organizing. In the past year, NextGen leaders have hosted and participated in dozens of advocacy events and outreach initiatives including film screenings, letter-writing parties, tabling on campus, presentations, canvassing in the local community, and participating in meetings with elected officials in the Northwest and in DC. These young activists are critical to a brighter and healthier future!

5. SOS led a ‘citizen delegation’ to Washington D.C. last week where they met with two dozen Congressional offices to advocate for salmon recovery, healthy rivers, and vibrant communities. Our participants included two NextGen youth advocates, two female commercial fishermen, and a Tlingit & Haida leader from southeast Alaska, along with Tanya and Abby D. from the SOS team. They had productive conversations and left feeling inspired and energized for the work ahead.

4. My heart was filled at the recent “For the Love of Orcas: An Evening of Art and Poetry” event in Olympia, which featured regional poets and authors – and stunning artwork of the Southern Resident orcas created by Gabriel Newton. Hosted by SOS through our Northwest Artists Against Extinction project in collaboration with several NGO allies, this powerful standing-room-only event moved hearts and minds and offered everyone an invitation into deeper connection with each other, our iconic orcas, and the salmon they rely on. Art is truly transformative!

3. I’m looking forward to “A Majestic Matriarchy: Honoring Southern Resident Orcas” on June 14 in Seattle. Hosted by Se’Si’Le, an Indigenous-led nonprofit, the event is supported by a coalition of NGOs including SOS. It will focus on Indigenous women to celebrate and bring attention to the Southern Resident orcas. Many native peoples share a deep affinity for the matriarchal lifeway of our majestic orcas who rely on the older females for guidance, especially in times of crisis. Join us to listen, learn, and be inspired by the heartfelt words, visions, and voices of powerful Indigenous women leaders. Registration information is coming soon.

2. On September 9, 1999, I stood on Lower Granite Dam and swore that I’d see it removed in my lifetime, and I know SOS will be one of the driving forces to make that goal a reality. I picked up a rock from the dam’s earthen berm that day and keep it in my home office, where it inspires me to work toward the vision of a restored river and thriving salmon. When the Snake River finally flows free, I’ll return the rock to its banks with prayers of thanksgiving for all who made it possible and the timeless persistence of the salmon who once again will swim quicksilver to the sea.

And the #1 Reason:

1. I believe in people power – that’s you! SOS educates, inspires, and mobilizes our supporters and the public to act on behalf of salmon and their rivers, but none of this would be possible without you, without all of us together. Your voice makes a real difference, and I’m so glad that you’ve decided to take action with Save Our wild Salmon. Together we can do hard things, and while saving wild salmon isn’t easy, it’s essential to Northwest tribes and other fishing communities, to orcas and to our region’s identity and special way of life.

I’m sure you have your own Top 10 reasons for supporting SOS, but all you need today is one – it’s GiveBig, and a generous donor is providing a $15,000 match so your contribution will be doubled dollar for dollar. 

 GiveBIG to SOS

Thank you for all that you do,
LeeAnne Beres and the SOS team

GiveBIG is on May 4 and 5 this year - and we hope that you'll be able to support our work with a gift at this critical time.

Snake River salmon and steelhead populations are in deep trouble today - as are the many species, economies and cultures that depend upon the gifts they bring to the Northwest and nation.

The good news is that we have a unique political window of opportunity right now to move a comprehensive regional solution forward in Congress in 2021. With your support, SOS will continue its work around the clock to mobilize the public support and political leadership needed to refine and advance the transformational proposal from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) to restore the lower Snake River and invest in salmon recovery, clean energy and Northwest fishing and farming communities.

For GiveBIG this year, we have a $10,000 matching challenge. So every dollar we receive before midnight on Wednesday, May 5 will be matched 1:1. We've set an overall goal to raise $15K total (in addition to the $10K match).

Please give what you can to help us take full advantage of this match opportunity and support our work at this critical time. (Based on early giving, we're met 1/3 of the match as of May 3rd!)

You can learn more about Rep. Simpson's groundbreaking proposal and some of our recent work to advance it in Congress by checking out the stories highlighted on our homepage. And if you have any questions about our program work or giving, please reach out to joseph@wildsalmon.org.

Here are some ways you can help make GiveBIG a big win this year for the Snake River and its salmon, Southern Resident orcas - and people across the Northwest and nation.
    1    Make a gift right now!
    2    Follow us on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter to help build momentum and tell your network why you support Save Our wild Salmon through #GiveBIG.
    3    Raise additional funds with family and friends! Create a FUNdraising crowdfund page that you can share on social media to raise additional support.  
    4    Forward a link of this webpage to your networks with a personal note explaining why you support our work and encourage them to give before midnight on Wednesday - May 5.

Thank you as ever for your support and advocacy. Working with you, we'll seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore the Snake River, recover its salmon populations, and invest in our communities and in clean and salmon-friendly energy.

Take good care,

Joseph Bogaard, executive director
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition

P.S. - Gifts can also be sent - and qualify for the $10K match - via US Post to:

Save Our wild Salmon, 811 First Ave., Suite 305, Seattle, WA 98104

Thank you.

GiveBIG is this week - during May 3 and 4. Please make a generous gift to support our work at Save Our wild Salmon.

GiveBIG is an annual fundraising campaign started by the Seattle Foundation in 2011 and led today by 501 Commons.

SOS' top priority in 2022: Securing a commitment from Congress to restore a resilient, freely flowing lower Snake River by removing its four federal dams to protect its legendary fish from extinction. This represents one of our nation's best opportunities today to rebuild imperiled salmon populations, recover a rich ecosystem, and uphold our responsibilities to tribal communities and cultures.

With engaged political leadership regionally and nationally in 2022, we're in a moment of great urgency and opportunity.

Last year, Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee acknowledged the crisis facing Snake River fish and committed to develop a comprehensive plan by July 31 to protect and restore them. They've been working closely with Northwest tribes, stakeholders and other experts to identify how to replace the energy, irrigation, and transportation services currently provided by the dams. We expect a draft report to be released this month.

