By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune
 
A federal judge approved a plan Tuesday that will spill more water at Snake and Columbia river dams this spring to help juvenile salmon and steelhead reach the ocean. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon at Portland signed off on the plan negotiated by parties to a long-running lawsuit over the dams and the fate of Endangered Species Act-protected anadromous fish runs. Last May, Simon sided with the plaintiffs, which include the state of Oregon, salmon advocates and the Nez Perce Tribe, and ordered the federal government to increase the amount of water spilled at the dams. However, Simon delayed implementation until this spring to give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dams, the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets power produced at them, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is in charge of ensuring salmon and steelhead protected, time to negotiate with the plaintiffs and work out the specific details.
 
According to his order, the government will spill enough water to bump up against gas saturation standards established by the states of Oregon and Washington. It will start April 3 and last until June 20. According to some studies, spilling water at the dams increases river speeds and decreases travel time for juvenile fish heading to the ocean. It also results in fewer of them passing the dams through turbines or through fish bypass systems that are made up of a series of pipes and screens and funnel the fish through and around the dams. Studies by the federal Fish Passage Center have shown that fish that pass the dams by following flows over spillways survive and return at a higher rate than fish that go through turbines or fish bypass systems. Salmon advocates said the order meets their expectations and predicted fish and anglers will reap the benefits. "We are really heartened and encouraged that we are going to get some help to the fish this migration season and grateful the federal agencies finally came to agreement on it," said Sam Mace of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition at Spokane. A spokesperson for industries that rely on the dams for power generation said the spill plan will cost millions of dollars in lost power generation and provide scant benefits to the fish. Terry Flores, executive director of Northwest River Partners, said spilling water takes $40 million worth of potential power off of the grid and only increases fish survival by a few percentage points.
"We are all for spending dollars that will help restore these listed stocks, but we don't think this latest spill operation will provide any added benefits based on the science in front of us," she said. "Obviously the court thinks otherwise." Although the plan sets specific spill standards, it also includes an adaptive management provision that allows dam and fish managers to reduce spill in the event of unintended consequences such as the turbulence below the dams making it more difficult for adult salmon and steelhead to find fish ladders.

Learn more about the Salmon / Orca link here.

Visit the Orca Month website to get involved.

August 7, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. — The local salmon population is in danger and people are demanding that lawmakers take action.

On Saturday, communities across the Pacific Northwest rallied in support of removing dams along the lower Snake River. They claim the dams are posing a threat to salmon.

The US Environmental Protection Agency says that dams can make river temperatures rise. Anything above 68 degrees is dangerous for salmon. At last check, the Columbia River at Portland was at 77 degrees.

"This is a critical moment," said Betsy Emergy with the conservation group Association of Northwest Steelheaders. "We're really at an excess where we need to make a big decision, and that really comes down to our legislators. We need the legislators to follow the science and remove the lower Snake River dams."

This summer, they asked dam operators to release more water into rivers in an effort to cool down the water, but they were refused.

The EPA also filed a preliminary injunction in federal court against the Army Corps of Engineers, addressing their operation of the Snake River dams.

KATU News has reached out to the office of Governor Kate Brown for comment regarding what advocates are asking of lawmakers.

Her office replied, saying that while they were not familiar with the specific rally that took place on Saturday, "Governor Brown recognizes that robust and abundant native salmon and steelhead populations are essential to a healthy Columbia River, and that those populations can be maintained alongside a robust regional economy including affordable power, water for agriculture, and transportation for goods. Oregon remains committed to a collaborative process with all Columbia Basin stakeholders."

In an earlier statement released in February of this year, Brown voiced support for a bipartisan solution to removing the dams.

February 1, 2019

By Reed Andrews VANCOUVER, Wash. — Washington's Department of Ecology is seeking public input for its plan to require federal dams to treat, clean, and cool water along the Snake and Columbia rivers in an effort to boost the salmon population. "That minute that water turns from ice or snow to liquid, we've got to look at what we can do to keep it as cold as possible," said Charles Hudson with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council says 55 percent of the salmon population is permanently blocked by dams. Hudson adds that not only do dams interrupt salmon during their life cycle but they also can lead to warmer water temperatures. Salmon thrive in water up to 68 degrees. A study from the Environmental Protection Agency looked at water temperatures in the Columbia River over a five-year period, starting in 2011, and found that 90 percent of the time the water was too warm for salmon to thrive. "When you get above that, it gets more and more precarious," Hudson said. "It becomes a function of both the temperature and the amount of time they spend in it." The Department of Ecology told KATU News that there's no set plan for how the dams would treat and cool the water, or when the regulation would go into effect. Hudson adds that while dams take a share of the responsibility for hurting the salmon population, other factors such as climate change and deforestation contribute as well. "Any removal of shade, the cooling mechanism for the tributary, will have an effect," Hudson said. "What we'd like to see is a regional consistent water quality standard set at a good, high level." A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the Washington State School for the Blind located at 2214 E. 13th Street in Vancouver at 2:30 p.m. It'll be held in the Fries Auditorium.

By Megan Magensky
January 13, 2020

PASCO, Wash. — The final panel discussing the potential removal of the snake river dams happened Monday night at the Pasco Red Lion.

Last month, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee released a draft of a report including several perspectives on the potential removal of the Snake River Dams.

“If there were easy solutions to this problem we would have done them already,” said Inland Northwest director for Save Our Wild Salmon Sam Mace.

Both sides of the dam argument agree the Snake River Dams impact our economy and agriculture, but several groups are pushing to have the dams removed

“It's not the only thing that we need to do, but it has to be a corner stone of an effective plan if we're going to bring back healthy, harvestable numbers of salmon,” said Sam Mace.

All species of salmon that use the Snake River are either threatened or endangered according to the Endangered Species Act. Supporters of the dam removal say the dams are responsible for a decline in salmon.

“The whole world depends on us for our fish, and I want to take our rightful place again,” said Carrie Shewster Matriarch of the Palouse Tribe.

The dams also create energy used by Bonneville Power Administration. According to Governor Inslee’s draft report, most of the energy goes to a reserve that helps in blackouts.

“Without these dams we would not have the ability to produce the renewable, reliable and affordable hydroelectric power we rely on,” said Representative Dan Newhouse (R-WA). “We would lose well-paying jobs and investment in our local economies.”

The dams also impact agriculture. Dryland farmers use the rivers for transporting their crops on barges. According to Inslee’s report if the dams were to be breached the water levels would be too low for barge travel. Farmers would have to use railroads or trucks.

The report also says irrigated farmland with crops like apples, onions, potatoes or corn would have to move locations or change the crops, which could put them out of business.

“Without these dams our region and the state of Washington would simply not be what it is today,” Rep. Newhouse said.

But the supporters of dam removal say there has to be a solution that benefits both groups.

“Can we find a way to have wheat and wild salmon on our plate going forward?” said Mace.

In Governor Inslee’s report, he stresses a need for more respectful conversations from all parties involved.

August 8, 2021

SPOKANE, Wash. - As a massive drought and record-breaking heatwave continues to plague the western United States, local wildlife advocates are concerned about the impacts this will have on the endangered salmon populations.

In Washington Oregon and Idaho salmon populations are already dangerously low. Local damming paired with extreme weather events are making it harder for these fish populations to recover.

"[Salmon] have a threshold of 68 degrees. When it goes over that they experience a lot of health problems, some of which are fatal," said Carrie Herrmon, outreach coordinator with Save Our Wild Salmon.

For decades now, salmon species native to the west have been endangered, with some areas seeing their salmon populations going extinct.

In 1992, after multiple dams were added to the lower Snake River, the population of Sockeye salmon went from roughly 30,000 to just one. Wildlife officials reported seeing just one salmon make the 900-mile journey from the ocean to the Redfish Lake where the salmon usually breed. Locals named the salmon "Lonesome Larry," starting a statewide effort to restore salmon populations.

On Saturday, the Save the Wild Salmon organization hosted a Rally for the River event in various locations across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. In Spokane, people got to float down the Spokane River and enjoy some food and drinks along the way. There were also speakers at the event, advocating for action at the state level to help protect the salmon.

"Not only do they deserve to survive as a species, but they also are a major food source for orca in the Puget Sound, and there are businesses that depend on them-- commercial and sport fishing businesses-- as well as honoring tribal treaties," said Carrie.

Carrie said their hope is that local lawmakers can start working to find solutions to help the same start rebuilding their populations. Those solutions include dam removal along the lower Snake River, as well as a more comprehensive plan for recovery.

She said the best way for the community to help is by contacting local lawmakers to share your concerns about this issue.

By Kaila Lafferty
August 7, 2021

SEATTLE — Conservation groups are calling on lawmakers for the removal of all four lower Snake River Dams. The goal is to save salmon and in turn southern resident orcas.

After a blessing from the Duwamish Tribe, kayaks, canoes and paddle boards hit the Puget Sound to save the salmon and orca of the Pacific Northwest.

“Indigenous nations here in the Northwest have orca as part of their culture and their spirituality. So, if we lost these incredible animals, I don’t think we would be the same Northwest that we have been,” said Chris Connolly, with the Endangered Species Coalition.

The event was called “Rally for the River” and was put on by several organizations with one goal: the removal of the lower Snake River Dams to save salmon and orcas in the Pacific Northwest.

“These four dams in the lower Snake River were erected in the 70s and 80s, fish biologists knew then that these dams were going to really hurt salmon populations,” Connolly explained.

The four lower Snake River dams, all in eastern Washington, are hydroelectric Dams.

These groups want them removed to save salmon and replaced with other sources of renewable energy from things like electrifying railways.

Salmon use the Snake River to travel to the Sound every year. Without salmon there are no more orcas, the groups argue.

“The Southern Resident orcas, one of the most iconic species we have here in the northwest, pretty much only eats salmon. 80% of their diet is just Chinook Salmon. When the salmon die, the orca dies,” Connolly said.

On top of the harm dams cause, the recent heat wave also played a big role in recent salmon deaths.

“Climate change in really heating up their rivers which is effecting basically the way that they live so some of them are actually dying,” Connolly said.

“We are calling on Senators Cantwell, Murray and Governor Inslee to take strong action to save Orcas and salmon,” said Pam Clough with Environment Washington

“If we lost these two species that are on the brink of extinction, then what would be as a region?” Connolly said.

KING 5 reached out to Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee’s office for comment Saturday.

Sen. Murray issued the following statement Saturday afternoon:

“Salmon, orca, and habitat recovery is an important priority for me and it’s an important part of our state and Tribes’ heritage and culture—it’s something I’ve recently brought up directly with DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the OMB Director Shalanda Young. I understand the urgency of recovery efforts, and the need to take action quickly.

“I’m glad that I was also able to help secure significant funding for salmon and habitat recovery related efforts in the bipartisan infrastructure package we are working to pass right now: $1 billion for culvert removal, replacement, and restoration; $172 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund; and $207 million for the Coastal Zone Management Program, as well as other important habitat restoration investments. I’m also pushing for major investments through the reconciliation package and the annual appropriations process.

“I am working with Governor Inslee and leaders throughout the region to prepare next steps. I appreciate everyone who is engaged on this issue and making sure their voices are heard. It’s clear there is energy, commitment, and dedication to tackling this challenge.”

Alison Morrow, KING5-TV

December 1, 2016

View the TV Story here.

For the first time in a decade, the public has a chance to tell the government whether the Snake River dams should come down.

The Lower Granite Dam is one of four dams that critics blame for nearly wiping out salmon and steelhead. Initial years of operation sent wild fish into turbines that acted like meat grinders, but those have been fixed. Fish ladders were installed. Millions of dollars has been invested in restoring fish habitat. Recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began the construction of further fish friendly changes at Lower Granite like a new juvenile bypass system.

Despite all the work, a federal judge ruled that those additions, along with habitat restoration, aren't enough to protect fish. Now, federal agencies and dam operators must re-assess the environmental impact of the dams. That process includes a public comment period that ends in mid-January.

NOAA biologists say the dams slow water flow and make juvenile fish more susceptible to predators. The fast flow of water on their way out disorients them. The return of wild salmon and steelhead is less than 1% in some areas, far less than what the species need for survival.

The Nez Perce tribe has raised salmon in a hatchery on the Clearwater River in order to supplement the dire return rates of wild fish. They are joining mounting pressure to take down the dams.

“There used to be stories about the number of salmon. They used to talk about seeing the salmon, seeing the backs of salmon from bank to bank on some of these streams, almost like you could walk across them,” said tribal member and environmental leader Elliott Moffett.

"The people that promoted the dams in the first place did so because they thought making Lewiston, ID a sea port was pretty slick and we should do that, even though federal fisheries biologists back in the late 1950s said, 'If you do that, the Snake River salmon and steelhead populations will probably go extinct in 30-35 years.' And they were bang on because 30 years after the last dam was completed, every single race of salmon and steelhead was listed under the Endangered Species Act," said former Idaho Fish and Game Biologist Steve Pettit.

Dam supporters call them an important source of power, as well as key components to transporting goods up and downstream. Without the locks, the water would destabilize due to elevation change to a degree that would make large shipments too dangerous. They say the dams also provide irrigation thanks to the power source.

"For agriculture, our life blood is farm to market system," said Washington Farm Bureau CEO John Stuhlmiller. "It's a cost effective method of shipping. A lot of goods go up and down the river, getting product into the remote areas. As opposed to a highway system or rail, which aren't always an option, this is a highway system on the river."

Critics believe other sources of power can make up for what the grid supplies, and rail transportation is more sustainable. They're also concerned about the compounding challenges of climate change on fish.

“Opening access for salmon to get from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho is the key issue because central Idaho has millions of acres of high elevation, pristine, cold water habitat. It will be the last best refuge for salmon in a climate change world," said Earth Justice Attorney Todd True.

Federal agencies will hold a public comment meeting in Seattle on Thursday, Dec. 1:

Town Hall
Great Room
1119 8th Avenue, Seattle
4-7 p.m.

from the desk of Joseph Bogaard. July 7, 2014

Here is a link to an excellent July 3 news story on KING5 TV - highlighting renowned killer whale expert Ken Balcomb and his most recent efforts to sound the alarm bells re: the critical situation facing the Northwest's endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales (SWKWs).

The orca population is in decline and while the federal agencies have identified a number causes, the severe and persistent lack of available prey - primarily chinook salmon - is, according the Mr. Balcomb, most pressing and important to address quickly.

The Columbia and Snake rivers have historically been an essential source of chinook for these orcas - especially in the lean winter months. NOAA-Fisheries, the federal agency charged with protecting both endangered orcas and endangered salmon has previously identified the historic predation by these orcas on Columbia Basin chinook salmon and have described the decline of salmon in the Columbia River basin as “[p]erhaps the single greatest change in food availability for resident killer whales since the late 1800s...”

Nevertheless, this same federal agency insisted in January on producing an inadequate status quo 2014 Columbia-Snake River Salmon Plan that once again is far more favorable to river industrialists than the endangered salmon populations, and the imperiled orca and struggling fishing businesses and communities that rely on healthy, abundant salmon populations.

Click here to see the story online (you can read the text below). Click here to learn more about the orca-salmon connection and the federal agencies' inadequate 2014 Columbia Basin Salmon Plan here.

KING 5 TV: Orca expert's dire warning about Puget Sound orcas

by GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

Thursday, Jul 3, 2014

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. — One of the world’s most respected Orca researchers is warning we are at the survival crossroads for the Pacific Northwest pods.

The endangered Southern Resident Orcas that frequent Puget Sound are not rebuilding their numbers as hoped.



Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, is doing what he’s done for 40 years. Photographing and recording the Southern Resident orcas.



“Fortunately every day I spend with whales doesn’t count in the life span,” said Balcomb.



But when the excitement of the chase is over, when he stands on the edge of his peaceful paradise, reality darkens the view of his subjects.
 


“The animals that are out there that are over 40 years old, there’s a bunch of them swimming around,” said Balcomb.

“It’s been two years since the J, K, and L pods have produced a baby that has survived more than a month.”
 


“We’ve got less than 20 reproductive age females at present and not many coming up through the ranks.

We can’t have a population without reproduction,” he added.
 
Balcomb knows these whales better than anyone. He has snapped tens of thousands of frames documenting their births, deaths and lives for 40 years.

Federal agencies have depended heavily on his work for their plan to help the orcas recover.

But when he reads the government’s latest report on that plan, he feels even worse about the orcas’ future.
 


“I’m disappointed,” he said. “It’s a very glossy summary for the public and Congress to look at how the money was spent.”
  


Balcomb feels the report wastes time on concepts like pressure from whale watching boats and pollution and misses the key factor in the decline of the killer whales.
 


“And it’s going to continue to decline until we do something about Chinook salmon stocks throughout their range,” he said.
  


Unlike other orcas whose numbers are increasing, the Southern Residents are almost exclusive eaters of Chinook salmon.
  
“We’ve just seeing the continuation of a downhill population trend in Chinook salmon.”
  



The federal report admits the lack of food is a problem, but concentrates more on controlling the whale watching fleet.



Balcomb would rather see federal agents be more aggressive with salmon restoration than pushing back the whale watching fleet.



He has watched the Southern Resident population drop from 87 to 79 during the time they have been under federal protection.



“When we get to 70, I’m going to stop counting because nobody’s paying attention.”

Until then, he’ll keep searching for what he wants to see most.



“A new baby.”

He keeps searching even during days when the whales are hard to find and harder to photograph.



“There is some good news, a group is heading this way, we’re going to get respectfully close and get a good look at them.



And that’s when something happened, something to give Balcomb and his crew a brief moment of hope.

An amorous young male nicknamed Nigel makes his move on a female.



“In about 17 months from now, we may have another little J baby with an L daddy.”

The orcas are still trying.



“We just have to give them a chance,” said Balcomb. “We’ve still got something here that’s worth saving.”



And Balcomb will keep trying too.

Orcas advocates got positive news this month, as the J pod's new calf was spotted in good health.

By Allison Sundell
February 17, 2025

SEATTLE — It’s official – it’s a girl!

The Center for Whale Research confirmed Sunday that the new orca calf in the J pod, J62, is female.

During a sighting on Feb. 8, researchers said J62 appeared to be “doing well” and is “filling out nicely.” J62 was seen “bouncing around” with the J19s while the pod appeared to be resting about three-quarters of a mile off the west side of San Juan Island.

Near the end of the sighting, researchers said the J19s were in a large group that was “getting social.” The calf rolled around, and researchers confirmed J62 is a girl based on photographs of her belly.

