Save Our Wild Salmon is a nationwide coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and sportsfishing associations, businesses, river groups, and taxpayer advocates working collectively to restore self-sustaining, abundant, and harvestable populations of wild salmon and steelhead to rivers, streams and oceans of the Pacific Salmon states.
This summer, the Columbia-Snake River Basin is witnessing a very positive return of salmon and steelhead. Scientists credit favorable ocean conditions, along with the court-ordered spill of water over some of the basin’s dams, for swelling the ranks of fish.
The increases in spill (the good kind) — won in court by Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition members alongside the legal team at Earthjustice — helps many more baby salmon survive their epic migrations from mountain streams to the sea where they grow to adulthood. Scientists also credit this spill with significantly contributing to a chinook salmon return currently 140 percent above the 10-year average and a sockeye run breaking modern records.
For those working to restore vibrant runs of salmon to the Columbia-Snake, this year’s salmon returns offer a glimpse of what could be achieved if we follow science to protect what was once the world’s most productive salmon watershed. For the communities that rely on these fish, and for the durability of the Endangered Species Act, these returns should represent the floor, not the ceiling, as we assess the recovery of Columbia-Snake salmon and the economic, cultural, and ecosystem needs of the region.
The Columbia and Snake Rivers are slated to be the conveyor belt for one of the world's largest intentional environmental disasters.
An oil company focused on profits and a government failing its duties to people has reared a new threat to wild salmon and local communities. It comes in two parts – development of the Canadian oil sands beneath the boreal forests of northern Alberta, and Exxon's surprise plan to use the Columbia and Snake Rivers, plus Idaho and Montana highways, to ship huge mining machinery to those oil sands.
Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier
A culture of politics trumping science, many say, persists despite the president's promises. The use of potentially toxic dispersants to fight the gulf oil spill is cited as just one example.
By Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger, Tribune Washington Bureau
July 12th, 2010 - Excerpt:
"Federal scientists said they were pressured to minimize the effects they had documented of dams on struggling salmon populations." and later... "In the Pacific Northwest, Ruch said, his organization has heard in the last 16 months from multiple federal fisheries biologists who report that they are under pressure to downplay the impact of dams on wild salmon."
Yet another example (think tourism-rich Florida, which banned offshore drilling decades ago, vs. drill rig-happy Louisiana re: the BP Oil Spill) of how tourism can be just as fruitful--economically-speaking--as harming our earth for quick and dirty profit.
The below comes via Working Snake River:
In the conservation movement, it's crucial to remember that everything is always interconnected. Be it economics, social or environmental implications, one decision affects another--and often, in a big way. That's what's currently taking place in Washington State, where business and community leaders are taking a stand on an issue that relates to salmon, energy, agriculture, and transportation issues and has political implications for the state and the broader Pacific Northwest region. The effort is called Working Snake River, and it's a concentrated effort to bring citizens, businesses, and elected leaders together to restore salmon and steelhead and ensure economic prosperity for the state and regional economy.
So how do fish and economy go hand in hand?
"Salmon aren't just a part of our state's natural heritage, they are also important to our economy," said Jeremy Brown, commercial salmon troller and Washington Trollers Association board member. "Especially in our coastal and river communities, salmon has traditionally been a huge source of good jobs and income. The population declines of Columbia Basin salmon in the past several decades have taken a heavy toll on the health of our communities. It's time to sit down together to figure out how we can constructively address these issues for people on both sides of the mountains."
On Sunday, June 27th, videographer Skip Armstrong headed out to Dagger Falls and caught the following footage. At 5800 feet in elevation and about 700 miles inland, Dagger Falls is one of the more famous rapids along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River (tributary to the Snake River) which stretches through central Idaho's Sawtooth Moutain Range and the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
This region represents the largest and best protected salmon habitat in the lower 48 states. When we say one-of-a-kind salmon, one-of-a-kind habitat - this it it. Please enjoy the video and remember to Take Action.
June is Orca Month!
Check out the new video on Puget Sound orcas and Columbia-Snake salmon...
Let's really talk about taking down those Snake River dams
June 07, 2010 - Economic effects have long been cited as reasons to keep the dams in place. While some inland businesses and farmers are willing to look at how dam removal could work for their communities, the leadership for a larger conversation has been missing. Are you listening, Sen. Murray?
By Daniel Jack Chasan
If the four lower Snake River dams come down, will they drag the economy of eastern Washington and western Idaho down with them? Salmon advocates don't think so.
They think that anyone who takes an unbiased look at the costs and benefits of those dams will call in the bulldozers. They have argued for years that the dams should be breached, so that Idaho salmon populations have a better shot at recovery. But they say they'll take a chance that if someone weighed all the costs and benefits, the dams would stay. They want somebody to do the math.
Steve Wright has been reappointed administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, a post he held in the Bush Administration and the Northwest's most important federal job.
But Wright's retention at the helm of the Portland-based power bureaucracy disappointed environmental groups and fisheries advocates, and opens a breach between greens and the Obama administration.
"Instead of 'Change We Can Believe In' we got change that didn't happen," said Bill Arthur of the Sierra Club.
Crafting the operating manual for the Columbia River system
Editorial, May 28th, 2010
Federal District Judge James Redden is getting an updated operating plan for the Columbia River hydro system. He will decide if it is a technical fix he sought, or whether it provides him with reassurances about backup plans for changing river and fish conditions.
Years of battling about how best to manage the Columbia River hydroelectric system without doing greater harm to endangered salmon and steelhead is coming to another decision point.
Attempts to craft a workable plan for a spectrum of needs and uses — power, irrigation, flood control, navigation and recreation — have exhausted Cabinet secretaries and frustrated environmentalists.
The Obama administration seeks approval for a massaged Bush administration plan, and it faces a tough arbiter, federal District Judge James Redden.