At this same time, talks are underway between the Nez Perce Tribe, State of Oregon, SOS member groups led by Earthjustice and the Biden Administration for the purpose of settling the long-running litigation and finally protecting and restoring endangered fish in the Snake and Columbia rivers. The deadline for these talks is also July 31. Just a couple of months from now.

In the face of this historic opportunity, SOS has recently expanded our team and our program work. We're mobilizing new people, engaging new partners - and supporting tribal leadership whenever we can. Rather than tell you about all of the good work we're doing, we want to show you. Take a look at this photo galleryto get a sense of our work to date in 2022 - and the work still ahead as we head into "the summer of decision for the Snake."

With your support, SOS will continue its work around the clock to build public support and hold accountable our political leaders to develop and begin to deliver a comprehensive plan this year that protects Snake River salmon and invests in Northwest communities.

Thank you for your advocacy and your help to make GiveBIG this year a big win for the Snake River, salmon and orcas - and for all of us.

Onward,

GiveBIG 2019 – the annual day of giving sponsored by 501 Commons – is on Wednesday, May 8.

We ask for your generous support to help SOS move faster and farther on behalf of endangered wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers – and the benefits they bring to people, other fish and wildlife including Southern Resident orca, and Northwest ecosystems.

This year - thanks to a very generous donor in the Puget Sound area - we have a fundraising match of $10,000! Your gift to SOS will be matched 1:1 between now and May 8 – up to a total of $20,000. Please help us meet this match!

To support SOS through GiveBIG 2019,you can make an online pledge anytime between now and May 8. Or you can wait until May 8 and donate online then. Either way will work.

Why support Save Our wild Salmon? Good question!Because we're a small organization that, with our coalition partners and people like you, punches well above our weight. We subscribe to the organizing principle of “endless pressure, endlessly applied” - and our smart, stubborn persistence pays off.

Our work has increased spill at the Columbia-Snake dams - helping endangered salmon and steelhead now. Last Congressional session, we killed terrible anti-salmon legislation and riders. Last summer, we helped force lower Snake River dam removal onto the agenda of the Orca Task Force. And with your help since the start of this year, we fought and won an uphill battle in the Washington State legislature that secured funds ($750K) to convene the first-ever Lower Snake River Stakeholder Forum. This will bring people and communities together for contingency planning for if - when - the dams are removed to restore this historic river and its salmon and their benefits.

Here’s what your support as part of GiveBIG will help us do in the months ahead:

• Participate in the Washington State stakeholder forum and help it succeed.
• Host public screenings regionally of an excellent new film about orca, salmon and the lower Snake: Dammed to Extinction.
• Sit down with affected stakeholders to listen and to learn, and bring fishers and farmers together to explore solutions that can help both communities.
• Schedule presentations, organize events, build new alliances and partnerships – and push on and partner with policymakers and elected officials.
• And we’re planning to hire additional SOS staff in 2019 to expand our reach and impact!

With your generous support, we'll build on our recent successes. Please GiveBIGanytime between now and May 8 at midnight!

Thank you for your activism and your generous support. Reach out to Joseph if you have any questions.

Joseph, Sam, Angela and the SOS team
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition PS - you can also send us a check if you prefer. It will count toward our $10K fundraising challenge. Send to:
Save Our wild Salmon, 811 First Ave, Suite 305, Seattle, WA 98104. Thank you! -jb

We wish you and your communities health and safety in these difficult times.

One of Save Our wild Salmon's big giving events, GiveBIG, is next week on May 5th and 6th. It provides an important opportunity to raise funds and sustain SOS' work on behalf of endangered salmon and struggling communities.

And this year, we're also excited to announce a $10,000 match opportunity for GiveBIG, thanks to a very generous donor. We hope that you can help us meet this match!

In the face of unprecedented challenges, our team of dedicated staff and contractors is adapting and finding new ways to fight for comprehensive solutions that will recover the Northwest’s endangered salmon and orcas. We need your support more than ever to ensure that we can continue working to advocate for effective collaborative solutions that rebuild the Northwest's native fish populations and invest in healthy fishing, outdoor and farming communities.

In these unsettling times, the challenges facing Northwest rivers and fish - and the many communities that rely upon them - remain. Recent adult salmon returns to the Snake and Columbia rivers are some of the lowest on record and scientists predict another hot summer in 2020, which means more bad news for salmon. And in its recent environmental review, the federal government doubled down on business as usual - leaving the thirteen endangered populations in the Columbia-Snake Basin at perilous risk of extinction.

Despite that discouraging news, at SOS we’re hopeful. Though we are now all working from home, we’re pressing forward and we’re making progress. And thanks to your partnership and advocacy, our persistence is paying off. People are mobilizing, stakeholders are talking to each other, and policymakers are stepping up. SOS is working every day to hold the federal agencies accountable and bring together people and policymakers around real and lasting solutions to restore salmon abundance in the Columbia-Snake Basin, support prosperous communities and a clean and affordable energy system for the Northwest.

To learn more about recent work and wins, visit our new Draft EIS Resource page, read our latest issue of the Wild Salmon & Steelhead News and visit our Restore the lower Snake Riverproject page.

We are very grateful for your support to ensure our important work together continues. If you are able, please schedule a tax-deductible GiveBIG gift to Save Our wild Salmon today.

As ever, thank you for your support and advocacy on behalf of resilient ecosystems and healthy communities. In these uncertain times, we can’t move forward without you.

Strength and courage,

Joseph, Sam, Carrie and the whole SOS team
Save Our wild Salmon Coalition

PS – A huge 'thank you!' to everyone who called and wrote and spoke up as part of the federal agencies' recent Draft EIS public comment period. Working together under difficult circumstances, we generated nearly 100,000 public comments in support of a free flowing lower Snake River, salmon abundance and community solutions!