Researchers first confirmed J62’s birth on Jan. 1.

During the February sighting researchers also confirmed that orca J35 is no longer carrying the carcass of her dead calf, J61. The calf’s birth was confirmed in late December, and within a week, the calf died.

The mother, Tahlequah, gained national attention in 2018 for carrying her dead calf for more than 1,000 miles for at least 17 days.

J62’s good health is positive news for researchers as the Southern Resident killer whales’ population continues to struggle. The number of Southern Residents has reached its lowest level in decades, and advocates are racing to address factors contributing to their plight, including boat noise, which affects their ability to hunt; availability of Chinook salmon, their preferred prey; and pollutants in sea water.

Joe Olson, President of the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Cetacean Society, expressed enthusiasm about the new arrival.

"I am very excited that there is a female orca calf. J needs that really bad," he said.

The addition of J62 comes at a critical time for the Southern Resident orcas, whose population has dwindled to just 73 individuals. Howard Garrett, co-founder of Orca Network, explained the gravity of the situation.

“Optimum population should be at least 150, around 200 would be a robust population, so they are at a very low level and they are kind of plateauing,” Garrett said. "By far the main problem with these orcas' survival with reproductive success is nutrition, is having enough food. And their food, as they have specialized in for thousands of years, is primarily Chinook salmon, the big fatty chinook, and they are not so big anymore, and there are not very many of them."

Despite these challenges, the arrival of J62 has renewed hope for the pod's future. Conservation efforts are ongoing, with experts emphasizing the need for ecosystem restoration and reduced human impact.

Olson stressed, "The whales need our help. If we could leave them alone and restore the ecosystem so that there are abundant salmon and no pollution and not a bunch of noise, they would recover with no problem."

King 5: Welcome J62: A new female orca joins the Southern Resident family

Read more news

Work has been underway at the site since the start of the year. The project will eventually restore 16 miles of fish habitat after the dam is removed.

Michael Crowe
July 13, 2020

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Monday marked a major milestone in the dam removal project on the Middle Fork Nooksack River. Blasting began to remove the first major section of the structure.

Work has been underway at the site since the start of the year. The project will eventually restore 16 miles of fish habitat after the dam is removed.

“Salmon are amazingly resilient, and as we saw on the Elwha river, when those dams came down on the Olympic peninsula, those fish came back very quickly,” said Amy Kober with American Rivers. “We’re hoping to see the same thing here.”

Kober said they’re glad to see the project finally reach this point, after years of work from several groups: the Nooksack Tribe, Lummi Nation, City of Bellingham, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in addition to other government bodies.

The priority, Kober said, is restoring critical habitat for spring Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

“We want to see the salmon return and continue protecting a resource that has always been there for our people,” said Trevor Delgado, Nooksack tribal historic preservation officer. “The Middle Fork dam removal project is a representation of decades of work and provides an opportunity to work together collaboratively to protect an area that is deeply rooted to our culture. What the Middle Fork means for our people today, we want it to mean the same for future generations. We want to continue to pass on the bridge from our ancestors into the future.”

“The habitat in the Nooksack basin will take decades to recover because there are many limiting factors that impact Endangered Species Act listed (ESA) early Chinook,” said Merle Jefferson, director of Lummi Natural Resources. “The habitat above the Middle Fork has potential and we hope that this project will provide more spawning habitat for the salmon, which are integral to our heritage and cultural identity.”

Complicating the issue is that the dam supplies water for nearby Bellingham. But they worked out a plan to place the water diversion upstream by allowing the water supply to continue, while bringing down the fish impediment.

That, Kober said, is a lesson for other projects.

"The city can have its water supply, and we can restore this river,” she said. “So let’s apply that creative thinking to other river’s challenges across our region. We can do it, we absolutely can do it, it just takes a little bit of work."

They expect more blasting later this summer and hope the river will run free by fall.

LEWISTON, Idaho – Scientists and power providers are scrutinizing the Snake River dams to see just how damaging they are for wild fish, in accordance with a federal judge’s orders. For the first time in about a decade, the public has a chance to weigh in on the future of the dams.

It’s an issue that’s captivated the attention of former Idaho Fish and Game biologist, Steve Pettit. He spent years fishing the Clearwater River on his lunch breaks, so if anyone’s watched the waters change over 40 years, Petit says he has.

“It’s pathetic. Can’t buy a fish,” he said.

Pettit blames a bad memory that’s stuck like a persistent nightmare. He was there in 1975 when the Lower Granite dam held back the Snake River for the first time.

“I had tears running down my face most of the day,” he said.

***View the TV story online here.***

Pettit spent the next 25 years as Idaho’s Fish Passage Specialist, working to improve fish survival through the dams. Never again, though, would he see the runs he remembers on his lunch breaks.

“Anybody with a basic knowledge of what fish require to complete their life history saw it as the beginning of the end,” Pettit.

The Snake River is the largest tributary to the Columbia. Its four dams generate about 5 percent of the Pacific Northwest’s power.

The dams also turned Lewiston, Idaho into an inland seaport town. By slowing down water flow, the dams sped up the opportunity to ship goods. Hydropower also sped up the decline of salmon and steelhead by inhibiting migration. Juveniles are more susceptible to predators due to the slack water which also heats up faster than a quick-moving river.
Today, all of the Snake River salmonids are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Environmentalists started suing over the dams in the 1990s. Each time, a judge ordered a re-examination of the system to better protect fish.
Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon ordered federal agencies to prepare a new plan by early 2018.

“Our fish runs are circling the bowl towards extinction,” Pettit said.

The first judge to hear the case said the dam system “cries out for a major overhaul.” That began costly fish habitat restoration efforts along the entire river system.

The dams made major fish passage improvements, like a juvenile bypass system. Juvenile fish survival rates past all four dams climbed from about a quarter to a half. Despite it all, the most recent court ruling says: “These efforts have already cost billions of dollars, yet they are failing.”

The rate of adult salmonids returning still hovers between 1 percent and 3 percent. To recover the fish, biologists for the plaintiffs say that return rate must double or even triple to somewhere between 4 percent and 6 percent.

“I think we have an opportunity to turn the corner and go in a different direction that would actually bring the salmon back. The centerpiece, of course, is looking at taking out the Snake River dams,” explained attorney Todd True.

True took over as an attorney on the case in the late 90s. He heard the stories of the land’s native people, life before fish hatcheries.

“There used to be stories about the number of salmon. They used to talk about seeing the salmon, seeing the backs of salmon from bank to bank on some of these streams, almost like you could walk across them,” said Elliott Moffitt, a Nez Perce tribe member.

Just feet from a river that once teemed with salmon, the majority of fish are now spawned in trays. The tribe calls the hatchery chinook a Band-Aid they’d rather rip off.

“And our culture is at stake because if we don’t do something now, there might not be anything left for future generations,” he said.

But the Nez Perce aren’t the only ones worried about future generations.

“We’re always a little nervous because we’re very outnumbered,” said Marci Green, vice president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers.
Wheat is the main commodity transported across the Snake River dams. Farmers worry that without the barge system railroads would hold a monopoly and transport costs would spike.

“And the harm it would do to our industry is huge,” she said. “Right now the price of wheat is low. Every little bit matters a lot.”

Bonneville Power says the dams provide an important source of clean energy, and “critical support in the form of operating reserves or helping to meet unexpected changes in Northwest power generation or demand.” They claim renewable energy sources aren’t available in the reliable amount necessary for areas like the Tri-Cities.

“I think taking out these dams is a Draconian solution,” said Northwest River Partners Executive Director Terri Flores.

Flores and others are skeptical that breaching the dams would save wild fish. Many juvenile fish are loaded with toxins before ever reaching the dams.
“I just truly believe that taking out the dams would not necessarily solve the problem that these very passionate people want to solve, as do we,” Flores said.

Orcas have brought perhaps the loudest rally cry to remove the dams.

Conservationists claim the endangered Southern Residents just need more Columbia River chinook to survive. Even among scientists, though, there is debate over whether the fish would be enough.

“The fish move around and the whales move around, and trying to match that intersection in time and space relative to nutritional needs of the whales is hard to do,” said NOAA biologist Brad Hanson.

The court ruling forces the agencies to “consider all reasonable alternatives”, including breaching one or all of the dams. The judge also said that the dams aggravate conditions that will only worsen for the fish: “warmer stream temperatures”, “warmer ocean temperatures, and “large-scale ecological changes.”

Bonneville Power claims the area’s simply not ready for the dams to come down, saying that wind and solar can’t yet replace the reliability of the hydropower system. Critics don’t buy it and argue the power providers just haven’t tried hard enough to diversify the grid.

“And that doesn’t even look at the fact that the whole Snake transportation system is massively subsidized by tax-payers. It is a money-loser,” True said.
True points to the Elwha River, where dam removal has successfully boosted fish runs.

Once you wire in climate change impact to the already existing hydro system impact, our fish no longer have a chance. They will not recover. They will stay on the Endangered Species Act until they disappear,” Pettit said.

For Pettit, this moment is just as historic as that day in 1975.

The day he saw the Lower Granite dam work on its first day, and now hopes to see the dam on its last.

"The people of the Northwest are going to have to step up to the plate and make a decision," he said. "Are these fish worth saving, because if they are, removing those Snake River dams, I believe very strongly, is their last hope for recovery."

Copyright 2016 KING

December 27, 2016

Three vigils across Puget Sound Tuesday night honored Southern Resident orcas as the number of whales has now dropped below 80.

After the death of J-34, recently found on the coast of British Columbia, there are only 79 Southern Residents known alive.

Four orcas in the J-pod and one orca in the L-pod died in 2016. The cause of death for J-14 is unknown. J-28 and her dependent calf J-54 also died of unknown causes, though the mother appeared emaciated before death. The necropsy for J-34 revealed the 18-year old male orca likely died of blunt force trauma caused by a boat. L-95 died due to a fungal infection likely caused by NOAA tagging.

Many whale advocates have made the Snake River dams a central point of policy efforts to save the orcas, claiming the dams have restricted Southern Resident food sources to a dire level. The whales are known mainly to eat Chinook salmon.

Others, however, are sounding the alarm that the rally cry to take down the dams is drawing attention away from daily opportunities to address issues, like toxins in Puget Sound and noise from vessels.

"I hope this death is a tipping point that gets everybody involved on all the issues that are impacting the whales. These whales are disappearing before our eyes, and I know for sure that everyone in this region loves the orcas," said Whale Trail founder Donna Sandstrom. "I know for sure no one wants these whales to disappear. We have to start dealing with all the issues that are impacting them."

http://www.king5.com/tech/science/environment/orcas-honored-at-vigils-around-puget-sound-after-recent-death/379407250

By KIRO 7 News Staff
March 4, 2022

SEATTLE — A human mural of an orca whale was created by activists for World Wildlife Day on Thursday.

About 100 people carrying black umbrellas gathered on the lawn of Victor Steinbrueck Park in Seattle to create a mosaic in the shape of an orca.

The purpose of the campaign was to draw attention to saving the salmon population in the region by removing dams in the Snake River.

The endangered Southern Resident orcas, which are an icon in the Pacific Northwest, rely on salmon to survive.

A count in 2020 showed there were only 72 whales, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, though some new calves have been born since.

Activists say Gov. Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray are working on a plan to help the salmon population.

NOAA says Southern Resident killer whales are the only endangered population of killer whales in the U.S. The orcas are facing dwindling salmon populations, disturbances from vessels and sound, and pollution in the waters where they live.

Southern Residents were listed as endangered in 2005.

Watch here.

By Christopher Dunagan

February 20, 2015

While J pod continues to hang out in the Salish Sea, NOAA’s research cruise has shifted its focus to K and L pods, which have worked their way south along the Washington Coast to beyond the Columbia River.

(The newest calf in J pod, J-51, swims with its mother J-19, a 36-year-old female named Shachi. // NOAA photo)

If you recall, a research team led by Brad Hanson of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center left Newport, Ore., on Feb. 11 aboard the vessel Bell M. Shimada. Homing in on a satellite tag attached to J-27 (named Blackberry), the ship met up with J pod two days later near Canada’s Texada Island in the Strait of Georgia.

The researchers were able to collect scales from fish killed by the whales to determine what kind of fish they were eating. It was the first time that a sample of this kind has been collected outside of Puget Sound during the month of February, Brad reported.

The ship stayed with J pod and its two new babies as they moved around in the general area of Texada Island. Then last Sunday the satellite tag came off J-27, as it was designed to do after a period of time. Hanson was pleased that the tag had stayed on so long, allowing researchers to track six weeks of travels by J pod, which had never been tracked that extensively before.

Together with tracking data from 2012 and 2014, this year’s work helps to characterize the movements of J pod, according to notes from the cruise:

“Collectively, these data indicate only limited use of the outer coastal waters by J pod. In 2014 NMFS was petitioned to designate Critical Habitat on the outer coastal waters of Washington, Oregon, and California. The data used for this petition was derived from only one sample — the range of K25 during the January to March 2013 satellite tag deployment. Consequently, potential variability between pods and between years has led to making tagging a whale from L pod a high priority.”

Prompted by a sighting of K and L pods off Sooke, B.C., at the south end of Vancouver Island, the research ship headed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and intercepted the two pods Monday afternoon near the entrance to the Strait. The ship tracked the whales acoustically through the night with its hydrophone array.

The next day, the crew took to the water in its small boat and attached a satellite tag to L-84, a 25-year-old male named Nyssa. The researchers also were able to collect some scales from fish that the whales had eaten. Leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca, K and L pods turned south after entering the Pacific Ocean. Again, from the cruise notes:

“By being able to deploy a tag on L pod while on our cruise on the Bell M. Shimada, we have the unique opportunity to now be able to follow the whales each day (and potentially at night) and collect prey and fecal samples as well as other data about their environment this time of the year.

“While we know that K and L pods sometimes co-occur in the winter, this will potentially be an opportunity to see the degree to which they remain together. We are off to an exciting start — four prey samples yesterday (Tuesday) and four fecal samples today (Wednesday) while the whales transited from near Cape Ozette … to near Willipa Bay.”

Those are the last notes available, either on NOAA’s tagging webpage or on NOAA’s Facebook page. I’ve been in touch by email with Brad, but his latest message had nothing new since Wednesday.

By tracking the Shimada on the Marine Traffic website, I understand that the whales paused outside of Grays Harbor and again near the mouth of the Columbia River. As if this afternoon, they had moved south of Tillamook Bay and Cape Meares in Oregon and were continuing on south.

Meanwhile, J pod apparently remains in the Salish Sea, which includes inland waterways on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. As of yesterday, the pod was seen in Active Pass in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, north of Washington’s San Juan Islands.

Both of the new calves in J pod — J-50 and J-51 — seem to be doing fine, according to naturalist Heather MacIntyre, quoted in the San Juan Islander. J-50, a female, was born just days before the end of the year, while J-51, gender unknown, was born about two weeks ago.

For previous reports on the whales, see Water Ways for Feb. 12 as well as a previous post on Jan. 22. A report on the research cruise can be found in Water Ways on Feb. 10.

http://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2015/02/20/k-and-l-pods-under-observation-as-they-travel-south-in-ocean/comment-page-1/

Phuong Le, Associated Press
Oct. 18, 2018 TACOMA - Calls to breach four hydroelectric dams in Washington state have grown louder in recent months as the plight of critically endangered Northwest orcas has captured global attention. Some argue the quickest way to get more salmon to the starving whales is to tear down four dams on the Lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia River, to help migrating fish. But federal agencies and others have pushed back, saying the dams provide benefits to the region in low-cost hydropower, navigation and recreation. Breaching the dams has long been contentious, but it's gained renewed attention as the orcas have hit the lowest numbers in more than three decades. The whales struggle from pollution, boat noise and lack of chinook salmon, which have been declining because of dams, habitat loss
and overfishing. Just 74 animals remain in the small group. A task force called by Gov. Jay Inslee is prioritizing a list of potential solutions to address those three threats. At a meeting Thursday, there was little consensus on whether the group should convene stakeholders to discuss issues related to the possible future removal of the dams. Ken Balcomb, a scientist with the Center for Whale Research, who supports dam breaching, told the group that punting on the issue won't help the orcas. "They're reaching the bottom of their barrel," he said. "We have to move the ball forward. The time is now." Supporters of measures intended to help endangered orca whales stand near a large sign a outside a building in Tacoma, where the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force was meeting for a two-day work session. A number of whale and fisheries scientists have urged the task force to recommend breaching the dams and spilling more water over Columbia and Snake river dams to help salmon. Many who have commented have also supported the idea. But dam supporters say the structures provide carbon-free electricity and support barging on the Snake River that moves millions of tons of cargo. "The dams along that river are the lifeblood of those communities," Tom Davis, government relations director with the Washington Farm Bureau. He called the talk over dams "a distraction" that continues to divide the state. Some say dam removal could be part of a long-term solution but note that more immediate actions could boost salmon, such as removing smaller dams or increasing habitat protections. "Everything has to be on the table," said state Sen. Kevin Ranker, an Orcas Island Democrat who supports dam removal but said discussions would need to take place. Meanwhile, he said the state can move quickly on other actions, including creating a "no-go zone" that restricts vessels around feeding whales. Other ideas being weighed by the group include reducing boat noise around the orcas; creating a permit system for commercial whale watching trips; protecting habitat for chinook salmon and the smaller forage fish that they eat; boosting production of hatchery fish; and spilling more water over Columbia and Snake river dams. "There is no one magic solution to recovery of southern resident killer whales," said Rob Williams, a Pew Fellow in marine conservation and co-founder of Oceans Initiative. "The three main threats that the whales are facing are inextricably linked, so recovery actions need to be linked too." Federal agencies are currently studying dam breaching as one of many options to aid salmon recovery in the Columbia River basin after a federal judge in 2016 ordered a new plan and told the federal government to consider breaching one or more of the four lower Snake River dams. That environmental review won't be complete until 2021. Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the four dams, and Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the power, said the structures provide low-cost electricity and adds reliability to the entire system. The dams produce an average of 1,000 megawatts of power a year, or about 5 percent of electricity generated in the Pacific Northwest, and account for about 12 percent of BPA's power. A number of conservation, fishing and other groups say removing the dams represents the greatest opportunity to boost salmon runs and that planning must begin now. They note that the two Snake River runs are among 15 priority stocks of chinook salmon for orcas, and that
increasing those runs would be a big step forward. Michael Milstein, a spokesman with NOAA Fisheries, said those Snake River runs are important but not in isolation. The whales "depend on a number of stocks up and down the West Coast over the course of the year and they're all important," he said, adding that returns to the Snake and Columbia rivers have been up in the last 10 years. "We do think that the whales have access to the same volume of fish that they would have otherwise," he said. Jeff Friedman, U.S. president of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, said "the dams are not everything but it's a big piece." He said there are interests in eastern Washington that would need to be addressed but that "it's time we have that conversation to find out what it is going to take for everybody." Les Purce, co-chair of the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force, plays guitar and sings during the opening of a two-day meeting of the task force in Tacoma. Calls to breach four hydroelectric dams in Washington state have grown louder in recent months as the plight of the critically endangered Northwest orcas has captured global attention.

(Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP)

In early July, the Idaho Fish and Game transported 201 sockeye salmon from the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River because rising water temperatures have made the journey home more difficult.

By Steve Dent
Aug 15, 2021

EAGLE, Idaho — In early July, the Idaho Fish and Game transported 201 sockeye salmon from the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River because rising water temperatures have made the journey home more difficult.

This happened after the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA Fisheries helped trap the fish then the Idaho Fish and Game brought the sockeye to the Eagle Fish Hatchery.

"Obviously in a normal year we would prefer that these fish complete that last leg of their journey and their full ocean-going life cycle," said John Powell of the Idaho Fish & Game. "But in a year like this, we had to give them that assistance and increase migratory survival because of those extreme conditions."

The Idaho Fish & Game started a broodstock program in 1991 after zero sockeyes returned the previous year, this effort helps ensure the survival of the sockeye in Idaho.

So far this year only two sockeyes have made it back to Red Fish Lake and 629 have made it to Lower Granite Dam, one of the four dams Representative Mike Simpson has proposed breaching in a $33.5 billion dollar plan he unveiled in the spring.

"Dams make it so the water is hotter which is really important on a year like this," said Rachel Brinkley of the Idaho Conservation League who we ran into during a flotilla to raise awareness for Simpson's plan. "There is more exposure to predators, it means that less juvenile salmon are going to the ocean and less adults are coming back."

No matter where you stand on the controversial dam issue, the Idaho Fish and Game work in another way to ensure the survival of sockeye salmon.

"When fish get here they go through a full biological workup, we look at their length, their weight, we determine their sex, we take a scale and sometimes we will use that scale to age the fish," said Powell. "We can determine how to conserve the genetic diversity."

Once the Idaho Fish & Game figure out which of the 201 sockeyes came from Red Fish Lake or from their hatchery program the next step is either to spawn them at the hatchery or release them back into the lake.

"The fish released into Red Fish Lake will spawn the next generation of fish that will go to the ocean," said Powell.

The heat and drought conditions aren't just affecting the salmon, all over Idaho reservoirs are dropping because of the drought.

Last week the Idaho Fish & Game issued a salvage order for the Lost Valley Reservoir west of McCall, until November anglers have the opportunity to catch as many trout and perch with no limits because as the water drops the fish will die anyway.

September 4, 2019

By Steve Liebenthal

Stanley, Idaho — Redfish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains has some of the clearest cleanest water in the United States. It was named for the fish that make a nine hundred mile journey to the Pacific Ocean and back.

"Redfish was named after the fish that turn red when they're spawning," said Andy Munter of Idaho Rivers United. "The old settlers talk about not being able to cross the creeks because there are so many fish it would spook the horses."

But this year sockeye salmon are not returning to Redfish Lake Creek by the tens of thousands, the thousands or even the hundreds.

This year Fish and Game has only captured seventeen sockeye in their trap near Stanley. Only eighty one sockeye have made it past Lower Granite, the last dam on their migration to Idaho.

Every day Fish and Game technicians check a trap on Redfish Lake Creek, hoping to find sockeye, but this year they have mostly found resident pike minnows.

Idaho's most critically endangered salmon face many challenges, including recent warming of the ocean. But this year's return of sockeye was also hit hard two years ago when hundreds of thousands died within minutes of being released.

"It was basically a one hundred percent die-off from sometimes one hundred yards from where they dumped the fish," said Munter. "There was just a shock to 'em."

The fish were raised at the Springfield Hatchery in eastern Idaho, where the water is very hard. When managers released them into the soft water in the Sawtooth Basin, more than eighty percent perished between Redfish Lake Creek and the Snake River.

Now biologists are holding juvenile sockeye in the medium hard water at Sawtooth Hatchery before releasing them into the wild.

"In 2018 we had one of the highest post-release survivals in the history of the program," said IDFG Research Biologist John Powell. "So we know we put a lot of fish out into the ocean, and right now we're kind of waiting for those fish to come back."

Those fish will return to the Sawtooth Basin next year. And despite the initial failure of the Springfield program, conservationists are not blaming Fish and Game for the plight of Idaho sockeye.

"Fish and Game are doing an amazing job of keeping these fish alive, but they're not making the decisions on long-term survival rates," said Munter.

And while Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson has recently said that breaching the four dams in Washington is a possibility, Governor Little has gone on record as saying that is not an option.

Munter hopes that will change as more citizens get involved in salmon recovery.

"There's money and there are ways while we're spending these billions of dollars on the status-quo that is not working for salmon recovery," said Munter.

By Steve Liebenthal, June 27th 2018

RIGGINS, Idaho - It has been 20 years since the push for breaching dams to save salmon was gaining traction in the Pacific Northwest. But, in the last few years, fish returns have taken a nose dive.
 
Three years ago, Kerry Brennan turned his Riggins guide shop into a tackle shop. It was his retirement plan after 30 years guiding anglers who wanted to catch salmon and steelhead. But, his timing was not good. For the second year in a row, the fishing season is being cut short.

This year's return of spring Chinook salmon from the Pacific Ocean is the worst this century. The result, for river communities like Riggins, is a major decrease in money spent by salmon anglers.

Brennan agrees with conservation groups who say the main problem is poor migration conditions for juvenile salmon moving downstream through eight dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. 

"Power companies, irrigators took what water there was," Brennan said. "The migrating conditions were terrible for fish. We lost most of the juveniles going out, so we're paying the price now."

Fish and Game managers admit that downstream migration is vital to salmon recovery, but they say the dramatic drop in returns in recent years can be blamed on ocean warming. 

"You may have heard about the warm water blob that was an area off the Pacific coast near the mouth of the Columbia that was warmer than normal and fish being cold-blooded animals are very sensitive to temperature," said Lance Hebdon, anadromous fish manager. 

All of this comes at a time conservationists consider crucial for Idaho salmon. While enough hatchery fish are returning for a very limited fishing season, last year fewer than 6,000 federally protected wild Chinook salmon returned to Idaho. That's less than 10 percent of the goal for salmon recovery. 

And this year, a 10-year-old agreement called the Columbia Basin Fish Accords is set to expire. The agreement provided $900 million for salmon restoration projects throughout the Columbia River Basin, including $69 million for Idaho. Three states and most northwest tribes agreed not to sue for additional fish protection at the dams. They also agreed not to advocate for the removal of four dams on the lower Snake River, an idea that had momentum in the late 1990s after a panel of independent scientists said breaching the dams was the key to recovering Idaho's wild salmon runs. Now, the administration of Governor Butch Otter is in negotiation with the Bonneville Power Administration to extend the accord.

Meanwhile, die-hard anglers like these will be back on the Little Salmon River continuing to pound the water for at least four more days, hoping to hook a spring Chinook. On average, they are spending 33 hours fishing for every salmon they take home.

Brennan is trying to figure out how to pay for his road-side tackle shop that depends on money spent by salmon and steelhead anglers.
"A big part of it was going to be the salmon season, and therefore, I still haven't paid the remodel back yet," he said. 

May 15, 2019

By Steve Liebenthal

COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN — Salmon seasons have been open in Idaho since April, but you wouldn't know it. Not a single spring Chinook has been caught according to Fish and Game records, and Tuesday the Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted to close the season on all rivers in the Clearwater Basin. Fisheries managers are projecting that the number of spring Chinook returning to hatcheries in the Clearwater Basin will not meet brood stock needs.

The closure comes in the midst of a salmon crisis for Idaho Anglers, and a financial crisis for The Bonneville Power Administration.

BPA has thirty-one power-generating projects in the Columbia Basin. The dams on the Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers are major suppliers of carbon-free energy to the northwest, especially Oregon and Washington.

But all of that energy is expensive in today's market, and Bonneville Power is losing market share to newer alternative energy sources. For decades BPA made millions selling surplus power, especially to California, but over the past decade the price of surplus power has dropped as natural gas, wind and solar have created an abundance of low cost electricity.

But BPA is still able to sell power for as much as twice the market rate, to public utility districts, who are contractually bound to buy it. Many of those contracts will expire in less than ten years, and economist Tony Jones says as PUDs abandon BPA to save money, BPA will have no choice but to charge remaining customers even more.

"It's what economists call a death spiral," said Jones. "As customers leave because of high prices, prices go up further, causing more customers to leave the market, driving prices up further, which encourages more customers to buy less and less power, so it's a spiral that feeds back on itself."

When we asked where the "death sprial" leads Jones answered: "With a BPA bankruptcy."

Idaho Republican Congressman Mike Simpson agrees, BPA is in a fincancial free fall.

"The Bonneville Power Administration is frankly going broke, I don't know what other word to use," said Congressman Simpson.

Among BPA's operating expenses? Funding for fish and wildlife, including around 16 billion dollars spent on salmon recovery. But numbers of salmon returning to Idaho are the lowest they've been in decades, and the congressman says something has to give.

"We're either going to have to give up on salmon and say 'okay they're gone' or we're going to restore them, one of the two," said Simpson. "But we can't just keep managing them for the purpose of extinction which is kind of what we're doing now."

Simpson says he's determined to find a way to save a struggling BPA, while also bringing Idaho salmon back to sustainable numbers.

Jones suggests Bonneville Power rid itself of assets that are losing money, in particular, the four dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington.

"It probably costs roughly forty to forty five dollars per megawatt to produce power at the four Lower Snake Dams, all of which sells for twenty dollars or below," said Jones. "So the Lower Snake Dams are losing on the order of one hundred million dollars per year. If they were owned by a private agency, rather than a federal agency, the private agency would have a backhoe up there this afternoon starting to take them down."

But BPA is backed by the federal government. Congressman Simpson says the agency is expected to ask congress to approve an expansion of it's ability to borrow from the federal reserve.

"They're going broke and they'll have to ask congress to extend their borrowing capacity in 2023," said Simpson. "And I don't think congress is going to be very excited about that."

At the same time he says selling congress on removing dams to restore fish would be equally difficult. But Jones says from an economic standpoint saving Idaho salmon is simply an added incentive to what he says is already a sensible financial decision.

"Letting the fish go extinct would be a moral disaster," said Jones. "However, totally ignoring the fish, the dams are losing a hundred million dollars a year. It still makes sense to take the dams out, just from an economic perspective.

By Bellamy Pailthorp • Dec 1, 2016

Salmon art and an orca puppet will parade through Seattle Thursday afternoon. The procession is to attract attention to restoration efforts for wild salmon and steelhead runs on the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Advocates for endangered fish will hold a rally and then march to Town Hall Seattle, where one of 15 public meetings around the Northwest is taking place, in the wake of a ruling from a U.S. District Court.

In May, Judge Michael Simon ordered federal agencies to take a fresh look at the Columbia River salmon plan. He said despite billions spent on habitat restoration and dam improvement efforts, it isn’t working. The ruling was the fifth time a judge has shot down the plan that guides dam operation and salmon restoration in the Columbia River basin.

Conservationists say it’s time to reconsider the removal of four dams in south-central Washington.

“Because on the Snake River, we have tried everything else. We’ve been at Snake River salmon recovery since the '80s,” said Steve Mashuda.

He’s an attorney with Earthjustice who has been working on the issue for about 16 years. He says people know how to engineer solutions for transportation and power generation, but even with recent improvements for fish passage, the dams are still hurting endangered fish.

“These dams are hindering salmon access to and from the best habitat left in the lower 48 states for these fish. And if we’re going to have them survive and recover, especially in a world where global warming is changing stream temperatures and everything about the salmon’s habitat, we need to open up access,” Mashuda said.  

He says habitat above the dams is in protected federal lands and at high altitudes where climate change will have less impact and waters remain pristine.

But other groups representing public utilities and ports say hydropower is a vital source of renewable energy – which is also needed in the face of global warming. They want more emphasis to be put on things like habitat restoration and hatcheries.  

Terry Flores is with Northwest River Partners. She says the Lower Snake River dams have state of the art fish passage. And there’s concern about the loss of hydropower as a source of electricity that combines well with renewable sources such as wind and solar.

“These dams, Snake River Dams provide over a thousand megawatts of clean, renewable and reliable energy. One of the key attributes of hydropower is because you can store it in large reservoirs, you can release it at a moment’s notice to meet people’s energy needs,” Flores said.

She says the dams also provide benefits such as irrigation and barge transportation for farmers and that more emphasis should be put on things like restoring habitat and improving hatcheries.  But conservation groups   say billions have already been spent on such efforts and the fish are still declining.  

After Seattle, public meetings take place next week in The Dalles, Portland and Astoria, Ore. After that, a draft environmental impact statement is scheduled to be published for public comment in March 2020.

http://knkx.org/post/feds-discussing-snake-river-dam-removal-public-meeting-seattle

By Bellamy Pailthorp

August 19, 2019

When salmon and steelhead don't get the cold water they need, it costs them more energy to survive.  Their reproductive success can be diminished and they become more vulnerable to disease.

“And in the worst case, when water temperatures get too high, it can lead to death,” says Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Seattle-based nonprofit Save Our wild Salmon Coalition.

That’s what happened in the hot summer of 2015, when temperatures all over the Northwest spiked and about 250,000 adult sockeye died in the Columbia River Basin.

Many scientists refer to that year as a dress rehearsal for climate change. Bogaard says that's why they started highlighting the issue with their weekly "Hot Water Reports," which track the temperatures in all eight reservoirs of the Lower Snake and Columbia Rivers, using the federal government's own data on the dams in that system.

The clear trend is rising water temperatures and falling returns of endangered salmon. Bogaard says the water temperatures routinely rise above 68 degrees.

“Hot water – outside of the ‘comfort zone,’ if you will, of cold water fish like salmon and steelhead – is now routine in the Lower Columbia and Lower Snake River reservoirs, for weeks and often months at a time in the summer months,” Bogaard said.

Bogaard says that 2015 dress rehearsal scientists refer to will only get worse.

“Those kinds of conditions are unusual, but they’re becoming more common and they’re going to become more frequent as we move forward.”

He says the Environmental Protection Agency has a model showing dam removal and restoration of the rivers would bring the temperatures down on all but a few days a year. But after 20 years of planning, no federal agencies have taken that advice. Conservation groups sued and last October, a judge ordered the EPA to take action, citing the hot water as a violation of the Clean Water Act. That decision is on appeal. Oral arguments take place in Seattle' s 9th Circuit on Aug. 26.

Advocates say dam removal is the only real option to keep endangered fish from going extinct. Many communities near the dams disagree and are concerned about economic impacts if they're taken down.

Save Our Wild Salmon is pressing the governors and members of congress from Washington, Oregon and Idaho to find ways to take action.

By Geoffrey Redick <http://www.knkx.org/people/geoffrey-redick>, Bellamy Pailthorp <http://www.knkx.org/people/bellamy-pailthorp> & Ed Ronco <http://www.knkx.org/people/ed-ronco>

September 15, 2018

There's one coal-fired power plant left in Washington state. But it won't be burning coal for much longer: It's scheduled to shut down or to switch to natural gas by 2025.

The company that runs the plant, TransAlta, has plans to open a solar farm on one of the open-pit mines that used to provide coal to the plant. If plans hold, it would be the largest solar project in the state.

KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp went to the site, and she talked with host Ed Ronco about the project.

http://www.knkx.org/post/how-washingtons-last-coal-plant-could-become-states-largest-solar-project

August 27, 2019

By Bellamy Pailthorp

Earlier this summer, the Lummi Nation came to Seattle and launched a campaign to protect and revitalize the Salish Sea. The tribe is based near Bellingham, at the heart of that body of water, which extends from Puget Sound to Desolation Sound in Canada and out past Vancouver Island into the Pacific Ocean.

The Salish Sea also is home to the region’s endangered Southern Resident killer whales, whom the Lummi view as family. A formal ceremony to honor the spirits of the three orcas, who scientists recently identified as missing and presumed dead, was the latest step in the Salish Sea campaign. Lummi leaders also held a naming ceremony for the remaining 73.

Representatives from the Swinomish and Suquamish tribes, as well as the Tsleil-Waututh Nation from Canada joined the Lummi on the water near Orcas Island.  Guests representing environmental groups, government agencies and media looked on. 

MOURNING THE DEAD

“We did a memorial ceremony to the three Qwe ‘lhol mechen that have passed,” said Raynell Morris, director of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, who sent out formal invitations to the guests.  

Qwe ‘lhol mechen is the Lummi word for orcas. It also means roughly, "our relations under the sea." Morris said it was important for her people to conduct ceremonies to honor them.

“To thank them, to wish them well on their journey, to let their families know, we hear them. We’re praying for them. They’re hurting — their family’s missing them.”

From the deck of a Lummi Nation police vessel, the tribal members sang and drummed, as wildlife officials handed out 12 live hatchery Chinook, provided by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The tribe and the state agreed that no federal permit was needed for this, as conducting this kind of ceremony is considered an inherent right.

One by one, tribal members first held the large salmon — not an easy task as the muscular fish flopped and squirmed — and then tossed them into the water, as an offering of food for the remaining orca population.

“We know that that’s not enough to feed them all. But it’s a message to them that we know they’re hungry, they know we’re hungry,” Morris said.  “We offered the 12. There’s more to come. There’s hope.”  

Many others shared the bittersweet sentiment and they held and offered the salmon, including Reuben George from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, who drummed during the ceremony and sang a song of passage for the dead.

“It’s like a caterpillar to a butterfly. There’s a metamorphosis that happens, that’s what we believe in,” George said.

“We have a continuing spiritual connection, that’s what that ceremony’s about, is honoring that spiritual relationship between the orcas and us as human beings. And to honor that connection that we have, we try to send them off in a good way, to the spiritual realm.”   

Wearing a "Coast Salish Pride" T-shirt, he came from Vancouver, B.C., to take part in this ceremony. He says the Tsleil-Waututh also view the orcas as family. They are mourning too. He says members of the Coast Salish Nation that he and other local tribes are part of do not recognize the U.S.-Canadian border between them.