PPS - If you prefer, you can also send a check to the SOS office: Save Our wild Salmon, 811 First Ave, Suite 305, Seattle, WA 98104. Thank you! -jb

Gov. Inslee signs new Executive Order on salmon recovery through restoring the Columbia River Basin.We are excited to share some excellent news out of Washington! Save Our wild Salmon Coalition commends Gov. Inslee for issuing an Executive Order that strongly emphasizes the "critical nature of salmon recovery through restoring the Columbia River Basin." "We need to think of our state and its waters as borrowed rather than inherited. We owe future generations a healthy state," said Inslee. "These fish and these waters are our responsibility to defend. We’ve charted a course for salmon recovery, and this order holds us to it."

In the Executive Order, Governor Inslee expresses strong support for the full implementation of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI)—as a "complement to Washington’s other efforts statewide to meet our decarbonization and climate goals, to secure a resilient, reliable, and affordable energy system, and to modernize our infrastructure to be best positioned for a prosperous future."

We look forward to continuing this important and urgent work in partnership with Governor-elect Bob Ferguson.

Salmon, orca, and fishing advocates deeply appreciate Governor Inslee's leadership, commitment, and resolve to recover salmon, uphold our nation’s promises to Tribal Nations, and work collaboratively for a healthier, more resilient Columbia-Snake River Basin. Wild salmon and steelhead are essential to our state’s cultures, economy, and ecosystems. Washington State’s continued strong partnership with the Six Sovereigns and prioritizing additional opportunities to implement the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is essential to our region's health and future.

Take Action: Please join us in thanking Governor Inslee for issuing an Executive Order reaffirming Washington’s commitment to restoring wild salmon, steelhead, and other native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin. 

Take Action

Learn more about the Executive Order:

• Washington’s Executive Order 24-06: Salmon Recovery: Riparian Protection and Restoration and Advancing the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and Agreement 
• Medium article by Gov. Inslee: New executive order stays the course on salmon recovery
• Nez Perce Tribe Press Release: Nez Perce Tribe commends Governor Inslee for his leadership in Washington
• Earthjustice Press Release: Earthjustice Plaintiffs Applaud Washington State’s Bold Leadership on Columbia Basin Salmon Recovery
• Columbia Snake River Campaign Press Release: Columbia Snake River Campaign Praises Governor Inslee’s Bold Leadership on Salmon Recovery

WE SO APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND COLLABORATION.

HAVE A SAFE, WARM, RELAXING HOLIDAY.

The holiday season is about tradition, community, and celebration and we couldn't be more grateful this year to have had you in our community helping to make our work possible. Here's to hoping that the New Year brings with it more opportunities to connect, grow, and collaborate. Thank you very much for your support and advocacy as we fight together to protect and restore healthy salmon and orca populations - and for the communities and cultures that depend on them.

Stay safe this holiday season!

With your strong support and advocacy, we’ve made 2021 a truly pivotal year for the Snake River, its endangered fish and the irreplaceable benefits they bring to the Northwest and nation.

Working together, let's make 2022 a year of great consequence for the Snake River, endangered salmon and orcas, justice and Northwest communities.

Thank you for all you do!

Joseph Bogaard, joseph@wildsalmon.org
Sam Mace, sam@wildsalmon.org
Carrie Herrman, carrie@wildsalmon.org

The holiday season is about tradition, community, and celebration, and we couldn't be more grateful to have you in our community and for helping make our work possible. Here's to hoping that the New Year brings more opportunities to connect, grow, and collaborate.

Thank you very much for your support and advocacy as we fight together to protect and restore healthy salmon and orca populations - and for the communities, cultures, and ecosystems they support and enrich.

Stay safe this holiday season! ❄️

Happy Holidays,
The SOS team

WE SO APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND COLLABORATION.

HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY.

Thanksgiving is a time when we can reflect on what and who we're grateful for. Despite 2020 being a year of great challenges, we don't know what we'd do without people like you who make our work possible. Thank you very much for your support and advocacy as we fight together to protect and restore healthy salmon and orca populations - and for the communities and cultures that depend on them.

Stay safe this holiday season!

WE SO APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND COLLABORATION.

HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY.

October 23, 2019

By Patrick Symmes

Just beyond the high pass into Stanley, Idaho, at the end of a very long day, I ran out of gas. It was 1997, and I still remember the sound of the engine on my father’s thirsty old Bronco, first sputtering, and then dying. But I was somewhere around seven thousand feet in the Sawtooth mountains and had gravity on my side. I managed to keep rolling downhill for miles, taking the long curves in silence, fast enough at first, then slower, then slow. It was already getting dark, and when I finally coasted to a stop on the gravel shoulder, I heard, rather than saw, the river.

It was called, like so many others, the Salmon River. All across the 260,000-square-mile Columbia River watershed, stretching across seven states and one Canadian province, tens of millions of salmon had once coursed upstream from the Pacific Ocean each year, completing a typical life cycle of two to four years by breeding in the same freshwater streams where they were born. But in the 1860s, gold mining and timbering had begun to silt up the high mountain spawning beds, covering and suffocating their eggs. And by the 1880s, massive canneries at the Columbia’s mouth in Astoria, Oregon, were tinning a million salmon a year. The Columbia salmon population began to plummet. Between 1938 and 1979, the construction of eight huge hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers deepened the collapse to extinction levels.

But there, in the river, was one of them. In the dusk, standing beside the Bronco, I heard a tremendous splash in the shallows. I ignored it, but moments later it happened again, and in disbelief I stalked slowly up the bank. A monster was there, in the curve of the shallows, a dark shape against the light gravel of the riverbed. At first I could only see the thrashing splashes of her tail, but as I approached, I began to make out the mottled flesh of a four-year-old sockeye hen, struggling to clear an area for a redd, or nest.

Against the odds, despite a century and a half of human interference, she had managed to swim 900 miles and climb 6,200 feet into the Sawtooths. The pure, oxygenated water and lack of predators here were ideal for reproducing. If a male had made the same journey, and could find her, they would send hundreds of thousands of tiny smolts downstream in the spring.

The final moments of life are never pretty. The sockeye’s skin was peeling away, its flesh lumpy and gray. Literally falling apart, the hen nevertheless summoned the energy to sweep away the silt that might choke her eggs. Every few minutes, she felt the spur of her DNA, and gave one more abrupt splash of the tail, one more heave.

Eventually an old RV came squeaking down the hill. The driver gave me a gallon of gas and, reluctantly, took my money.

Twenty years later, I jumped over a chain-link fence outside Riggins, Idaho, into a salmon hatchery on the banks of the Rapid River, a tributary of the Salmon. The facility was unimpressive, mostly corrugated sheds and a few pieces of heavy equipment scattered around.

It was closed, barely—the posted visiting hours had just expired—but I had been hopping a lot of fences with my trout rod recently, and it felt Western-normal. Anyway, I really needed to see a $68,000 fish.

Back in 1875, when salmon runs first started to crash, the Smithsonian scientist and U.S. fish commissioner Spencer Fullerton Baird was hired by the Oregon legislature to draft a plan. He knew and identified the real problems: overfishing, the degradation of high mountain streams, and an overabundance of dams, many with no fish passage. But Baird, calculating that there was no political will to solve the underlying problems, proposed a cheaper solution: hatcheries.

The salmon life cycle would be reproduced by scientists, the eggs fertilized and sown into rivers like wheat into fields. For just $15,000 a year in operating costs, he promised an unlimited harvest, and Oregon and the rest of the Columbia watershed set about building hatcheries that cranked out billions of fertilized eggs over the course of the next century.

It didn’t work. Salmon runs plummeted, despite the constant supply of artificially fertilized fish. Even when the first run of salmon was listed under the Endangered Species Act, in 1991, and the United States began spending tens of billions more on hatcheries and other salmon-restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest, the runs only marginally improved. While the threat of extinction has receded since 1983’s record low of 185,000 Columbia Chinook, the few million-fish runs have still been well below historic levels, and last year only 336,000 Chinook surged up a river that drains more water than all of France.

Today, about 300 million salmon are planted annually in the American Pacific Northwest (Alaska and Canada plant hundreds of millions more). They are grown in some 300 public fish hatcheries scattered around the watershed, many of them jointly operated by the state and the feds. Rapid River’s design was typical: a series of twelve long cement pens, all of which were stained with black mold and topped with rusting walkways. About 3 million tiny fish were spread out in front of me. In the spring they would be released directly into the river, or transported in tanker trucks and poured out upstream using long plastic chutes. Here they were still growing and waiting, circling slowly—a dark cloud of life.

Four out of five salmon in the Pacific Northwest are now born in hatcheries, and the vast majority will die. This has led the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, an organization that advises the region’s governments on environmental and energy matters, to estimate that for fish spawned in the lower river hatcheries, where success is relatively easy, it costs $66 to produce a harvested fish that navigates the trip home. In the middle regions of the watershed, where fewer fish survive the journey, it can cost up to $9,000 to bring a fish back. And the program to breed Chinook in the high mountains of Washington has been even less successful. The Council estimates that the true cost of bringing a single spawner back to that uppermost region is as much as $68,031.

In some cases, it may be even more. Two decades after I stopped by the Salmon River, for instance, just 157 sockeye made it back to those waters. Biologists determined that not one of them was hatchery-born—they were all wild fish, whose robust natural paternity and hardy stream upbringing had given them a distinct advantage in surviving the return trip to Idaho. The hatchery fish were weaker, raised in tubs and selected from a narrow genetic slice that lowered their adaptability to a changing climate. Even though they outnumbered the natural-born salmon by millions, the failure rate in this case was so high that the vast sums of money spent in upper Idaho had not purchased a single hatchery success.

The 157 wild sockeye ascending the Salmon River were far too valuable to leave in the stream to reproduce naturally. So, as is typical in the salmon-industrial complex, they were electrocuted and captured by biologists and federal “fish techs,” who trucked them in cold water tanks to another hatchery, and kept them alive in pools until their natural autumnal urges materialized and they were clubbed over the head and killed. The females were then cut open and stripped of their eggs, which were milted by a few males and later used to breed the next generation.

Even the remains of those 157 sockeye were too precious to waste. Historically, the massive annual salmon runs delivered a pulse of phosphorus and other ocean minerals to the interior of the continent, the fishes’ own flesh the means of transmission. Bears and birds had once spread the carcasses, and minerals, around; now Boy Scouts did it. There is a merit badge for fish conservation, and a troop of Idaho Scouts carried the 157 carcasses deep into the woods and left them in streambeds to mimic the conclusion of a salmon’s natural life cycle. Even death can be simulated.

At this point in history, no phase of the salmon’s life is left to nature. The spring trip undertaken by the Rapid River Chinook toward salt water would be even harder than the journey back up two or three years later, requiring them to slip past eight massive dams, past predators human and otherwise, all while avoiding wrong-turn tributaries and dam pools so slack they offered no guiding current, as well as their opposite: intentional “spills” of reservoir water, used for navigation, that can suddenly accelerate the river’s flow. There were irrigation withdrawals, turbine screens, sea lions, Superfund sites, and a thousand other obstacles—a journey so perilous fish biologists call it “running the gantlet.” Fewer than 1 percent of wild salmon return successfully to their natal waters; for hatchery-born fish, the figure is closer to .001 percent.

Now it was my turn to run the gantlet. I was headed downstream to my home in Portland, 430 road miles away, a hydrographic descent through the problems, pollutants, and bad decisions of the Columbia; through the delusion that we can control nature and reproduce the entire life cycle of a species. Every mile was a reminder of how, after a century and a half of human management, hubris, and greed, the tens of millions of fiercely strong wild salmon had become hundreds of thousands of narrow and devolved replicants. We had already killed the salmon, and our crime was written across the landscape.