“And the same with orcas. They don’t have to bring in their passport and check in the office when they need to come up to Canada and catch some nice Fraser river salmon,” he said.

Reuben George is with his nation’s Sacred Trust initiative that has been fighting against the expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline. The Lummi and its Salish Sea campaign are important allies.

A NEW FORM OF COMMUNICATION

Along with the song above the water, the Lummi for the first time also offered their voices in a higher frequency — transposed by a scientist, so that the whales could understand.  They used an underwater beacon called a pinger to project the sound from the police boat into the sea beneath them.

From an adjacent vessel, marine mammal researcher Katie Foster held a speaker attached to a hydrophone, so the guests assembled to watch could hear it, too.

“It sounded like it was slightly sped up to a lot of the folks who were listening in on the boat. And that was because it was in that higher frequency range that would be more in tune with what the whales use to communicate with one another,” Foster said.

She says researchers will comb the underwater recording for any evidence of response from the local orcas, who the local whale watch network said were in the area at the time, although no one on the Lummi boats saw them.

After the offering ceremony wrapped up came another first. The group moved on land, to the beach at the Glenwood Springs Chinook Hatchery — said to be the site of a 5,000-year-old Lummi village.

Four formal witnesses were wrapped in blankets as the tribe formally gave the local orca population a family name. To start the ceremony, Morris placed several cedar boughs into the waves. She said this was an offering of earth to water, a combining of two elements that would give birth to a spirit, or prayer.

“When you combine two, it creates a spirit,” she said. “So that’s what that work was doing — offering to the water: healing. The Salish Sea: healing.”

Lawrence Solomon, secretary of the Lummi Nation’s Business Council, then announced what he said was a very special moment for the tribe’s relatives: in receiving this new name, the would get a new identity.

“Kind of like us claiming each other. We’re related. This is in the hearts and the minds of the family. From this day forward, we do our best to call them by their name: Sk’aliCh’elh, Sk’aliCh’elh, Sk’aliCh’elh ….”  

He repeated the new name several times, inviting those assembled to pronounce it with him. The name links the entire population to a village site near Penn Cove, where dozens of Southern Residents were captured from the mid-1960s to early 1970s.  

'THEY'RE LIKE US...'

After practicing the new name, each formal witness was invited to speak.  Suquamish Chairman Leonard Forsman — who also is president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians — talked about how important the Southern Resident killer whales have been to local native cultures, appearing in creation stories that have been handed down for generations.    

“And the one thing about them is they’re like us. They depend on these waters for their survival, for their well-being, for their food, their recreation, for their spirituality as well,” he told everyone assembled.   

Forsman has been serving on the governor’s Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force, a group of experts who concluded last year that the orcas need more salmon, more clean water, less noise from vessel traffic and the prevention of oil spills. He could hardly believe what he heard.

“I thought I was in one of the meetings from our tribe and the government to government relationships that we have with the state and federal government — that they are asking for the same things we have been asking for, for decades,” he said.

THE PENN COVE CONNECTION

The Lummi tribe has been engaged in a long fight to free the captive orca, Lolita, and bring her home from the Miami Seaquarium. She was caught at Penn Cove nearly 50 years ago and is the only Southern Resident killer whale from that era who has survived and remains in captivity.

She also is called Tokitae by some, but the tribe recently gave her the new family name, Sk’aliCh’elh — connecting her identity to that village near Penn Cove, where she was captured.

Raynell Morris, with the Lummi, says they call her Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, with the last two syllables meaning roughly, ‘female from…”  

“It links her to them, them to us, in an honor.” Morris said, adding that the honor also is a responsibility, based on a spiritual give and take that is part of their connection to the resident orcas.  

“It’s a huge obligation. Because they’re asking for a reciprocal relationship. They’ll protect us, but we need to protect them.”  

She says the idea for the naming ceremony came during a burning ritual earlier this year, in which they offered their ancestors plates of food. Morris says the spirits came in full force, hungry and grateful for the offering, and told the Lummi to do more.     

“And part of their message was: continue the hard work to save the Salish Sea," she said.

"There’s hope. There’s hope for Qwe ‘lhol mechen. There’s hope for salmon. There’s hope for us. Do the hard work.”   

Morris says another thing they wanted to do with this work was to be inclusive. So they invited non-tribal members and media to be informal witnesses, too.

“You’re part of this. This is family, this is an obligation. You have your part, we have ours,” she told KNKX. “It is your family too. Because you’re on this earth. You’re a human being,” she said.

“Everybody just needs to pay attention to what’s happening to the Salish Sea. You need to do your part. It’s now.”

That could mean writing to a local legislator to let them know how you feel. Or, Morris says, everyone is invited to the next big event in the Lummi Salish Sea campaign. It’s at the public fishing pier in Blaine on Sept. 27.  

By Michaela Bourgeois
Sep 30, 2024

The order comes as the Columbia Basin's salmon population has been 'drastically reduced.'

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed an executive order aiming to help restore the Columbia Basin and fisheries in the Columbia and Snake rivers, the governor’s office announced Monday.

The executive order, signed Sept. 27, directs a handful of state agencies — including the Department of Fish & Wildlife, Department of Energy, and the Department of Transportation — to “take all actions necessary” to meet goals under the 2023 Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative.

The initiative was developed between Oregon, Washington, and the “Six Sovereigns,” which includes the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, and the Nez Perce Tribe.

The executive order includes several provisions, which will also help meet goals in the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement under the Biden Administration — which prioritizes developing clean and affordable replacement power for the region before considering removal of the Snake River dams.

The executive order requires the state agencies to provide written reports to the governor by Feb. 1, 2025, outlining how they can address restoration and ways to accelerate meeting those goals.

Additionally, the agencies must meet at the governor’s office at least twice per year to review how the agencies are working together. A separate meeting will take place between the agencies and tribes to discuss goal implementation.

“The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative is the result of a historic, unified partnership with sovereign Tribal nations and the states of Oregon and Washington – and I am committed to full implementation of our agreement over the next decade,” Gov. Kotek said. “My directives to state agencies will uphold our state’s commitment and complement other efforts by the state to build a resilient and adaptive future to climate change, while also positioning our communities for a prosperous economic future.”

In a statement, the Tribal Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon said they value Kotek’s executive order and the CBRI, adding, “this is an important step in our State’s comprehensive approach to honoring Tribal sovereignty and meeting climate goals, securing a resilient and affordable energy system and modernizing our infrastructure and restoring our salmon and native fish to healthy and abundant levels.”

Jonathan W. Smith, Chairman of the Tribal Council furthered, “We look forward to continued collaboration with the State on that front as we also develop and grow our leadership as a socially just energy leader. Our co-ownership with PGE of the Pelton Round Butte project, located on the Deschutes River, a tributary to the Columbia River, has allowed our people to engage in the long-term work to manage dams and fisheries in ways that not only preserve, but enhance, our sovereign environmental, cultural and economic interests. Our leadership in this space is helping the State meet the energy needs of population centers in the Willamette Valley while also creating opportunities for our Tribes to develop more renewable energy, such as solar power, needed to meet growing demands in a socially just way.”

The executive order comes as the Columbia Basin has seen its salmon population “drastically reduced” over the years from several factors including overharvest in non-tribal fisheries, development of millions of acres of land, as well as private and federal dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to the initiative.

“Plummeting wild salmon and steelhead runs resulted in the extinction/extirpation of many stocks while putting others on the brink of extinction. Critical habitats have been lost or rendered inaccessible. Today, this crisis is further exacerbated by climate change, which threatens local and regional ecological, cultural, and economic resilience. Elevated air and water temperature, increased drought, reduced snowpack and poor ocean conditions accelerate the decline of imperiled fish stocks and amplify regulatory constraints, water scarcity, fire risk, invasive species, and pathogens that impact numerous economic sectors,” the initiative adds.

Learn more about Governor Kotek's Executive Order here. 

KOIN: Oregon Gov. Kotek signs executive order to restore Columbia Basin

by Matt Markovich

Friday, October 28th 2016

SEATTLE - It was funeral for a friend, nobody met personally, but had followed her life intimately.

Researchers claim, J-28, a 24-year-old resident orca, that they had watched from afar, died of malnutrition along with her calf.

Her obituary, written by long-time whale researcher Ken Balcomb, was read to a group of activists on the observation decked of Pier 66 along Seattle's waterfront on Friday.

"It's a sad day," said Balcomb. "I've been to several funerals and that's what this feels like."

"The way to save these #whales is to feed them as much as we can" says longtime orca activist #komonews

But, Balcomb's obituary had a point to it. The founder of The Center for Whale Research and other activists used the occasion to renew calls for the removal or breaching of four dams located on the lower Snake River that feed into the Columbia River.

The researchers believe the dams are impeding a historical salmon run that could number one million fish. It's fish J-28 and the other Southern Resident Orcas that call the San Juan Islands home could feed on.

During the summer, researchers watched as J-28, and her calves began to get thinner and thinner, believing they were not finding enough salmon to feed on.

When that happens, contaminates stored the whales blubber are sometimes released into the body said Lynne Barre, marine biologist and Fisheries and manager of the Protective Resources Division for NOAA,

"If they are not getting enough to eat and using that blubber, that's when the contaminants have other health effects effecting their immune system and their reproduction." said Barre.

Although the remains of the two whales have not been found, Balcomb believes they died because of a lack of food.

"Malnutrition is what triggers their problems that end in their death," said Balcomb.

He said for the last 25 years, the southern population of orcas has hovered around 80, far less than the 100 that has been a goal for many biologists.

The Southern Resident Killer Whales were put on the endangered species list in 2005. Their preferred source of food, Chinook salmon is also on that list.

While transient and Northern Resident Killer Whales include seals in their diet, the southern population does not, said Howard Garrett, the head of the Orca Network and Balcomb's half-brother.

"We need to do whatever we can to feed the orcas," said Garrett. "We need to bring back wild salmon."

The Snake River contributed up to 45 percent of the Columbia River Chinook runs prior to the dams being built. Removing the dams would allow the Chinook to spawn naturally and in turn, allow more fish for the orca's to feed on.

"These four dams are a worn out, worthless tools that need to be thrown out and replaced with an alternative," said Jim Waddell, a former Army Corps of Engineers supervisor that worked on the dams.

http://komonews.com/news/local/its-a-sad-day-researcher-claim-puget-sound-orcas-are-starving-and-dyin

August 14th 2019

By Abby Acone

With both salmon and Southern Resident orcas in dire need of help, local students and experts are filing a petition to save these species by taking down dams along the Lower Snake River.

Salmon are incredibly resilient creatures. They travel from the Pacific all the way to central Idaho every year to spawn. However, navigating over four dams in Eastern Washington has made that migration exceedingly difficult.

Our beloved Southern Resident orcas rely almost exclusively on Chinook salmon to survive. But with a dwindling salmon population, our regional orcas are starving.

"And we can’t wait! This population has been declining steadily for decades," said Robb Krehbiel, the northwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife.

That's exactly why students from across the state partnered with Environment Washington this summer, gathering about 17,000 signatures statewide for a petition to Congress. They're asking the government to take down four dams along the Lower Snake River in Eastern Washington.

"It's going to affect the entire ecosystem and the Puget Sound," said recent college graduate Lyndsay Levitt.

According to experts like Krehbiel, taking down these huge dams would restore over a million adult Chinook salmon every year for orcas.

"If we don’t invest in real solutions, then we may lose these orcas in our lifetime," emphasized Krehbiel.

The petition comes on the heels of new research released by ECONorthwest. The results of that study suggested that the ecological and economic benefits of removing the four dams far outweigh any losses to agricultural or commercial industries.

"Through investments in solar, in wind and in energy efficiency, we can easily replace the services that the energy produced by these dams without switching over to fossil fuels or natural gas," added Krehbiel.

Krehbiel also suggested that the Army Corps of Engineers remove the earthen portions of the dam to get increased flows and restore habitat for salmon, adding that this could be a fast and effective solution.

I asked the Northwestern Division of the Army Corps of Engineers what they thought about this petition. They released this statement in response:

"We share the region's concern for fish and orcas. We want to inform the region and participate in discussions that support balancing our multiple missions (that include flood risk reduction and support to navigation) within a complex ecosystem.

Dam breaching is not a silver bullet nor does the Corps have the authority from Congress to implement an action such as dam breaching. Until such a time, the Corps must continue to operate and maintain these dams for their authorized purposes.

We are now evaluating alternatives that best balance the multiple purposes of the system of 14 federal Columbia River projects. This NEPA process includes evaluation of the effects of alternative system operations on fish and wildlife that may be affected by system operations.

One alternative includes breaching the four lower Snake River dams. A draft EIS is scheduled to be released in February 2020 for public review and comment, a final EIS in July 2020 and Records of Decision by September 2020."

Talking about removing dams along the Lower Snake River is controversial, and KOMO News will be tracking the latest developments carefully.

by KOMO Staff, December 21, 2016

The Southern Resident Orca known as J34 was found dead on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in the Sunshine Coast area, about 30 miles north of Vancouver, B.C. (Photo: CTV)

VANCOUVER, B.C. - One of the Puget Sound's endangered southern resident orcas was found dead in Canadian waters this week.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the 18-year-old male orca, known as J34, was found on Monday floating in the water in the Sunshine Coast area, about 30 miles north of Vancouver.

"He had not yet grown to full size," said Howard Garrett from the Orca Network. "It's just very sad to see him go. He had not reached his full maturity."
The Center for Whale Research said J34 was spotted alive as recently as Dec. 7. Garrett said he was very recognizable member of the pod.

"[He was] the indicator of J-pod because he had a very distinct curve through his dorsal fin and a little notch that you could pick him out," said Garrett. "Once you saw him, you would know that the immediate family was nearby."

Scientists are performing a necropsy on the beach to try and figure out how J34 died. But, Garrett thinks it could have to do with the dwindling salmon population up and down the west coast.
"[The orcas] go through periodic bouts of nutritional deficiency," said Garrett. "There's just not enough of the chinook salmon and the coho chum salmon which are basically all they will eat."

"He was a part of a natural line that has suffered so many losses lately," said Garrett. 


The J-pod already lost a mother and a calf back in October. Orca advocates said both showed signs of malnutrition. A member of the L-pod also in April.

"We need to get more fish for these whales, they're not getting enough salmon year round," said Garrett. "Especially in the Columbia watershed due to the dams, especially on the Snake River because that blocks the largest wilderness spawning area on the west coast, so those salmon are severely depleted. That's what these orcas depend on. "


Garrett said scientists have been studying the J,K and L-pods since the mid-70's. The southern resident orcas were listed as endangered in 2005, when there were just 88. Since then they've lost nine, including J34.

"That brings the population down to 79, which is a very low number," said Garrett.
J34's mother, J32 and his brother, J38 are still alive.




Tuesday, July 16th 2019

By Abby Acone

The southern resident orcas in the Salish Sea are declining rapidly. Now, two orcas have gone missing and are feared dead.

Experts warn we can't act quickly enough. In the 1990s, there were nearly 100 southern resident orcas. Now, that population is cut by roughly 25 percent.

A non-profit called The Whale Sanctuary Project is hosting a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday. It's at the Great Hall at Green Lake. They want to create a rehab facility for the southern resident orcas, and are looking for community feedback.

"Knowing how intelligent they are, self-aware, social, emotional, you come to have a deep appreciation for who they are," said Lori Marino.

Marino is the founder and president of The Whale Sanctuary Project. She wants to open a facility on the San Juan Islands by 2020, all with the goal of caring for hurt or stranded southern residents.

First, she needs to submit an application to NOAA.

Some scientists are skeptical about how this concept might work.

"We can keep animals who are sick or injured and medicate them, test them, help them to become healthy, and get them right back out to their family," added Marino.

Scientists we talked to Tuesday are deeply concerned that two southern residents are now missing.

J17 was last seen in May. Areal photos show her drastic weight loss over the span of four years. Images of K25 depict a somber similarity; he looks significantly thinner between 2016 and last year.

Both have lost family members. Scientists believe their deteriorating emotional well-being may play a role in their overall declining health.

"The population is not healthy. And I think, you know, we just need to be honest, this population is perilously close to going extinct," said Joseph Bogaard.

Bogaard with Save Our Wild Salmon says there are three key factors that can prevent orcas from surviving. First, a shortage of salmon. Second, vessel noise. Lastly, toxins in their food.

"We can't act quickly enough....to begin to address these issues. But we need to move forward faster and more effectively and in a comprehensive way," said Bogaard.

One positive note about the southern resident killer whales: two calves were born this year. They appear to be healthy, but even still, there's a high mortality rate in a calf's first year.

For more information on the community meetings with The Whale Sanctuary Project held this week, click here.

When Dr. Safina visited the Pacific Northwest in early October 2015 to discuss his book "Beyond Words" and present the keynote presentation at the Orca-Salmon Alliance's event at the the Seattle Aquarium - " Intertwined Fates: The Orca-Salmon Connection in the Northwest", he also visited a number of media outlets.

Here is a link to his interview with KOMO-TV on the morning of October 7.  Below is the partial transcript from the interview; Watch the entire interview here.

CAYLE THOMPSON: The orcas we often see in parts of the Puget Sound are very near and dear to us here in the Northwest, so are our salmon populations.

Tonight, for one night only, at the Seattle Aquarium you have a chance to hear from several leading experts in the conservation of the Southern Resident orcas and Chinook salmon. We are very pleased to be joined this morning by author Dr. Carl Safina – welcome.

You will be one of the lecturers this evening, and we should point out SOLD OUT – all the tickets have already for this event.

DR. CARL SAFINA: My mother will be very happy to hear that.

Cayle: (laughs) This is part of the Orca Salmon Alliance. First of all, what is that and what is the rationale behind it?

Carl: It’s a new coalition and a number of conservation groups are coming together, some from the region, some national groups, coming together because we’ve known for a long time that the resident orcas are the fish eating orcas and we’ve know that they mainly eat Chinook salmon but what we are now really realizing is that they are experiencing food shortages that are causing them to not reproduce very well in most years.

They have a baby boom right now but they had no babies for a whole bunch of years. So, when there is a big pulse of salmon they do very well but mostly they are nutritionally stressed and the best thing that we can do, the best single thing we can do is to take out the four earthen dams on the lower Snake River. That would give us about 70% of the recovery potential of the Chinook salmon that they are short of – by taking out those dams. And people have been asking for decades that those dams be removed because they really don’t do very much and they are not the big hydropower dams and they are just sort of a historical mistake I would say.