At first, the way home tracked the course of the Clearwater River, Lewis and Clark’s old route westward, the road a hash of aggressive logging trucks and middle-aged men barely in control of their Harleys. Coming around a bend at Orofino, I almost choked at my first sight of the Dworshak Dam, a reclining concrete berm more than 3,000 feet long and so high—at 717 feet, the third-tallest dam in America—that it was considered impossible to add a fish ladder, a kind of watery ramp that salmonids can ascend. (We speak of salmon, but since the last ice age there has been a wide family of salmonids, including the mighty spring and summer Chinook, the elusive summer steelhead, tiny westslope cutthroat trout and leaping rainbows, and the landlocked kokanee, all cousins whose differences in size and habits dissolve the moment you slide a knife down their spines, laying open a nearly identical network of pearlescent ribs wrapped around an organ cavity, proof that these species all come from a common ancestor and have adapted themselves to thrive in every habitat from the vast ocean to mountain streams so small that they disappear by July.)

When the Dworshak Dam was built, the 60,000 steelhead that hatched upriver each year had simply been written off. Altogether, some 40 percent of the original spawning habitat in the Columbia Basin has been lost in this way, cut off by big dams and little culverts, regarded as the necessary cost of flood control, agriculture, and cheap electricity. The proposed solution was always the same: build a “mitigation hatchery” to pump more fish into the damaged system.

The Dworshak Dam’s inevitable handmaiden was the largest hatchery in the Pacific Northwest, a complex that now helps release 5 million hatchlings into Idaho rivers every year.

This was less an attempt to restore salmon than an effort to alleviate the concerns of fishermen like me while claiming to address the broader crisis. The ultimate purpose of salmon “restoration” efforts, in other words, is to keep anyone from noticing that salmon are not being restored. The dirty secret is that only about 2 percent of spending on “restoring” salmon actually flows directly into restoring natural salmon runs. The rest is spent on mitigating losses by managing the river—its dams and infrastructure projects, even its navigation features such as buoys and docks—and by “supplementing” rivers year-round with fish.

In Lewiston, Idaho, the placid Clearwater entered the fast-moving Snake River, and I resupplied with food and gas. The city is 465 river miles from the ocean, yet Lewiston has a Coast Guard Auxiliary station and is technically an oceangoing port with access to the Pacific. Connecting the city to the sea, so that grain barges might float all the way down to the terminals near Portland, had required the final, most destructive phase in the taming of the Columbia watershed, when the Snake was handcuffed by four hydroelectric dams in the 1960s and ’70s. A cold desert river full of oxygen, with swift white water and natural resting pools, had been transformed into a series of warm, stagnant reservoirs.

That night, I camped outside my car at a marina full of flat-water party boats. I paid a small fee for the privilege, thus supporting one of thousands of small businesses that make a living off dams and reservoirs. Jobs, careers, even whole towns have grown up around this infrastructure. Most dams are required to spill extra water at certain times of year, to help baby salmon slip down the gantlet, but water in the West is growth, farming, real estate, and direct revenue. A shipping executive in Portland once described to me how lowering the water level in the Snake by a single inch, to help salmon, forced him to cut a full ton of wheat from each barge. “That means more trips and more pollution,” he told me. More wheat would be carried in trains and trucks, raising emissions and prices. The effects rippled through everything.

After a night in the marina, and some fruitless casting for trout around the silent moorage at dawn, I followed the Snake northwest into Washington. I passed the Lower Granite Dam and then, hours later, the Little Goose Dam, where I sat under the midday sun, in the singed brown landscape, and watched the Snake thunder out of eight spillways, the plumes so large they clouded the sky, the sound so loud that my chest vibrated from a quarter mile away. Like all the Snake dams, Little Goose is low and ugly, with none of the soaring ambition of the 1930s W.P.A. dams. All four Snake dams together provide just 5 percent of the region’s electricity, yet the violence done to the river is boggling. It wasn’t like natural white water or a waterfall, but rather the ejecta blasted out of an industrial forge.

The locks beside the dam began to move. “Locking through” is a nautical ritual, and I expected to see a shipment of wheat or some crucial industrial product pass by. But when the two heavily reinforced steel gates finally finished swinging open, only a little red tug emerged, pushing a puny barge labeled juvenile salmon.

It was carrying tankloads of hatchery fish down below the dam to prevent their deaths. If left to swim downstream by themselves, some of the sprats would get lost and overheated in the stagnant reservoirs behind each dam; despite screens, others would be ground up in the turbines. Those lucky enough to navigate the turbine chutes could still be crushed by the intense water pressure and later die from the bends, like a scuba diver, or expire from over-oxygenation. The Army Corps of Engineers maintains that nearly all the salmon survive this passage, but the pulverized smolts I saw at the Little Goose, pooled neatly below the dam, seemed to belie the claim.

Just beyond the Little Goose, the red barge tied up again and waited, guarding its cargo of baby clones against reality. I was itching to move on. The dam site, like many, features a Corps of Engineers parking lot where you can camp long-term. A few battered RVs, encircled with lawn chairs and generators and engine parts, littered the asphalt. They were occupied by the financially insecure, people trapped by economic brutality, unshaven old men with broken fishing rods propped against the railings of platforms overlooking the river. I felt an uncontrollable urge to flee before I became one of them.

Hours later, I passed the last and lowest dam on the Snake, Ice Harbor, visible right from the highway. The Columbia itself then finally slipped into view. The mother river was wide and slow out there, in a section called the Hanford Reach. Its clean gravel beds and sluggish currents once attracted the so-called June Hogs, a special run of monstrous Chinook. A century ago they were the biggest fish on the whole river, sometimes caught at 100 pounds. The June Hogs still appear at Hanford, but in greatly reduced numbers, and in greatly reduced size, bred down by the evolutionary pressure of a century of trophy hunting and warmer, more polluted oceans. Today, a salmon of 60 pounds would make the front page of the Oregonian.