Cayle: We have followed so much of this in the news as well, including the baby boom that you mentioned which is always exciting to see.

From here the interview moved on to a discussion of his book: full interview here.

By Molly Peterson, October 24, 2016

Our metal powerboat is puttering near a bend low in the Klamath River. Morning fog pours off the hills against a flat gray sky, but we can see a fight up around a bird’s nest.

“The eagles are perched up here in the tree,” says Mike Belchik, a fisheries biologist for the Yurok tribe, whose lands extend 44 miles from the Pacific Coast inland. “The osprey is dive-bombing them.”

Belchik claps loudly to break up the birds. “They both live around here and they fight all the time,” he laughs.
People along the Klamath once fought bitterly over this river, too. But that’s beginning to change.

Four hydroelectric dams may soon be demolished along the Klamath, near the California-Oregon border. Hundreds of miles of the Klamath would run free to the Pacific Ocean — opening up the largest river restoration in U.S. history.

What’s made this possible is compromise, forged over years of negotiation, among upriver and downriver interests, in California and Oregon, farmers and tribes and fishery advocates.

Two incidents of deep and painful loss, in 2001 and 2002, sparked this new era. First, the federal Bureau of Reclamation cut off water supplies to almost all irrigators on the Klamath Irrigation Project upriver, to protect water flows to endangered fish, including salmon. Angry farmers who were losing their crops converged at the main irrigation canal’s controls in Klamath Falls, Oregon, turning the water back on. A crowd of 18,000 cheered them on.

The next year, when irrigators once again were able to take water from the river, Belchik says the resulting low flows were deadly downriver.

“We started getting calls about dead fish,” he says, standing along the riverbank. “There’s tens of thousands of fish, rotting fish, big 20-pound salmon, four deep on all of the shorelines.” He wrinkles his nose. “The smell more than the look. It smells like death.”

Go HERE to hear the radio story online and see full text and photos.

 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.

Aug. 25, 2022 
By Nicholas K. Geranios 

SPOKANE, Wash. — The benefits provided by four giant hydroelectric dams on the Snake River must be replaced before the dams can be breached to save endangered salmon runs, according to a final report issued Thursday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

That is especially true regarding the reliable and carbon-free electricity the dams generate, the report concluded.

If the four Snake River dams were ultimately removed, it would be the largest such project in U.S. history. In 2012 the Elwha Dam on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula was removed to restore habitat. At the time, the National Park Service said the elimination of the Elwha Dam was the largest such project in U.S. history.

Congress will ultimately decide if the federally-owned dams will be removed, and would have to appropriate money for the work.

The issue is not a matter of electricity versus salmon, Thursday's report said.

“We believe that is an oversimplified binary choice, and it is one that we do not accept or see as inevitable,” Inslee and Murray wrote.

But, “the science is clear that – specific to the Lower Snake River – breach of the dams would provide the greatest benefit to the salmon,” the report said.

Breaching the dams would significantly improve the ability of salmon and steelhead to swim from their inland spawning grounds to the Pacific Ocean, where they spend most of their lives, and then back to their original spawning grounds to procreate and die, the report said.

Major benefits of the dams besides electricity include making the Snake River navigable up to Lewiston, Idaho, allowing barges to carry wheat and other crops to ocean ports. Eliminating the dams would require truck and rail transportation improvements to move crops, the report said. The dams also provide irrigation water for farmers and recreation opportunities for people.

A draft report released on June 9 concluded the benefits provided by the dams would cost between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion to replace.

The dams have many supporters, including two GOP members of Congress representing eastern Washington state, where the dams are located. The dams are also supported by barge companies, farmers and other business interests.

Republican U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers recently introduced a bill to protect the dams.

But the chairman of the Yakama Nation has said the dams must be breached.

“Our people are salmon people,” tribal council chairman Delano Saluskin said earlier this year. “When the salmon thrive, we thrive; but when they suffer, our people suffer too.”

Exploring the Columbia River Basin in 1805, Lewis and Clark wrote of waterways so full with salmon that you could all but walk across on their backs.

In the late 1800s, up to 16 million salmon and steelhead returned to the Columbia River Basin every year to spawn. Over the next century and a half, overfishing whittled that number down. By the early 1950s, just under 130,000 Chinook were returning to the Snake River.

Construction of the first dam on the lower river, Ice Harbor, began in 1955. Lower Monumental followed in 1969, Little Goose in 1970, and Lower Granite in 1975. The dams stretch from Pasco, Washington, to near Pullman, Washington, and stand between migrating salmon and 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of spawning habitat in central Idaho.

The dams have fish ladders, but too many of the salmon die as they swim through the dams and across slackwater reservoirs on their migrations.

In 1991, Snake River salmon and steelhead were listed as endangered species, requiring production of a federal recovery plan. Over the next three decades, environmental organizations sued the federal government six times, arguing that the recovery plan was inadequate.

The most recent lawsuit, in 2016, resulted in a four-year study of the environmental impact of the dams. Although it found that breaching the dams would be the most effective salmon recovery action, federal agencies ultimately decided against it.

The U.S. government has spent more than $17 billion trying to recover Snake River salmon, through improvements to fish ladders and other measures, with little to show for it. In 2017, the number of Chinook salmon returning to the Snake River dropped below 10,000.

Dam supporters blame declining salmon runs on other factors, such as changing ocean conditions.

Inslee and Murray said there are “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,” the report said.

Inslee and Murray said it is clear that, with adequate money, it is possible to replace most of the services and benefits provided by the dams and to mitigate the loss of others.

Government must move forward to provide replacements for the benefits of the dams “so that breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams is a pathway that can be credibly considered by policymakers in the future," the report said.

Going forward, Inslee and Murray committed to:

—Substantially expand salmon habitat and passage throughout the Columbia River Basin and the Puget Sound.

—Improve the siting process necessary to build the clean energy resources needed.

—Leverage the investments made in the Biden administration's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to support energy replacement, infrastructure enhancement, and salmon recovery and habitat restoration.

https://www.krem.com/article/tech/science/environment/snake-river-dams-report-recommendations-breaching/281-e3cdc9de-468c-4404-a6de-b980a0726215

By Courtney Flatt
Aug 10, 2021

Funding to help fix culverts could open up cold water habitat to Northwest salmon.
Pacific Northwest salmon could get some help from the proposed federal infrastructure package.

Some of the funding in the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill could help remove barriers to salmon habitat – just not the same barriers on the Snake River that Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, had hoped to eventually include.

The $1 trillion infrastructure package includes $1 billion over a five-year period to help states remove pipes, known as culverts, that allow streams to flow under roadways. Improperly designed culverts can deter salmon from reaching significant portions of their habitat.

Stream flows inside culverts can be too swift or too shallow for fish to navigate, according to Snohomish County's Fish Passage Culvert Program. Culverts can also create waterfalls that block salmon from moving upstream.

The culvert removal program, proposed by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, will be the first federal program of its kind. The program will open up salmon spawning habitat in Washington, Cantwell said.

"The infrastructure bill makes serious investments in some of our salmon recovery challenges," Cantwell said in a statement.

The Senate voted 69-30 to approve the bill.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and Gov. Jay Inslee supported infrastructure funding for habitat improvements.

In a statement, Murray said, "I am firmly committed to making sure the federal government is doing its part to recover our iconic salmon runs."

Murray and Inslee thought these types of infrastructure issues had a better chance in the package than a proposal to remove the four Lower Snake River dams. Simpson wanted to include a wide-ranging $33.5 billion proposal that would have removed the controversial dams with funding from the infrastructure deal.

Washington’s congressional delegation didn’t back Simpson’s plan, saying more work was needed prior to the passage of the infrastructure package. Instead, Inslee and Murray hope to further discuss the fate of the controversial dams.

A better solution for salmon in the infrastructure package, the delegation said, could replace culverts, which have long blocked the path for fish to colder waters.

In 2001, 21 tribes had sued Washington to fix more than 800 problem culverts. The long-running court case ended in 2018 in the state Supreme Court with a tied decision.

The ruling meant Washington must fix most of the culverts that block salmon passage by 2030, which KUOW reported is 82 years faster than the state’s plan would have taken. At the time, the state estimated it could cost more than $2 billion to fix the culverts.

Inslee tweeted in support of the infrastructure bill, "The bipartisan infrastructure bill provides important benefits for our state. It funds culverts, grid transmission, coastal resiliency, and more."

A spokesperson for Inslee said exact funding available to Washington for culvert removal, repair and restoration won’t be known until Congress passes a final bill.

Environmental groups said removing culvert barriers opens up more cold water to salmon across the region. Sara LaBorde, executive vice president of Wild Salmon Center, said it's critical to get salmon to these cold water refuges.

The center is disappointed the package doesn’t include a line item to remove the Snake River dams, which could make up 65% of the region’s cold water in 2080, according to a Trout Unlimited analysis.

But, LaBorde said, many are looking at this as more of a "yes, and" opportunity. These programs will greatly help fish, she said, but more can be done ecosystem-wide.

Many on-the-ground projects could serve as building blocks to move toward Snake River dam removal, she said.

“The fact is, there is a great web here for salmon recovery and to build to removing the dams,” LaBorde said.

Among other funding for salmon, the federal infrastructure bill also includes $172 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, a grant program for states and tribes to help protect and restore salmon habitat. It includes $132 million for the National Estuary Program. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will receive $400 million to restore fish passage, 15% of which will be set aside for tribes and tribal partnerships.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the U.S. House.

A newborn orca surfaces next to orca J40 in central Puget Sound on Dec. 26, 2023 Photo by Maya Sears under NMFS Permit 27052

By Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez
January 03, 2024

Since the recent birth of a southern resident orca calf, Coast Salish tribes have begun preparing for the naming ceremony that will officially welcome their new relative to the community.

Tom Wooten, the chairman of the Samish Indian Nation, said the mortality rate is pretty high for baby whales, but if this baby makes it through the year, they’ll gather for what’s known as a potlatch to present the whale, which is currently called J60 by researchers, with a traditional Samish name.

“After the first year, we'll come together and we'll reach out to our elders and work on an appropriate name and invite folks and do a traditional naming, and introduce him or her to the community at large, our community, the community of Samish and then, of course, everyone else too.”

For now, they plan to gather blankets and other supplies for the potlatch celebration, where everyone in the Samish community and beyond is invited.

In Wooten’s community, orcas are just like people and deserve a name — a family name.

“We believe that they’re our relatives, and we're obliged to treat them as relatives, and one of the things we do for our relatives is carry on those family names,” he said.

The tribe's culture team and elders would choose a name that fits the whale, and carry on traditions marked by the name.

According to the Whale Museum, orca and close relative to baby J60, Sxwyeqólh (sway-ah-kash, meaning “reason for hope child” in Samish and referred to as J59 by researchers), had her naming celebration last summer. Before that, the last naming celebration for a resident orca had taken place in 2013, when T’ilem I’nges (till-imm mean-gus, meaning “singing grandchild” in Samish and referred to as J49 by researchers) received his name.

Since the Samish Indian Nation was re-recognized in 1996, Wooten said they’ve been working to raise awareness, including through these naming ceremonies, around the southern resident killer whales, which have been designated as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act since 2005.

The Orca Network reports 60 documented killer whale births in the Puget Sound area since the 1990s. In that time, more than a 100 have gone missing or have died.

During his first year of life, J60 will have to survive an ecosystem that humans have had a significantly negative impact on, and have a responsibility to address, Wooten said. He sees J60's birth as a good sign of momentum toward a thriving orca population: The whales are an apex predator and their health is an indicator of the health of their ecosystem.

“In terms of factors that limit their survival, sufficient salmon prey, vessel traffic and noise, and toxic pollutants that collect in their bodies are some of the primary threats,” said Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has monitored southern resident orcas since the 2000s. “In addition, inbreeding within the small population has also emerged as a factor.”

A new law signed last year, Senate Bill 5371, will require a 1,000 yard buffer between recreational boats and any whales when it takes effect in 2025. For commercial boats, there’s been a trial period of slowing ships down in hopes of making it easier for orcas to “see.”

KUOW: 'They're our relatives.' Samish Indian Nation prepares to welcome new orca calf to Puget Sound article link 

Courtney Flatt
October 10, 2023 / 3:10 pm

From the air above Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, a green sheen spreads out over the water.

“There was a pretty extensive algae bloom just above Lower Granite,” said Eric Crawford, who saw the bloom during a flight that flew out of Pullman.

That colorful sheen is actually a harmful algal bloom that’s covered around 30 miles of river. Whitman County Public Health said it hasn’t seen a harmful algal bloom like this on the Snake before.

Blue-green algae are a type of bacteria common in freshwater. In high concentrations, the toxins this bloom is producing can cause liver damage to people and pets. The toxins can also accumulate in fish. That is why the health department said people and pets should stay out of the water and be very careful with fish they eat from the Snake.

Other advice: Don’t drink, swim, wade or boat in areas with visible blooms. Wash your clothes and take a shower if you come into contact with the water in those areas. Boiling water doesn’t eliminate the toxins, so don’t cook or wash dishes with contaminated water. In addition, don’t eat shellfish found in areas with toxic blooms.

Maddy Lucas collects water samples for the health department every week.

“It’s pretty gross,” she said. “In the areas where this scum is thick, it’s this neon-green milkshake consistency across the river, and it smells pretty awful.”

Lucas said that smell means the matter is decomposing and the bloom is nearing its end.

This summer and early fall have seen more harmful algal blooms than usual, according to health departments testing water samples.

Lucas said the Snake River had a little help. She said the large bloom there probably accumulated behind the dam.

“Usually rivers aren’t this bad, but we also have the dams. These blooms like stagnant, warm, with high nutrient load,” she said.

Lucas said the health department is planning to step up its monitoring procedures next year. She said she hopes these types of blooms won’t become a yearly occurrence.

“We are also prepared to tackle it if it is,” she said.

The department will continue to monitor the water until it collects two consecutive non-toxic samples

By Emily Schwing <http://kuow.org/people/emily-schwing>

Mar 17,  2017  

LISTEN TO THE STORY HERE.

The state of the salmon population in Idaho’s Snake River was the topic of a passionate discussion during a conference hosted by members of Idaho’s Nez Perce Indian tribe over the weekend.

The Northwest used to be home to some of the world’s largest salmon runs.

“The resiliency of the salmon is so beautiful that I liken the Native American to the salmon story,” Nez Perce Tribe Chairman Mary Jane Miles said.

Miles spoke on a panel discussion hosted by Nimi’ipuu Protecting the Environment, a tribal group advocating for the environment. They highlighted the impact of four federal dams on salmon runs in the lower Snake River.

According to Nimi’ipuu, the federal government has invested more than $15 billion on salmon recovery, without success.

The group said dam removal is necessary to restore the salmon population under sovereign rights outlined in a treaty signed in 1855 between the Nez Perce Tribe and the U.S. Government.

August 6, 2019

By John Ryan and Isolde Raftery

Three endangered orcas are believed to be dead, according to the Center for Whale Research, which keeps an eye on the southern resident killer whales of the Salish Sea.

Lack of Chinook salmon is partly to blame, according to a statement from the Center for Whale Research.

These Northwest orcas made international headlines last summer when Tahlequah, or J35, carried her dead calf for 17 days. The funeral march was viewed as grief not just for her baby, but for her species.

Tahlequah’s mom, known as J17, is among those three orcas believed to be dead. She was a 42-year-old matriarch from the J-pod.

The center reported last winter that J17 did not look well, presumably because of stress. She had what researchers call a “peanut head,” meaning that her body has taken a bobble head look. J17 has two daughters and one son.

The southern resident orcas include three pods known as J pod, K pod, and L pod.

One whale from each pod has gone missing and is believed to be dead.

From the K-pod, a 28-year-old male orca is believed dead. He, too, did not look good last winter, according to the whale research center.

The third orca missing is a 29-year-old male orca from the L-pod. Canadian officials noted that he had been missing all summer. L-pod has not come to the Salish Sea yet this summer, according to the center.

This brings these killer whales down to 73 total across the three pods.

“Due to the scarcity of suitable Chinook salmon prey, this population of whales now rarely visit the core waters,” the statement said. Those core waters are Puget Sound, Georgia Straight and the inland reach of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Oct 05, 2022

By Courtney Flatt

Salmon advocates want negotiators to consider salmon and the Columbia River’s ecosystem as a part of an agreement between the U.S. and Canada.

The agreement, known as the Columbia River Treaty, is around 60 years old. It coordinates flood control and hydropower along the Columbia River. During renegotiations, the United States has asked to modernize the treaty, including considerations for climate change.

However, salmon advocates and tribal representatives would like to see a functional, healthy ecosystem officially added as a third purpose for the treaty, which would expand upon the current flood control and hydropower purposes.

Historically, ecosystem needs, such as salmon passage, have been looked at as costs instead of benefits, said D.R. Michel, executive director of the Upper Columbia United Tribes.

“It doesn’t have to be either/or. We have an opportunity to correct some historic wrongs with the renewal of the treaty,” Michel said.

Not including tribes in the original treaty discussions and not considering the Columbia River ecosystem were historic wrongs, he said.

In addition, Michel said, a healthy ecosystem would provide economic benefits for the region, including fisheries, restaurants and new bait shops in communities that haven’t seen salmon for at least 80 years.

A study by Earth Economics, a group that quantifies the value of natural assets, highlighted the monetary values of natural assets in the Columbia River ecosystem that Michel discussed. Under a modernized Columbia River Treaty, the study found ecosystem services, such as food and water quality, were valued at more than $190 billion, compared to $3.3 billion provided by hydropower.

It’s important to shift the framing of salmon and ecosystem values from costs to benefits, Michel said.

Moreover, fish passage should be considered as a benefit to the ecosystem, Michel said. The Upper Columbia United Tribes have worked to bring salmon back to the section of the river that’s been blocked by Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, including releasing and studying fish that have later spawned in the Sanpoil River and made it from Hangman Creek to the ocean.

In Indigenous creation stories, salmon were one of the first beings to offer themselves up to humans, Michel said. As long as people take care of salmon, salmon would take care of people. As salmon demonstrate their instincts to return to traditional spawning areas, they’re holding up their end of the bargain, he said.

“It becomes a responsibility for us to take this opportunity and provide those fish what was taken away from them with the construction of Chief Joe, Grand Coulee, and the dams on the Spokane River,” Michel said.

Moreover, salmon in the Upper Columbia River would help feed bears, birds and other wildlife that are healthier when those fish are in their diets, Michel said. Bringing salmon back to the Upper Columbia benefits more than just tribes, he said.

“What the tribes do doesn’t just benefit the tribes. The things we do benefit everybody in the region up and down the river,” Michel said.

With an updated treaty, the United States and Canada have an opportunity to lean into stewardship, said Jessica Zimmerle, the advocacy director at Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light, a faith-based advocacy group.

“Ecosystem function is a way that we can reframe our role as stewards promoting holistic wellbeing. Rather than trying to control the river, we can listen and respond to the needs of the river and all life it supports,” Zimmerle said.

Moreover, advocacy groups argued in a letter to the U.S. State Department, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the U.S. public hasn’t been included in recent negotiation updates.

In addition, the current flood risk management plan will expire in September 2024, which would mean greater uncertainty for the United States by shifting flood control responsibilities from Canada to the United States, said Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the advocacy group Save Our Wild Salmon.

Changing the way flood control operations are run could further degrade river flows and cool water releases for salmon, he said.

“That’s another reason for urgency,” Bogaard said, of taking quick action on the treaty.

[Copyright 2022 Northwest News Network] https://www.kuow.org/stories/salmon-advocates-ask-to-include-healthy-ecosystems-in-columbia-river-treaty

By Richard Read, Seattle Bureau Chief
July 18, 2021

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-18/snake-river-salmon

EAGLE, Idaho —

The fish shimmied past her underwater office window inside the Lower Granite Dam, solo and in small groups, an endless parade of Chinook salmon, steelhead and shad.

Debby Stallcop observed and counted, dutifully logging each traveler by species with a tap on a specialized keyboard.

Finally, an hour and a half into her shift at the eastern Washington dam, a lime-green fish, nearly 2 feet long with a forked tail, appeared through the glass. Its distinctively large eye seemed to stare back at her.

Stallcop reached for her desk phone and hit a number on speed dial.

“We’ve got a sockeye,” she announced.

More precisely, a Snake River sockeye — a once-abundant fish pushed to the brink of extinction by overfishing, dam construction and climate change.

Billions of dollars have been spent over the last four decades to save Snake River salmon by restoring streams, relocating sea lions and other predators, building hatcheries and helping fish get past dams. But those efforts increasingly look futile.

As heat waves become more common and river temperatures rise, few fish complete the treacherous journey from the Pacific Ocean through eight dams to their spawning grounds in southern Idaho — a 900-mile trip up the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.

Hoping to avert disaster amid record July heat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration authorized an emergency plan to help the sockeye skip the final 300 miles of their migration.

A team of government scientists waited about 150 feet upriver from Stallcop beside the Lower Granite’s “fish ladder” — a series of artificial streams and pools that provide a path for the sockeye to conquer the final dam on their journey.

After Stallcop let them know the fish was coming, they waited until they could see it, then opened a chute to let it into a tank of water spiked with anesthetic.

Once the fish stopped thrashing, Dan Baker, an Idaho state fisheries biologist, slid it into a rubber sleeve.

Clutching the specimen tight, another state biologist, John Powell, hurried down 21 steps and deposited it into a 400-gallon tank on the back of a 1-ton pickup.

Instead of taking the river, the sockeye would take the highway.
At nature’s pace

In the days when only Native Americans inhabited the Northwest, tens of thousands of Snake River sockeye returned each summer to the lakes and streams where they had hatched in the foothills of the Sawtooth Range.

Navigating by smell and Earth’s magnetic field, they gained more than a mile in altitude in the longest migration of any sockeye salmon in the world — an odyssey that ensured only the healthiest, strongest fish survived to reproduce.

Each spring, the sockeye smolt swam unimpeded to the sea for the cycle to begin anew.

Their troubles began with the rise of commercial fishing in the mid 19th century as Columbia River canneries packed massive amounts of fish.

In the 1920s, state game managers began stocking lakes with other species that competed with sockeye for food. Sometimes they dumped poison in a lake to kill all the fish, replacing them with trout prized for fly fishing.

But the most devastating blow for the sockeye came from a dam-building frenzy that began in the 1930s, submerging rapids and waterfalls and creating a series of artificial lakes that stewed in the sun.

Warmer water bred disease. Slower currents meant that the juveniles often took so long to reach the ocean that they were devoured by birds and seals.

In 1979, the fish counters at the Lower Granite Dam recorded just 25 Snake River sockeye. In 1990, the count fell to zero.
Fish swim on a Lower Granite Dam fish ladder.
A fish ladder on the Lower Granite Dam provides passage for migrating Snake River sockeye and other species.
(Richard Read / Los Angeles Times)

The Snake River sockeye was added to the endangered species list in 1991 after a petition from the Shoshone-Bannock tribes in the spawning areas.

Hatcheries — which produce fertilized eggs that are placed in spawning areas — helped stave off extinction. In 2014, the count at Lower Granite rebounded to 2,786, the most in at least four decades.

But many scientists doubt that the current approach can prevent extinction of the Snake River sockeye as temperatures continue to rise.

“When you start reducing adult returns to the spawning grounds to the low numbers we’re watching right now, it’s like inbreeding — you don’t get enough genetic diversity to sustain the populations,” said Steve Pettit, a retired Idaho Fish and Game biologist. “That can threaten their long-term survival just as much as pure numbers can.”

Still, he said it’s worth trying: “The sockeye still coming back to Idaho are in my opinion museum pieces.”

As of Saturday, the count at the Lower Granite dam this year was 411.
Into the truck

By late morning, Powell and his team had dropped eight Snake River sockeyes into the tank bolted to the bed of the pickup.

Temperatures at the Lower Granite were climbing into the 90s. Water above 70 degrees quickly becomes lethal for sockeyes, so the race was on to keep the precious cargo cool.

Powell pulled another four buckets of ice from an office freezer and handed them up to Baker, who gently tipped them into the tank.

At 11:15 a.m., it was time to leave. They hoped to reach the Idaho hatchery by nightfall. It would be the first of several such trips planned for this summer.

Powell climbed into the passenger seat as Baker started the engine and steered out of the canyon through a series of switchbacks into tawny wheat fields that shimmered in the heat.

Watching the reception bars on his cellphone, Powell scrambled to call grocery stores and gas stations — anywhere along the route that might have ice.

Not just any ice would do. Chlorine, an additive in city water supplies, could kill the fish. Powell asked for the Frosty brand. The Spokane manufacturer got its water from a 200-foot-deep well.

Thirty miles into the trip, they pulled into a truck stop just before the Idaho border and dumped in an extra bag of ice they had stowed in the cab.

Road construction slowed the truck to a crawl as the temperature in the tank climbed. Powell called a gas station up the road in Winchester and was told to hurry.

He arrived too late. A sign out front said that ice was sold out.

“Are you the guy who called?” asked the woman at the cash register.

When Powell explained their predicament, she raided a private stash made from the owner’s well water. It was only 30 pounds, but every bit helped.

Powell phoned the hatchery and asked his staff to call around. A co-worker called back: An Exxon station 40 miles up the road stocked Frosty.

Fifteen 10-pound bags would buy them some time. They added 10 to the tank and put the other five in the cab for later. At a nearby Subway, the men grabbed sandwiches and switched drivers before pushing on.

Water, ice and fish sloshed in back as the pickup rocked from side to side, rounding curves down the notorious 7% grade of White Bird Hill. Nearing the bottom, Powell and Baker could see the Salmon River — where the fish would have had to swim up rapids if they weren’t in the truck.

In the town of Riggins, a rafting mecca deep in a canyon where sockeyes know to turn east , the dashboard’s outdoor temperature gauge read 110.

It was getting close to 5 p.m. Baker was finding that businesses ahead in New Meadows, Mesa and Midvale got their ice from chlorinated city supplies in Oregon.

As the tank water reached 69 degrees, he called his father-in-law, who lived on a farm up ahead in Weiser, a well-known gateway to salmon fishing before dams went in.

Phil Ulmer dug 30 pounds of block ice out of his freezer.

It was past 9 p.m. when Powell and Baker pulled up at the hatchery in the Boise suburb of Eagle. They got out and peered into the tank.

All eight fish were alive.

Travis Brown, an assistant manager at the hatchery, pulled a hose to the pickup and slowly added well water to cool them down. The men netted the fish one by one and transferred them to a hatchery tank that looked like an above-ground swimming pool.

The water was a safe 55 degrees.

A solution?

Maybe nothing can save the Snake River sockeye.

But there is a dramatic step that has yet to be tried: tearing out dams. In February, 68 fisheries scientists wrote in an open letter to Northwest members of Congress, governors and policy makers that the four dams on the Snake River had to go.

“Breaching the four lower Snake River dams would provide more certainty of achieving long-term survival and recovery than would any other measure,” the letter said.

It’s a longtime goal of environmentalists, who for decades have tried to use the federal courts to achieve it.

The idea has never gained political traction because of powerful interests aligned against it. The dams generate power, control floods, provide irrigation and create a waterway for cruise ships, pleasure boats and barges that make up a massive industrial shipping operation.

In February, Mike Simpson, a Republican congressman from Idaho whose district includes the sockeye spawning grounds, appalled lawmakers in his party when he pitched a plan to let the Snake River run wild again.

He wants the federal government to spend $33.5 billion to remove the four dams, replace hydropower with other forms of energy, rework transportation and irrigation systems, compensate businesses and redevelop city waterfronts.

In an interview, he said that the federal Bonneville Power Administration, which sells electricity generated by the dams, has already put $17 billion toward fish and wildlife over the decades.

“I think you need to preserve those species that God has given us and not let them go extinct if there’s a way of preventing that from happening,” he said.

Critics called the plan expensive and extreme. Some dam proponents pointed out that other varieties of sockeye with far shorter migrations were still plentiful.

The Pacific Northwest Waterways Assn., which includes ports, barge companies, farmers and grain elevator operators, said that replacing fuel-efficient barges with trucks, trains and more miles of highway and rail would worsen the climate change that jeopardizes fish.

Simpson, who has yet to draft legislation, said a bill would be unlikely to pass if his party regained control of Congress. He said he was willing to take the political consequences.

“If I lose my election and we save salmon, I’m fine with that,” he said.

Taking samples

The morning after the fish reached the hatchery, Powell joined Brown and Baker — both of whom live there with their families — to check on them.

Brown netted one of the sockeyes, deposited it in a tray and scanned it with an electronic wand — checking for a microchip injected in fish previously handled by researchers.

Finding none, he weighed and measured the fish and gently pressed an ultrasound transducer against its underside, seeing from the presence of ovaries that it was a female.

Seven of the eight sockeyes were missing their adipose fins, indicating that they had originated in hatcheries, which remove the fins before releasing smolt into the wild.

The lone wild fish was a 24.5-inch male weighing 4.5 pounds. With tweezers, Brown removed three of its scales: they contained annual markings that would be examined under a microscope to determine its age.

Then he used scissors to snip off a tiny section of a rear fin, placing it in a plastic bag. Genetic analysis would determine its origin, down to a specific lake.

If lab tests found the fish to be healthy, its sperm would be combined in vitro with eggs from wild females. Smolt from the fertilized eggs would be raised at a hatchery 250 miles east in Springfield.

Brown gripped the slippery specimen, punching a hole in its dorsal fin and attaching a zip tie bearing a microchip. Nudging it back into the net, he lowered it into another hatchery tank.

Sockeye No. 3DD.003D45155E was ready to become a father.

Richard Read is the Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Seattle, covering Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii. A former Tokyo-based foreign correspondent, he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series that explained the Asian financial crisis by following a container of French fries from a Northwest farm to a Singapore McDonald’s. He served on a team that won the Pulitzer for Public Service for exposing U.S. immigration agency abuses. Born in Scotland and raised in Boston, he has reported from all seven continents.

By Tony Malmberg
Mar 16, 2021

I am a Northeast Oregon rancher on Catherine Creek, in the Snake River Basin, and I face challenges that are much the same as the Snake River salmon.

We both have to rely on outdated and often obsolete technology, infrastructure and strategies to survive. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s forward-looking “Energy and Salmon Concept” to upgrade and modernize
the Snake River Basin’s and Pacific Northwest’s agriculture, infrastructure, energy and transportation systems can help the salmon, while supporting our region’s agriculture, energy and transportation
sectors.

Salmon and steelhead are not recovering in our Grande Ronde watershed, or other tributaries of the lower Snake River. The numbers show clearly that the eight main stem dams on the Columbia and Snake are
simply too many. Salmon in the John Day River, for example, that cross three dams, see adult return rates four times better than Snake River fish crossing eight.

This cannot be sustainable for salmon, steelhead or conservation.

Fish that brave the dam gauntlet travel more than 650 miles of river from our place on Catherine Creek to the Pacific. High water temperature, lack of habitat for cover and food, and low stream flows further perplex their life cycle. These same issues cause problems for ranchers in these headwaters. To get a loop around potential solutions, we can reset our thinking and plan 50 years down the road, with a holistic strategy for all stakeholders.

Simpson’s plan offers that vision. It focuses on innovations and solutions for irrigation and agricultural upgrades; funding for administrative options to sustain instream flows; and restoration of instream and upland habitats. Simpson’s approach benefits our operation, my community and salmon.

• Irrigation and ag upgrades: Irrigators will benefit from state-of- the-art irrigation to manage available water content and reduce compaction due to over irrigation just as salmon benefit from more water instream during the hot season. My community will benefit from potential local hydro power from irrigation upgrades just as salmon will benefit from better irrigation management.

• Instream restoration: Graziers will gain production from a higher water table when the creek is reconnected to the floodplain just as salmon juveniles benefit from refuge and habitat on functional floodplains, and my community will benefit from flood control.

• Upland restoration: Ranchers benefit from more grass when uplands have high soil organic matter to absorb the snowmelt into the soil mantle. Our streams gain cold water flow from the slowed release
during the hot season, benefiting salmon. My cattle benefit from woody vegetation providing shade in summer and wind breaks in the winter, just as salmon benefit from shade keeping water cool.

Ranchers have learned a lot about better grazing management over the last 50 years. We can benefit by updating technology — for example, virtual fencing, RAM powered stock water pipelines and state-of-the-
art grazing planning — to minimize overgrazing on critical watershed uplands and riparian areas.

Simpson’s package would deliver significant innovations and support in these categories of shared concern. Cooperation and coordination among farmers, ranchers, fishery, habitat, infrastructure and other
specialists is something we’ve proven we can do, and we can do it well.

Where the needs of fish, transportation, energy and agriculture converge, we prioritize projects. Simpson’s proposal, when it turns into a bill, will deploy funds to support community-led watershed management.

Engage now with Rep. Bentz and encourage him to work with his colleague Rep. Simpson. Call on Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, so our existing collaborations and priorities are teed up in the bill.

A custom-made, Pacific Northwest-led solution for Snake River salmon and steelhead honoring our land managers and heritage of innovative collaboration improving our waterways can be achieved.

How?

Simply by empowering those managing our fishery, road, irrigation, energy, forest and agriculture production.

A plan meeting the challenges of the next generation lies before us. Engage.

Tony Malmberg and his wife, Andrea Malmberg, have been ranching in Northeastern Oregon for 10 years after ranching in Wyoming more than 0 years. You can find out more about him at his website,
www.holisticmanagement.guide.

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."

Read more of "Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier"

---

By Bettina Boxall  

October 22, 2019

In a move that would boost water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley agriculture and Southern California cities, federal fishery agencies are weakening decade-old endangered species protections for some of the state’s most imperiled native fish populations.

The rollback — coming a year after President Trump targeted the regulations in a memo — rewards Central Valley agribusiness interests that are some of the president’s strongest California supporters. To critics, it highlights the extent to which the Trump administration has injected politics into federal oversight of the nation’s leading environmental laws.

The actions also put Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leader of the Trump resistance on many environmental matters,  in a politically fraught position — since California’s biggest and most powerful water agencies want the state to go along with the Trump moves.

The fish protections partially govern operations of the giant federal and state pumping plants in the Northern California delta that help supply more than half the state’s population with drinking water and fill irrigation canals stretching across millions of acres of cropland.

The massive water exports have upended the delta’s natural hydrologic rhythms and helped push native fish, such as the delta smelt and winter-run Chinook salmon, to the brink of extinction.

The tension between water supply and environmental protection in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta east of San Francisco has fueled more than two decades of legal and political conflict, with no end in sight.

Environmentalists, who successfully challenged similar rollbacks under President George W. Bush, are expected to go to court again to try to block the Trump administration rules, which would likely take effect in January.

Two fishery agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, were in the process of updating the endangered species protections last year when Trump’s memo directed them to develop plans to revise or rescind regulations that impeded western water deliveries.

Then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also ordered agencies to devise ways to maximize water deliveries from the federal Central Valley Project, which supplies delta water to valley farmers, including the sprawling Westlands Water District. Ryan’s successor at Interior, David Bernhardt, is a former lobbyist-lawyer for Westlands who personally argued an appeals case challenging salmon protections.

Despite pressure from Washington, scientists with  the marine fisheries service in July submitted a 1,123-page report, called a biological opinion, that found the proposed pumping increases would likely jeopardize the continued existence of four species — endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, threatened spring-run Chinook and threatened Central Valley steelhead, as well as endangered Southern Resident killer whales that eat salmon.

The so-called “jeopardy finding” would have made it difficult to significantly ramp up deliveries from the delta. Two days after the opinion was submitted, Paul Souza, the regional U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official who is coordinating the salmon and delta smelt reviews, pulled the document and assembled a new team to rework it.

The salmon opinion signed Monday dropped the jeopardy findings. A separate smelt opinion prepared by the fish and wildlife service also concluded that the proposed changes in delta operations would not jeopardize the continued existence of the smelt, which have all but disappeared from the delta, their only home.

Souza said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Central Valley Project, agreed to a number of changes in reservoir and pumping management that cleared the way for the no-jeopardy findings.

“There’s been a lot of change, a lot of negotiation since June that allowed us to address the concerns that were raised originally,” he said Monday.

Under the new rules, Souza said delta pumping restrictions would be based on real-time monitoring of where smelt and migrating salmon are swimming in the delta, rather than the seasonal prescriptions contained in the current regulations.

Reclamation teams in boats would monitor smelt location several times a week and pumping would be curbed if the tiny fish are at risk, he said. Similarly, an increase in the number of salmon entrained at the pumps would reduce exports.