In 1942, the federal government chose the Hanford Reach for its first plutonium production facility, where the fuel for Fat Man and the majority of the next 60,000 atomic bombs would be refined. Decades of high nuclear gamesmanship then left the reach with 53 million gallons of radioactive waste, which, over time, seeped out of the storage tanks at the facility and contaminated 100 square miles of groundwater. The Department of Energy now spends $2.1 billion a year—almost 10 percent of its annual budget—on cleaning up Hanford, which in turn has created tens of thousands of jobs and converted three nearby farm towns into the sprawling Tri-Cities metropolis. Almost half of the local county’s tax revenue now comes from cleanup-related projects. The truth was visible in the car dealerships, food franchises, and boat-storage facilities wrapped along the highway: we manage the river for human uses, and have always chosen industry over salmon. We were only ever pretending we could have both.

As I pulled out of Pendleton, Oregon, a city dominated by its famed 17,000-seat rodeo arena, my phone advised me that I wouldn’t need to make any turns for another two hundred miles. The Columbia settled into a mostly straight run westward, marking the border between Oregon and Washington. Headed to my final stop, in Portland, I flew over a hot and dusty plain. There was something sinister in covering huge stretches of river at seventy miles per hour, the Columbia right alongside, wide and gleaming in the high desert flatscape. What had taken Lewis and Clark a month took me a single afternoon.

Unlike the Snake, where dams were mostly hidden away in remote canyons, the Columbia’s human alterations were openly displayed to the neighboring highway. I passed along Lake Wallula, a deliberate misnomer for the wide reservoir of water backed up behind the McNary Dam. An hour later, I approached the John Day River, and again the pattern repeated: a slack “lake” had replaced the river, and a dam offered a broad cascade of turbine-whitened plumes, below which flowed a narrower, wilder river, the water briefly surging through its historic bed. Two dozen little aluminum boats were scattered downstream, hunting August fish trapped by the concrete wall.

Four volcanoes soon arose in the west, white-topped markers of the Cascade Range. Pods of fishing boats marked the entrances of cold rivers, first the Yakima, where the Yakima Indian reservation had been experimenting with a pneumatic “fish cannon” to shoot adult salmon over one dam, and then the Deschutes, where a $100 million concrete straw had been installed to suck baby fish from a reservoir and spurt them out downstream. These were paradoxical rivers, precious cold headwaters in the desert, the fish runs kept barely alive with billions in work-arounds and techno-quackery.

The Columbia started to slow and broaden again, the slack water created by the 1957 Dalles Dam, which had buried the old Celilo Falls, a set of rapids where coho and Chinook had been caught with dip nets for thousands of years. The salmon had once fueled trade and year-round prosperity for Native people across the region. One member of the Lewis and Clark expedition marveled at the bounty on display in one native village, remarking upon the numerous piles of “pounded Sammon Stacked up on the Shores.”

In 1996, the historian Richard White argued that the Columbia was so heavily interdicted by dams, hatcheries, canals, irrigation, and navigation schemes that it was no longer a natural river, but a hybrid of nature and technology. He called it the “organic machine.” I had been struggling on this drive to consider the river in these terms, but where was the nature? The “river” was one continuous series of slack-water pools, a canal through a desert. I had not seen a rock, or even a ripple of natural white water, for a hundred miles.

At dusk, I finally pulled to a halt at the Bonneville Dam. Bonneville, actually two different dams linked by an island, is the lowest and largest of the Columbia dams, and the source of the electricity that lights the lamp above my desk in Portland. I thought of a cluster of wind farms I had noticed earlier along the highway. There were thousands of turbines in the region now, including thousands more on the far side of the river, in Washington. Those windmills could generate, under the right conditions, so much energy that the Bonneville Power Administration would scale back electricity generation at several dams in response.

The alternative-energy revolution was going to bust the utility model, where the river was tamed to “do some work for me,” as Woody Guthrie sang. And if the power system was vulnerable to collapse, so was the entire set of political priorities on the river. In the dark, late that night, I drifted into my driveway in Portland and fell asleep in my own bed, dreaming of vested interests undone, of surprised faces at the Bonneville and John Day and Ice Harbor dams, the turbines motionless, the water running evenly down through a machine gone silent.

It is tempting to dream of blowing everything up, of restoring natural flows, closing all the hatcheries, and returning to some long-lost Eden. Langdon Cook, the Seattle-based nature writer, fantasized to me briefly about one solution that would quickly restore salmon runs. “Ban all fishing,” he said. In the entire Columbia basin. The problem, Cook noted, is that this measure would enrage commercial fishermen, who would unite with their allies, the Native American tribes who were more than happy to see the rivers filled with hatchery fish. Those tribes could and did fight such cases all the way to the Supreme Court, where they had a habit of winning.

One of the most militant and absurdly powerful special interests in the Pacific Northwest is my own cohort, the recreational anglers. At the slightest hint of a threat to the “put-and-take” system now in place, in which hatcheries supply weekend anglers with sport and table fish, they harass their legislators mercilessly. In 2014, the Three Rivers Sportsman’s Alliance protested the removal of dams on several Oregon rivers at the annual Portland Native Fish Society dinner, circling the venue in pickups towing fishing boats. The members of the Alliance believed, correctly, that without dams there would be no justification for the hatcheries that restocked the Sandy and other convenient rivers on a yearly basis. Greg Osburn, the Alliance’s director, sent me an old scientific study—the one hatchery advocates always cite—that claimed that hatcheries had successfully restored runs up in Idaho. Given that zero hatchery fish had actually reached the Sawtooths in 2017, it was woefully out of date. Moreover, most of Osburn’s supporters were not anglers themselves, he told me, but local businesspeople interested in profiting from the fishermen: fishing guides; bait shop proprietors; boat dealers; gas station, restaurant, and motel operators; and “lakefront” (reservoir) property owners. It was a list of short-term and shortsighted beneficiaries.

If we can’t blow up the machine, however, perhaps we can still tune it. Guido Rahr, president of the Wild Salmon Center in Portland, told me that human involvement on the Columbia was too complex to disentangle all at once. “You’ve got to dial everything up and down,” he said. That means adjusting hatchery outputs, rather than banning all hatcheries; altering dam flows by degrees to favor salmon, rather than demolishing all of the dams themselves. It means picking specific places to rebuild diverse and wild populations, rather than pumping hundreds of millions of de facto clones (and hundreds of millions of dollars) into the entire river.

Mark Sherwood of the Native Fish Society suggests shifting funds and priorities away from navigation and sport fishing and toward habitat restoration, enforcement, and monitoring.

Rewilding the Columbia so that natural systems protect and expand the runs on their own would be no more expensive than the current system, according to Sherwood. “It’s a wash,” he told me, “but with all these other benefits, like clean water and restored wildlife.” Eventually, a healthy Columbia with big natural runs of salmon could generate $600 million in annual economic activity and add 20,000 jobs to the region.

Needless to say, the Trump Administration and its retrograde allies in the West will do nothing toward this future. But scaled against nature, Trump is brief. Salmon are adaptable, and patient, their four-year life cycle giving them twenty-five generations in a century, twenty-five chances to start over, and perhaps even adjust to a warming climate. Scaled against natural time, everything is possible.

As August turned to September, the sun dropped and the first cold freshet of autumn rainwater flowed out of the mountains and tickled the noses of the salmon waiting off Astoria, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean. I’d fished them in the sea there, where the Chinook were called “brights,” because they came aboard gleaming with blue-green oceanic vitality, and the smaller coho glittered like silver nuggets. I’d caught them in the river too, where within hours of reentering the fresh water they had already begun to lose that color, their dullness the first sign of the fatal weakening that would accompany them upstream, toward the smell of some natal tributary, chilly, pure, free of predators, an ancestral homeland, even if, for four out of five, that ancestral stream was being channeled through a hatchery trap.

By October, a few coho and even fewer Chinook would make a right turn at the Willamette River, on the outskirts of Portland. They would swim upstream, through downtown, and some would turn left at a suburban gusher called Johnson Creek, which flows through a landscape of auto yards, tract housing, and homeless encampments. If they veered left again from Johnson, they would reach a rivulet called Crystal Springs Creek, near my own house.

Salmon had died out there in the 1850s, when the first mill dam went up. That dam was removed in the 1980s, but the salmon did not come back. Nor did they return during a decades-long effort on behalf of hatchery experts to plant sprats in the stream. But a few years ago, in 2014, a couple of strays—literally two—made the turn from Johnson Creek into Crystal Springs.

The female was first spotted carving a redd in front of one of my neighbors’ houses. She had no reason to be there—she could not have been spawned in Crystal Springs. But the fish had colonized it anyway; not everything is determined by DNA. We must all have a taste for wandering, for finding a niche in new territory, for surviving changes. The male coho, long and scarred, his flesh beginning to decay, followed her around the weeds, patrolling.

Reed College, the city of Portland, the county, the state, the feds, and several salmon-recovery organizations spent the next two years tearing up the park through which Crystal Springs flows. Heavy machines ripped out narrow culverts and removed retaining walls. For half a mile the whole watercourse was de-channelized, so that the spring water could bend through the park, alternating slow curves and fast runs with rippling currents. Native wetlands were carefully replanted along the banks by teams of biologists and botanists. Dead trees were imported on trucks, ground smooth with machine tools to prevent children from getting splinters, individually numbered, and then lowered into the stream, creating artisanal eddies. Two million dollars later, the park reopened with a celebration featuring a giant fiberglass Chinook.

I go down there sometimes, hunting the fish with nothing but my eyes. My son joins me, often with a friend or two, and we wander the new boardwalk, looking. We follow the spring downstream, through the lawns, across roads, and past braying children. Once, in an eddy, my son found a bleached white carcass bobbing in the reeds. It was a coho—more bones than flesh. I had to wonder whether Boy Scouts, or professional “fish techs,” had intentionally planted this carcass in the shallows. Maybe it was a drop of phosphor for the ecosystem, or a biochemical signpost saying, Turn left here.

I haven’t seen a live salmon, yet. Sometimes I even walk the bank at night, just listening to the water as it forces its way down toward the sea. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait. But something is coming.

Rally for Salmon, 7 Waters Canoe Family ©Environment Washington

November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. This month, and every day, we honor Indigenous people and communities, their histories, cultures, traditions, and ancestral knowledge passed down from generations that hold sacred obligations to protect the land, water, air, and people. To celebrate the invaluable and innumerable contributions of Indigenous people and communities, we encourage you to read the list of resources developed by Children of the Setting Sun (with a few additions from the SOS team) on the several ways to honor and celebrate Native American Heritage Month and every day:

• Honor the land you live on by recognizing and identifying Tribes with ancestral ties to the land. 
  • Check out Native Land Digital’s Ancestral Territories Map.

• Explore Native American cuisine.
  • Check out Lummi Seafood Market
  • Learn how a few Tribes and Tribal members prepare smoked salmon:
    • Insights from two Puyallup Tribal members on smoked salmon preparation
    • The Perfect Smoked Salmon Recipe By Bad Ash Outdoors
    • Moon of the Dog Salmon by Children of the Setting Sun

• Engage with Native American communities.

• Participate in Native American cultural events.
  • If you live in the Bellingham area, here is a great resource for events happening around our community.

• Read Native American Literature, Listen to Native American Podcasts, & Watch Native American Films.
  • Check out the list below for a few recommendations! 

• Follow Native American organizations, leaders and influencers on social media and learn from them throughout the year.

• Invest in Native American organizations and groups.
  • Did you know that only 0.4% of foundation funding is directed to Native communities?
  • Check out GiveNative for a list of Indigenous-led non-profits to donate to. 
  • Donate to Children of the Setting Sun, Nimíipuu Protecting the Environment, Se'Si'Le, 7 Waters Canoe Family.