Additionally, Souza said the reclamation bureau has agreed to invest in a conservation hatchery for delta smelt; will monitor turbidity and other delta conditions that smelt favor; and will increase the average May 1 levels of Lake Shasta, the Central Valley Project’s biggest reservoir, to preserve cold water releases necessary to maintain salmon-friendly temperatures in the Sacramento River.

As for how the revisions would affect water deliveries, Souza said he could not put a number on it. The goal “was for us to find flexibility in providing water supply when it did not conflict with fishery conservation. We struck that balance.”

Flexibility, real-time monitoring of the imperiled fish and dropping the existing seasonal pumping limits are all changes sought by Westlands and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. They and other water users have bitterly complained about cuts to their water deliveries resulting from endangered species protections adopted in 2008 and 2009.

The same interests  successfully lobbied Newsom to veto a bill that would have incorporated those protections in state law.

Environmentalists have said they expect the relaxed pumping limits will return delta exports to the Bush-era levels that a federal appeals court ultimately found violated the Endangered Species Act.

On May 18, 2009, in a letter issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Redden, the Court indicated that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service has failed yet again to produce a legal and scientifically adequate plan to protect endangered Columbia-Snake River salmon from harm caused by the operation of eight federal dams on the rivers. In his letter, Judge Redden said: “Federal defendants have spent the better part of the last decade treading water, and avoiding their obligations under the Endangered Species Act… We simply cannot afford to waste another decade.”

“Today’s guidance from Judge Redden gives us all renewed hope that salmon can be recovered, our fishing jobs can be saved and inland agricultural economies can thrive if we examine and invest in solutions across the entire Snake and Columbia River Basin,” said Bob Rees, president of Northwest Guides and Anglers Association. “We welcome the administration’s review and believe that removing the four lower Snake River dams is the most cost-effective and scientifically viable solution that works for the entire region. As the judge commented in his letter, it is time we put that option squarely on the table and develop a legal plan that recovers Columbia and Snake River salmon.”

In the letter, Judge Redden said: “All of us know that aggressive action is necessary to save this vital resource, and now is the time to make that happen.” The letter urges federal defendants to develop a contingency plan to study “specific, alternative hydro actions, such as flow augmentation and/or reservoir drawdowns, as well as what it will take to breach the lower Snake River dams if all other measures fail.”

Earthjustice attorney Todd True added: “Today’s action by Judge Redden is a significant step forward for the entire West Coast, but it is not surprising. The Bush administration’s salmon policy was legally and scientifically bankrupt from the beginning. There is no reason to pretend, as they have in this latest illegal BiOp, that a failed status quo is our only option. We cannot afford to stay the course on a path toward salmon extinction.”

Among those hardest hit by the Columbia-Snake salmon crisis are commercial and sport fishermen. Repeated fishery closures and cutbacks in recent years have harmed river and coastal family businesses and livelihoods. Fishing groups have been at the forefront of this legal battle for decades. Spring chinook returns are down again this year and fishermen.

“After four spectacular failures by prior administrations, the Obama administration and NOAA Fisheries now have a perfect opportunity to deliver an effective salmon plan,” said Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, one of the Plaintiff groups in the case. “Instead of pouring more money down this rat hole, it’s finally time for a regional solution, but we will need national leadership from the Obama administration to get the job done. Removing the four fish-killing dams on the lower Snake River has got to be done, but it can be done in such a way to leave the Northwest both economically stronger and greener.”

In the letter, Judge Redden said: “I still have serious reservations about whether the ‘trending toward recovery’ standard complies with the Endangered Species Act, its implementing regulations, and the case law.” He also added that the federal agencies’ conclusion that plan would avoid jeopardy is likely arbitrary and capricious.

“The Obama administration says it respects science and will do things differently, so we have a new opportunity to bring our salmon back,” said Tom Stuart, retired Idaho businessman and former president of Idaho Rivers United. “With leadership from the Obama administration we can achieve both salmon restoration and economic recovery.”

Groups believe the Obama administration is perfectly poised to recover endangered Columbia-Snake salmon and jumpstart a clean energy future for the Northwest. A new report from the NW Energy Coalition, Bright Future, shows that the region can replace the power currently generated by the four salmon-killing dams on the lower Snake River and meet our future energy needs over the coming decades by relying on a combination of conservation, energy-efficiency standards and increased renewable energy production, including wind and solar.

“A comprehensive solution will involve providing the water needed for wild salmon restoration and satisfying all new power needs from our abundant stores of affordable energy efficiency and carbon-free renewable resources,” said NW Energy Coalition executive director Sara Patton. “The good news is that our new report, Bright Future, examines the region’s future energy needs and proves this goal to be completely achievable. We now have an opportunity to start building a bright future not just for salmon, but for our world, our economy and our families.”

Click here to learn more about win-win solutions for salmon, communities, and the nation.

If you haven't done so already, please contact President Obama today!

Urge the Obama Administration to bring together stakeholders to solve this problem in a manner that creates new jobs, invests in our fishing and farming communities, and promotes a clean energy economy that our region and nation needs.

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?

Kooskia-area man known for his opposition to megaloads says grain shipments costly to taxpayers Analysis questions economics of barging

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune The Lewiston Tribune

Monday, January 21, 2013
A critic of the Port of Lewiston says U.S. taxpayers are shelling out $13,000 to $18,000 for every barge that leaves the port and collectively subsidizing farmers who use the river transportation system about $2 million per year.

Linwood Laughy, a Kooskia-area resident who was one of the leading opponents of megaload traffic on U.S. Highway 12, said the cost of keeping the river's shipping channel clear of sand and other sediment is huge compared to the amount of goods transported to downriver destinations like the Port of Portland.

Admittedly a layman when it comes to economic analysis, Laughy nonetheless said his numbers are both solid and shocking.

"I have to admit I was shocked when I first ran the data," he said. "I thought, 'Nah, there is a decimal point off.' But I kept coming up with the same answer and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is pretty damn spendy.' "

Without accepting or rejecting his analysis, which neither has seen, Port of Lewiston manager David Doeringsfeld and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Bruce Henrickson defended the river transportation system.

About 220 barges each loaded with 100,000 bushels of wheat or barley leave the Lewis Clark Terminal at the Port of Lewiston each year, Doeringsfeld said. Based on the current price of wheat that equates to just shy of $1 million per barge, he said.

"You have $220 million just in agriculture exports leaving the Port of Lewiston. The cost of barging over rail is maybe one-third of the cost of rail so that is a significant saving to the area ag community provided by the Columbia-Snake system and that is just simple math."

Henrickson said one barge is equal to about 35 railroad cars and 134 tractor-trailers, saving both wear and tear on the road and reducing the number of fossil fuels burned and the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere.

"We are here to serve the public and help goods move up and down the river, and the river transportation system does have its efficiencies," Henrickson said.

Laughy began his analysis by looking at the recent release of the corps' draft Programmatic Sediment Management Plan, a 20-year outline for dealing with sediment accumulation in lower Snake River reservoirs. The plan calls for long-term actions and for short-term measures such as dredging more than 400,000 cubic yards of sediment from the channel as soon as next winter.

He focused his analysis on the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers where most navigation dredging has occurred. When it comes to goods shipped on the river he excluded the Port of Clarkston, which has not operated its crane in several years. Nor did he look at the Port of Wilma, which sits downstream of where most navigation dredging has occurred.

He calculated that the corps has removed about 3.7 million cubic yards of sediment from the shipping channel in the past 21 years for an average of about 177,950 cubic yards per year. The last time the corps dredged the shipping channel, in 2005, it removed about 400,000 cubic yards at a cost of $5.1 million, or $12.75 a yard. So he figures it will cost about $2.3 million a year to remove 177,950 yards of sediment.

But Laughy said that is just the cost to do the dredging. Add in the cost to perform pre-dredging environmental analysis and the price, by his figuring, climbs to about $3.2 million a year. He used the corps' expenditure of $16 million to write a draft sediment management plan as a basis for his calculation.

In 2011, Laughy said the port shipped about 587,177 tons of grain and other freight downriver. Divide that by $3.2 million and he gets $5.40 a ton. A fully loaded barge weighs about 3,500 tons, so by his calculations it takes $18,900 of dredging per barge. If the cost of environmental analysis is excluded it comes to $13,510.

"The bottom line is perpetual dredging is going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money," he said.

When he accounts for inflation, Laughy said it will cost about $38 million over the next 10 years to maintain the shipping channel. He welcomes others to look at his numbers and tell him where and why he might be wrong.

His analysis doesn't factor other expenses like the cost to maintain locks on Snake and Columbia river dams. Nor does it consider economic benefits to dredging or the costs and benefits of hydropower production at the dams. That is something salmon advocates who support breaching the four lower Snake River dams to recover threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead would like to see.

"Looking at long-term salmon recovery options, we want to see a regional conversation that has all options on the table," said Sam Mace of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition at Spokane. "Part of that is an honest analysis of what the economic costs are for any options we look at, whether it's options that keep the dams in place versus recovery options that involve removing the four lower Snake River dams."

Dustin Aherin, a rafting outfitter and head of the Lewiston-based group Citizens for Progress, said the numbers should lead people to ask if river transportation is the best way to spend our tax dollars.

"Once we do the cost-benefit analysis of keeping the shipping channel on the status quo, we should realize the Port of Lewiston can fairly easily maintain and, from my perspective, grow from switching from water-based transportation to rail-based," he said.

By Eric Barker

February 14, 2020

Anglers can expect another ho-hum year for spring and summer chinook returning to the Snake River and its tributaries, according to a forecast from a group of state, tribal and federal fisheries managers.

The Technical Advisory Committee is forecasting about 56,400 spring and summer chinook bound for the Snake River will return at least as far as the mouth of the Columbia River, about 53 percent of the 10-year average. The forecast includes 9,600 wild fish and 46,800 hatchery fish.

Biologists from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are expecting 37,133 spring and summer chinook to return past Lower Granite Dam. That total includes 28,644 adipose-fin clipped hatchery fish, 1,424 unclipped hatchery fish and 7,065 wild fish.

Most of the hatchery fish forecast to return above Lower Granite Dam, about 26,000, will be bound for hatcheries in Idaho, including 11,393 to the Clearwater River and 14,565 to the Salmon River. The hatchery component returning to the Salmon River includes 8,982 bound for Rapid River Hatchery. Another 1,541 hatchery chinook are forecast to return to the upper reaches of Hells Canyon.

The overall forecast represents a modest improvement over last year’s return of 43,077 Snake River-bound spring and summer chinook to the mouth of the Columbia. That return was just 39 percent of the the 10-year average of 110,447. It ranked 24th in abundance of Snake River returns since 1980.

The 2019 return was even worse for all upriver spring chinook — fish that return above Bonneville Dam. In addition to the Snake River fish, the upriver run includes fish returning to the Columbia River upstream of the Yakima River, and Columbia River tributaries between Bonneville Dam and the Yakima River. It numbered just 73,101 fish last year, which was 37 percent of the 10-year average and the lowest return since 1980.

This year, the technical advisory group is forecasting an upriver spring chinook run of 81,700 adult fish which would be 43 percent of the 10-year average and rank 29th in abundance in the past 30 years. The forecast includes the 56,400 spring and summer chinook heading to the Snake River, 12,600 to the upper Columbia River and 11,700 to tributaries along the mid-Columbia River.

The entire Columbia River is forecast to see a return of 135,800 spring chinook. That number includes 51,400 fish returning to tributaries below Bonneville Dam. Most of those, 40,800 will be bound for the Willamette River.

Bill Tweit of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Olympia said sport and commercial fisheries in the lower Columbia River are likely to be constrained by predicted low returns of chinook to lower Columbia River tributaries. Hatchery returns to the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis rivers are unlikely to meet spawning targets.

“I don’t anticipate any recreational fishing downstream of those,” Tweit said. “The first opportunity for spring chinook will be upstream of the Lewis River — what we call the Boyer Rock line. That will focus the fishery on Willamette (River) fish and upriver fish.”

He anticipates the fisheries are likely to be structured similarly to the way they were in 2019.

https://lmtribune.com/outdoors/anemic-chinook-return-predicted/article_a0ee99f4-e7dd-5e57-ab06-c11ad6f432f9.html#

By Eric Barker
Jan 29, 2021

Fisheries managers at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are forecasting another tough year for spring and summer chinook.

If the forecast proves accurate, it would mark a continuation of what has been a dismal trend marked by concerns for threatened wild fish and depressed fisheries for those that began life in hatcheries.

According to the state’s forecast, too few hatchery spring chinook will return to the Clearwater River to hold a fishing season.

“For the Clearwater we have forecasted a return of about 3,000 fish, which leads to zero harvest share, no fishery,” said Lance Hebdon, anadromous fish manager at the department’s headquarters in Boise.

That would effectively make it the second year in a row without a spring chinook season on the Clearwater. In 2020, a two-day-a-week season with a sliver of harvest share was approved. But the season was shut down when it became clear too few fish would return to meet hatchery spawning goals. When the season ended by emergency rule, anglers had caught an estimated 11 adult chinook.

The news is better for those who target chinook returning to the Rapid River hatchery near Riggins. Hebdon said the state is forecasting a return of 4,400 chinook and a harvest share of about 1,100.

The Hells Canyon stretch of the Snake River will see a return of about 656 adult chinook, enough for a harvest share of 190. Fisheries managers expect about 2,600 hatchery summer chinook will return, including 1,143 to the South Fork Salmon River, 250 to the Lochsa, 1,078 to the Sawtooth Hatchery and 181 to the Pahsimeroi Hatchery.

Fisheries managers are expecting a return of 8,150 wild spring and summer chinook. That is nearly identical to last year’s return but more than returned in 2017 to 2019. The 10-year average for wild chinook is 14,259.

Overall, fisheries managers are expecting 18,783 spring and summer chinook to return above Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. That is fewer than last year’s return of about 21,500 and about equal to the 2019 return.

“Where this forecast falls in the grand scheme of things — 2019 and 2020 were really bad, and 2021 is right in line with that sort of third year of a low return,” Hebdon said.

The 10-year average, which has been falling, is a little more than 48,000. The forecast is built largely on a formula that considers the return of jack chinook, those that return to freshwater after spending just one year in the ocean instead of two or three, as its most important input. Last year’s return of jacks was dismal, said Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the department at Lewiston.
Hebdon said forecasts often are wrong. Last year it over estimated chinook returns. Hebdon said perhaps this year’s forecast will prove to be too pessimistic.

“Sooner or later you miss low, and all we have now is hope, and it’s just hope that the forecast is wrong.”

Fisheries managers plan to soon announce details of a virtual public meeting planned for early next month to share with anglers possible fishing season structures on rivers where enough chinook are forecast to return to support harvest.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

April 24, 2019

Eric Barker

BOISE — Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson flirted with backing the removal of the four lower Snake River dams during a conference here on salmon recovery Tuesday.

The veteran Republican lawmaker representing the state’s 2nd Congressional District stopped short of calling for the dams to be breached but said his search for a way to save both the financially strapped Bonneville Power Administration and the iconic fish has led him and his chief of staff, Lindsay Slater, to quietly ask difficult questions.

Many of the questions he highlighted during his hourlong address at the Andrus Center’s “Energy, Salmon, Agriculture, and Community; Can We Come Together?” conference centered on life without the four lower Snake River Dams.

“We have been asking the ‘what if’ questions: If the dams were to come out, how would you address Lewiston; if the dams were to come out, how would you address the barging issue and the (concerns) grain growers have of getting wheat down the river: If the dams were to come out, how would you address the Washington farmers that have concerns they would have to lower all of their (irrigation) intake pipes and everything to farm?” he said. “There are an awful lot of questions that have to be asked, because you need to address these if you are going to solve this problem.”

Simpson spoke with conviction about his desire to see Idaho’s salmon and steelhead runs recovered in his lifetime. He told the audience of his experience watching a single, female salmon attempt to spawn in Marsh Creek on the upper Salmon River. The futility of it made him question the region’s decadeslong attempt to recover the fish while leaving the dams in place.

That effort has focused on fixing salmon habitat throughout the Snake River Basin, reforms to salmon and steelhead hatcheries, spilling more water at the dams and sending more Idaho water downstream to boost flows that flush juvenile salmon and steelhead to the Pacific Ocean.

“She swam 900 miles to get back to Marsh Creek, an increase in elevation (of) about 1¼ miles, all to lay her eggs for the next generation of salmon, and you have to ask yourself after spending $16 billion on salmon recovery over the last however many years, is it working?” he said. “All of Idaho’s salmon runs are either threatened or endangered. Look at the number of returning salmon, and the trend line is not going up; it’s going down.”

Simpson has no pending legislation aimed at salmon recovery and said he is not at the point of recommending dam removal. He also said there are other problems harming salmon, such as sea lion predation, degraded water quality and habitat, and downriver fishing pressure that need to be addressed.

He plans to continue to talk with people affected by the issue and also meet with other members of Congress representing the Pacific Northwest. He said it may be time to rewrite the Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Act that, among other things, obligated the BPA to fund mitigation for damage that federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers cause to fish and wildlife.

The agency faces unprecedented financial pressure that in part comes from changes to the energy market that have made the power it sells more expensive. In a few years, BPA officials will attempt to renew long-term contracts with public utilities throughout the Northwest. If the agency isn’t able to bring the price of its power down, many of those contracts may not be renewed.

“We need to stop thinking about what currently exists and ask ourselves what do we want the Northwest to look like in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years,” Simpson said.

The conference included four panel discussions and speakers representing a wide range of interests, including farmers and ranchers, power company and utility executives, environmental leaders, fishing outfitters and tribal leaders. Bonneville Power Administration head Elliot Mainzer spoke, as did Idaho Gov. Brad Little.

The governor announced he will convene collaborative stakeholders groups to discuss how to improve salmon recovery in Idaho. He too said the regional process to save the fish is not working. But he also said breaching is a “high hurdle” for him.

“I’m in favor of breaching the status quo,” Little teased during his opening remarks.

Many of the speakers talked about the need and desire for people on different sides of the salmon and dams debate to begin talking with each other to see if there are any areas of agreement. Mainzer spoke about the recent flexible spill agreement between the federal government, Nez Perce Tribe and state of Oregon that will see more water spilled at Snake and Columbia River dams this spring but reserve the BPA’s ability to produce power during times of high energy demand.

He said the negotiations between parties who battled often in court was difficult at first but ultimately produced fruit.

“It was very difficult, and there was a lot of skepticism and very little trust,” he said. “Slowly and surely, people started listening and thinking about the other person’s perspective.”

Mainzer said he views the Snake River dams as an integral part of the federal hydropower system that produces carbon-free electricity.