Books, Articles, Films, & Podcasts to Honor Native American Heritage Month

2023 All Our Relations photos, courtesy of Se'Si'Le and photography by Megan Mack.

Read

Books:

• Jesintel: Living Wisdom from Coast Salish Elders by Children of the Setting Sun Productions, Darrell Hillaire (Editor), Natasha Frey (Editor)
• The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well by Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins 
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

Articles:

• NRDC: Biden Turns Attention to Long-Ignored Tribal Injustice in the Columbia River Basin
• Seattle Times: How Native people are revitalizing the natural nourishment of the Pacific Northwest
• The Olympian: 50th anniversary of Boldt Decision is a ‘good time to be alive’ for Nisqually community by Willie Frank III
• NRDC: "We Are the Same as the Salmon": A Story of Suffering and Perseverance
• NRDC: Saving Salmon—from One Generation of Fisherwomen to the Next
• NWPB:  First foods lead the way in Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation natural resource management 
• Seattle Times Guest Opinion: Stop sacrificing Indigenous sacred sites in the name of climate changeby Jeremy Takala and Lauren Goldberg  
• Seattle Times Guest Opinion: Make salmon restoration a policy and budget priorityby Rep. Debra Lekanoff 
• Canary Media: With renewables, Native communities chart a path to energy sovereignty 
• KUOW: Youth rally to protect salmon in the Snake River 
• OPB Reporter's Notebook: The racism, and resilience, behind today’s Pacific Northwest salmon crisis 
• Seattle Times: How Northwest tribes are leading the push to restore eel-like lampreys 

Watch

• Check out CSSP's YouTube channel for various powerful films about culture, sovereignty, environment such as Our Sacred Obligation (24 min)
• Covenant of The Salmon People(57 min)
  • Host a screening in your community! To screen the film, please contact the Nez Perce Tribe Communications Department at communications@nezperce.org or (208) 621-4772. Check out their website for more information about this film and upcoming screenings near you. If you are unable to host or attend a community screening, the film will be available temporarily on PBS.
• A Healing Journey(2019) (15 min) 
• sčədadxʷ (salmon)narrated by Billy Frank Jr. (5 min) (great for kids of all ages!)
• Land of the Yakamas (10 min) 
• Reciprocal Sacrifice(12 min) 
• River of Return(27 min)

Listen

Podcasts:

• Young & Indigenous


Northwest Artists Against Extinction and Save Our wild Salmon Coalition will present Honor: People and Salmon, an exhibit of works by artists and advocates who create art to evoke support for restoring salmon and orcas, and the many communities that honor and cherish these emblematic species. 

Salmon are crucial to the cultures and economies of Northwest Tribes and an essential food source for critically endangered Southern Resident orcas. Healthy salmon populations deliver irreplaceable benefits to the peoples and places of this region. NWAAE brings artists together to inspire change in perspective and policy that honors past, present, and future generations in the stewardship of these shared lands and waters.

Honor: People and Salmon will be shown in the Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA). The exhibit will open on March 6th and run through April 15th, 2023.

Submit Artwork for Honor: People and Salmon

We are looking for artwork submissions for this upcoming gallery! Do you have a vision for art or preexisting work that you would like to be considered for this exhibit?

Submit your work for this exhibit by Friday, January 20, 2023, 11:59 PM

Submit Artwork Here

Artwork will need to be framed and / or gallery-ready to hang. Artworks will need to and arrive at UPS between February 21 - March 1, 2023.

Please contact Britt Freda, britt@nwaae.org, with questions regarding this exhibit and visit nwaae.org for further information. 

You’re invited to join us at Northwest Artists Against Extinction’s first gallery exhibit: Honor: People and Salmon.

Honor: People and Salmon, an exhibit of works by artist-advocates who create art to evoke support for restoring salmon and orcas, their lands and waters, and the many communities that honor and cherish these emblematic species. Salmon are intrinsic to the cultures and economies of many Northwest Tribes and an essential food source for endangered Southern Resident orcas.

A project of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, Northwest Artists Against Extinction brings artists together to inspire change in perspective and policy that honors past, present and future generations in the stewardship of lands and waters, and fish and wildlife.

Honor: People and Salmon will be shown in the Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA). The exhibit opened on March 6th and runs through on April 15th with a special evening reception. Gallery hours are Mon.- Fri., 10 am – 7 pm; Sat., Noon - 5 pm PT (closed Sundays).

Please join us to support our incredible participating artists, to view their powerful, beautiful and moving artworks, and to be inspired to act in honor of salmon, orca, and the communities that depend on them.

Please contact Britt Freda, britt@nwaae.org, with questions regarding this exhibit and visit nwaae.org for more information about Northwest Artists Against Extinction.

See below for information on the artists featured in the Honor: People and Salmon exhibit and event details below. 

Save the date for Honor: People and Salmon exhibit special events!

1. March 23rd - Honor: People and Salmon Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion
2. April 15th - Honor: People and Salmon Closing Reception with exhibiting artists and contributing poets from I Sing The Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State

April 15th - Honor: People and Salmon Closing Reception (Tacoma, WA)
When: April 15th, 5pm - 7pm 
Where: Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA
Who: All are welcome. This reception is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and appetizers will be served.
What: You’re invited to the closing reception for Honor: People and Salmon! Register here!

This Saturday, April 15th from 5 - 7pm, artists, salmon advocates and community members will gather for a reception to celebrate the closing of the Honor: People & Salmon art exhibit, and the gift of wild salmon in the Northwest.

This reception will be attended by many of the exhibiting artists. Holly J. Hughes, co-publisher of Empty Bowl Press, will be joined by poets, including Arianne True, the newest Washington State Poet Laureate, Sasha LaPointe, Linera Lucas, Ann Spiers, and Amy Gulick, Kathryn True, who will share their poems from the newly released anthology, I Sing The Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State, edited by Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priestand published by Empty Bowl Press with a grant from the Academy of American Poets. The anthology will be for sale at the closing reception by the publisher, Empty Bowl Press. Register here!