But Simpson’s remarks dominated the conference. Fish advocates were thrilled with his willingness to discuss breaching.

“This is the first time in 15 or 20 years, because of his leadership, that I feel positive that we can finally begin to sit down with these communities of interest that want to maintain the status quo and those of us want to see healthy, abundant, fishable populations of salmon back and come to an accord where nobody is left behind ,”said Chris Wood of Trout Unlimited.

McCoy Oatman, vice chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said he left the conference more optimistic than he arrived in large part because of Simpson’s remarks.

“I think it feels like a new leaf is starting to be turned, and they are finally listening to what the tribe has always said,” Oatman said. “And Simpson in particular is pretty clear that he realizes there are changes that need to be done, dramatic changes, and I think the other users are realizing that as well.”

Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said she is willing to hear Simpson out.

“We are always open to conversations with the congressman,” Meira said. “He’s been open about these questions, and we will look forward to being part of the conversation.”

Authorities have started releasing cold water from a northern Idaho dam to keep Snake River water temperatures cool to help migrating salmon and steelhead

June 24, 2021

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Authorities have started releasing cold water from a northern Idaho dam to keep Snake River water temperatures cool to help migrating salmon and steelhead.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started increasing releases of the 43-degree Fahrenheit (6-degree Celsius) water at Dworshak Dam on Tuesday ahead of an expected heat wave with temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees (38 Celsius). The agency typically waits until the July Fourth holiday to start the releases.

The Lewiston Tribune reports the agency will up the flows to 12,400 cubic feet per second. The water travels down the Clearwater River and joins the Snake River at Lewiston.

The goal is to keep the temperature of the Snake River from exceeding 68 degrees (20 Celsius) at Lower Granite Dam, the uppermost of four dams on the lower Snake River.

Temperature above 70 degrees (21 Celsius) can be harmful to salmon.

In 2015, about 90% of the 510,000 sockeye salmon that entered the Columbia River died when an unusual combination of low water and an extended heat wave pushed water temperatures past 70 degrees (21 Celsius). Those conditions had not occurred in the basin since at least the 1950s and are lethal for cold-water sockeye.

That same year an estimated 4,000 Snake River sockeye entered the Columbia River in what managers expected would be one of the best-ever returns to high mountain lakes in central Idaho. But only about 1 percent survived the 900-mile (1,450-kilometer) journey to Idaho. Snake River sockeye are listed as endangered.

Water managers have said they have little ability to influence water temperature in the Columbia River, but that Dworshak can supply enough water to make a difference in the Snake River.

The reservoir is usually full when the agency starts releasing the cool water, but this year it was about 3 feet (1 meter) below full pool. The releases are expected to continue into mid-September, bringing the reservoir down to about 80 feet (24 meters) below full pool.

After a meeting earlier this week, tribal leaders urge stakeholders to ‘take a hard look’ at Idaho congressman’s breaching and mitigation proposal
By Eric Barker, of the Tribune
Apr 16, 2021

Leaders from a dozen Native American tribes in the Columbia Basin are seeking a dialogue with energy, agriculture and business interests aimed at advancing discussions of Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson’s plan to save salmon by breaching the four lower Snake River dams.

According to a news release, issued by the Nez Perce Tribe, the leaders met Wednesday and Thursday to craft a set of principles to guide such talks.

Simpson has proposed breaching the dams and investing $33 billion to replace lost hydropower, find new ways for farmers who use the river to get crops to market and invest in communities like Lewiston and Clarkston.

The Snake River and many of its tributaries are home to threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead runs. The tribes built their cultures and economies around the Columbia River salmon runs and have been leaders in efforts to restore the fish to abundance.

“The Indian people of the Columbia River Basin are united by being fishing people since time immemorial. Today, we remain united to ensure that salmon remain in the rivers for our children and beyond,” said Raymond Tsumpti, tribal council chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

They said the “true wealth” of the Pacific Northwest, its culture and history, starts with healthy rivers and fish runs. But they said agriculture and affordable and reliable power are also important to tribal and nontribal families and businesses throughout the region.

Some of the principles can be traced to elements of Simpson’s plan. For example, they said providing legal certainty for other dams in the basin is a needed element of a solution to the salmon problem and that Simpson’s plan is an opportunity for the region to make significant investments in energy and transportation systems while also saving sockeye, chinook and steelhead that return to rivers in Idaho, eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon.

Like Simpson, the tribes said rejecting a deal that would breach the Snake River dams while making massive investments in replacement power, alternative commodity transportation systems and community development could result in a future where the dams are breached without robust mitigation. They referenced a sweeping dam removal package on the Klamath River that was rejected by Congress. Now, those dams are slated to be removed anyway.

“The time for action is now,” the news release said. “The Columbia Basin cannot become another Klamath Basin crisis.”

“We invite and challenge our partners and our neighbors to take a hard look at how Congressman Simpson’s proposal could benefit our energy security, our economies, and our critical natural resources for the benefit of all,” said Delano Saluskin, chairman, Tribal Council, Yakama Nation.

Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe’s Executive Committee, said Simpson is right that saving the fish would be a benefit to the region.

“We will support Congressman Simpson’s initiative and we respect the courage and vision he is showing the region,” he said. “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.”

Kat Brigham, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, called Simpson’s concept “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set aside past differences and chart a new course for the survival of the Columbia River Basin — including salmon, farmers and many others.”

Simpson introduced his plan in February as a concept. It has been praised by tribes, angling groups and conservation organizations. Agriculture groups, representatives from ports and the shipping industry, and many local governments have panned the proposal.

Simpson has not translated the idea into legislation but has targeted President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure package as a possible vehicle. However, none of the powerful Democratic members of the Pacific Northwest’s congressional delegation have stepped forward to help him advance the idea and several prominent Republicans have pledged to fight it.

Read the Columbia Basin Tribes' statement here.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

https://lmtribune.com/river_of_change/columbia-basin-tribes-back-simpson-plan/article_b0ec8a33-5312-5a37-a846-4d4683f290a3.html

April 13, 2019

Eric Baker

Organizers hope to bring diverse participants to the table in Boise later this month for discussion

A conference on salmon recovery to be held at Boise State University April 23 is taking the WWCD — What would Cece Do? — approach to tackling the difficult issues surrounding the plight of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia river basins.

John Freemuth, the Cecil D. Andrus Chair for Environment and Public Lands at the BSU Andrus Center for Public Policy, said the conference will use a problem-solving tactic the center’s late namesake deployed during his four terms as Idaho governor and a stint as the U.S. Secretary of Interior. “We are trying to use his approach and get everyone in the room and see if they can move the ball,” Freemuth said.  To that end, organizers of the one-day conference titled “Energy, Salmon, Agriculture and Community: Can We Come Together?” have invited key players involved in managing energy, water, agriculture and fisheries in the Columbia Basin to participate. Idaho Gov. Brad Little will make opening remarks, Congressman Mike Simpson will speak at noon and Elliot Mainzer, head of the Bonneville Power Administration, will make closing remarks. In between, the conference will feature two sessions each of panel discussions titled “Salmon and Energy”and “Agriculture and Communities” moderated by Marc Johnson, Andrus’ former chief of staff and a founder of the Gallatin Group, a public relations firm; and Amanda Peacher of Boise State Public Radio. Panelists include Mainzer; Jamie Pinkham, a Nez Perce Tribal member and executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission; McCoy Oatman, vice chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee; Sam Mace of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition; Riggins resident Roy Akins, chairman of the Idaho River Community Alliance; Darrel Anderson, CEO of Idaho Power; Lewiston rafting outfitter Dustin Aherin; Merrill Beyeler, a rancher and former Idaho legislator from the Lemhi Valley; and Sam White, chief operating officer of Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative. Freemuth said the discussions will hit on a couple of hot topics. First, they will look at the changing energy markets and how that is affecting BPA’s ability to sell power produced at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. Much of the funds used to improve fish habitat come from the agency and ultimately from ratepayers. The financial problems experienced by the BPA are expected to lead to a reduction in the agency’s fish and wildlife program. Next, the discussions will focus on how declining salmon and steelhead runs and the efforts to reverse the trend affect communities that depend on both fishing and agriculture. The dams, which are blamed for much of the decline of Snake River salmon and steelhead stocks, not only produce a significant amount of power used by Northwest residents and businesses, but they also make it more efficient for many farmers to get the crops to overseas markets through barging to downriver ports. Freemuth said the conference isn’t built around the Snake River dam breaching many salmon and steelhead advocates say is needed to recover the runs. But he said the topic won’t be avoided.  “We know dams are part of the conversation, but this is not a breach-the-dams conference,” he said. “That will come up, but that is not the fundamental purpose.” There will be time for audience members to submit questions to the speakers, and a white paper will be authored following the conference that summarizes the event and discussion. The conference will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the BSU Student Union Building. The cost to attend is $75; or $25 for students. A complete agenda with a full list of speakers and panelists is available at http://bit.ly/2P4IWIe.

April 13, 2019

Eric Barker

A conference on salmon recovery to be held at Boise State University April 23 is taking the WWCD — What would Cece Do? — approach to tackling the difficult issues surrounding the plight of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia river basins.

John Freemuth, the Cecil D. Andrus Chair for Environment and Public Lands at the BSU Andrus Center for Public Policy, said the conference will use a problem-solving tactic the center’s late namesake deployed during his four terms as Idaho governor and a stint as the U.S. Secretary of Interior.

“We are trying to use his approach and get everyone in the room and see if they can move the ball,” Freemuth said.

To that end, organizers of the one-day conference titled “Energy, Salmon, Agriculture and Community: Can We Come Together?” have invited key players involved in managing energy, water, agriculture and fisheries in the Columbia Basin to participate. Idaho Gov. Brad Little will make opening remarks, Congressman Mike Simpson will speak at noon and Elliot Mainzer, head of the Bonneville Power Administration, will make closing remarks.

In between, the conference will feature two sessions each of panel discussions titled “Salmon and Energy” and “Agriculture and Communities” moderated by Marc Johnson, Andrus’ former chief of staff and a founder of the Gallatin Group, a public relations firm; and Amanda Peacher of Boise State Public Radio.

Panelists include Mainzer; Jamie Pinkham, a Nez Perce Tribal member and executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission; McCoy Oatman, vice chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee; Sam Mace of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition; Riggins resident Roy Akins, chairman of the Idaho River Community Alliance; Darrel Anderson, CEO of Idaho Power; Lewiston rafting outfitter Dustin Aherin; Merrill Beyeler, a rancher and former Idaho legislator from the Lemhi Valley; and Sam White, chief operating officer of Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative.

Freemuth said the discussions will hit on a couple of hot topics. First, they will look at the changing energy markets and how that is affecting BPA’s ability to sell power produced at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. Much of the funds used to improve fish habitat come from the agency and ultimately from ratepayers. The financial problems experienced by the BPA are expected to lead to a reduction in the agency’s fish and wildlife program.

Next, the discussions will focus on how declining salmon and steelhead runs and the efforts to reverse the trend affect communities that depend on both fishing and agriculture.

The dams, which are blamed for much of the decline of Snake River salmon and steelhead stocks, not only produce a significant amount of power used by Northwest residents and businesses, but they also make it more efficient for many farmers to get the crops to overseas markets through barging to downriver ports.

Freemuth said the conference isn’t built around the Snake River dam breaching many salmon and steelhead advocates say is needed to recover the runs. But he said the topic won’t be avoided.

“We know dams are part of the conversation, but this is not a breach-the-dams conference,” he said. “That will come up, but that is not the fundamental purpose.”

There will be time for audience members to submit questions to the speakers, and a white paper will be authored following the conference that summarizes the event and discussion.

The conference will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the BSU Student Union Building. The cost to attend is $75; or $25 for students.

A complete agenda with a full list of speakers and panelists is available at http://bit.ly/2P4IWIe.

By Eric Barker of the Tribune, May 2, 2013

Salmon anglers are accustomed to rising early, sometimes long before fishing hours, to ensure they get a prime spot. Those fishing the Clearwater River might be forced to go to even further extremes this year. A below-average return of spring chinook prompted the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to close long stretches of the river and to limit fishing to Fridays through Mondays. "They are going to shove a lot of people into a little area and everybody is going to be fighting for spots," said Toby Wyatt, owner of Reel Time Fishing of Clarkston. "It's going to be mayhem." The river will be closed to chinook fishing from Arrow Bridge to the mouth of the North Fork and from Greer Bridge to the mouth of the South Fork. The Lochsa River won't open at all and only a short section of the South Fork Clearwater, from the State Highway 13 bridge near the Harpster Grade to the State Highway 14 bridge near the Mount Idaho Grade, will be open. That will make for stiff competition when it comes to territory. "People who want to get in those holes are going to have to get there at 3 in the morning," Wyatt said. Joe DuPont, fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, said some people will be forced to find new places to fish and others will contend with crowding at their favorite holes. "People used to fishing in one area might see people they haven't seen before, so yes, there is going to be a need for people to get along." He said the Clearwater regulations were designed to try to ensure the small number of chinook available for harvest are shared evenly over time and throughout the river system. This year's run, as measured at Bonneville Dam, got a late start. Fisheries managers like DuPont still don't know if the run is simply late, as it has been over the past few years, or weaker than expected. To make sure enough adults return to Clearwater River hatcheries to meet spawning targets, the department took a conservative approach to season setting. That means if the run is simply late, there is a chance there will be more fish to catch than expected. DuPont said the department prefers to loosen regulations if the strength of the run allows rather than to be overly optimistic and have to shut fishing down early. "I'm hoping we can expand areas and expand days, but I guess that is yet to be determined." Outfitter Jason Schultz of Hells Canyon Sport Fishing at Lewiston said he thinks there is some reason to believe the run might be stronger than the forecast used to set fishing regulations. According to his theory, fishing in the lower Columbia River in Oregon and Washington is concentrated on the early part of the run. Fish that return to Idaho have the furthest to swim, so they are generally the first to pulse through the lower Columbia and because of that they face heavy fishing pressure. But the Idaho fish that bring up the rear face less pressure downriver and have a better shot at reaching their destinations. "Over the years, it is making our run later and later and later," Schultz said. Evelyn Kaide, owner of the Guide Shop and Clearwater Drifters at Orofino, said planning for spring chinook fishing is nearly impossible. "We've had some really good years and some bad years and we've gotten stopped in the middle of the season and then had it reopen," she said. "Everyone of them has been different." Many outfitters like Kaide, Schultz and Wyatt book trips before the season starts and are now juggling to compensate for the days of the week fishing won't be allowed. "It's tough and it's very nerve-racking," Kaide said. But she said once people start fishing, they should try their best to get along and forget about the hassles of booking trips or getting their spots.
"You just got to let it go and just fish," she said. For those looking to avoid the crowds, the vast stretches of lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers and the Snake River in Hells Canyon will be open seven days a week.

Republicans call it a secret and radical agreement, while Biden officials say it will bring stability, help fish and communities

By Eric Barker of the Tribune
Jan 31, 2024

Senior members of the Biden administration and Republican members of Congress painted vastly divergent pictures Tuesday of the agreement that could pause litigation over Snake River dams and salmon for the next decade.

During a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of eastern Washington called the Columbia River hydropower system the beating heart of the Pacific Northwest and a marine super highway that powers the region and helps inland farmers reach global markets. But she described the agreement the administration struck late last year with Columbia River tribes like the Nez Perce and a coalition of fishing and conservation groups as a nefarious pact negotiated behind closed doors.

“CEQ cut a secret backroom deal to please radical environmentalists who are profiting from a campaign to tear out our dams,” she said while questioning Brenda Mallory, chairperson of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “You ignore the science and the law, and there will be consequences for that.”

Likewise, guests invited to testify by the Republicans described the agreement as a precursor to breaching four dams on the lower Snake River and said doing so will devastate farmers, cost ratepayers dearly and leave the energy system that fuels the Northwest vulnerable to blackouts.

Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said the Snake River dams provide affordable and reliable power that is always there and can help the region get through periods of extreme heat and cold. As an example, he pointed to last month’s arctic blast that brought below-zero temperatures to the Northwest and spiked energy consumption.

“As demand went up, the wind stopped blowing,” he said. “Wind production across the BPA system dropped from Jan. 11 to Jan. 13 by 94%. As the cold intensified, hydropower filled the gap, increasing output by roughly 50% during the same period, keeping the lights on and furnaces and space heaters running.”

Mallory and other administration officials said the agreement doesn’t breach the dams but replaces uncertainty spawned by litigation with a decade of hydropower certainty, helps the federal government meet its obligations to the tribes and will collect information that can inform Congress if it ever considers removing one or more of the dams.

“Let me be clear, the agreement does not usurp congressional authority on whether to breach any dams,” she said. “It does not exponentially raise rates on Bonneville (Power Administration) customers. Instead, it will benefit fish and communities. It will provide stability and contain costs for ratepayers and navigation interests. And it will provide a roadmap of information and investments needed to realize a resilient Columbia River Basin in partnership with tribes and states rather than in conflict.”

The agreement comes after decades of litigation challenging the government’s contention that dams can be operated in a manner that doesn’t jeopardize survival of salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act. The Nez Perce and other plaintiffs have won every iteration of that litigation but until now haven’t convinced the federal government to take a new approach.

After the latest round of lawsuits, the Biden administration agreed to enter mediated talks with the plaintiffs that, after two years, produced the agreement. It pauses court proceedings for up to 10 years, commits the BPA to spend $300 million to restore salmon habitat and complete needed upgrades to Snake and Columbia River salmon and steelhead hatcheries. In addition, the government pledged to help the tribes develop up to 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects that can be counted as replacement for the power generated at the Snake River dams. Lastly, the government said it would study how best to replace the transportation, irrigation and power generations at the dams.

Jeremy Takala, chairperson of the Yakama Nation’s Fish and Wildlife Committee, said his tribe is far from a radical environmental group and called the agreement a “historic opportunity to help save our salmon and secure a just and prosperous future for everyone in the Columbia Basin.

“Healthy and abundant runs of salmon, steelhead would not just benefit Indian people but the larger population as well,” he said. “Thousands of jobs in the sports fishing and even commercial industry will last with diminished salmon rounds. Those jobs and the millions of dollars in income and even taxes would return with a healthy fishery. And those economic benefits need to be factored into this discussion.”

BPA Administrator John Hairston said the agreement doesn’t commit his agency to purchase power produced at projects developed by the tribes and he noted the agreement helps the agency by ending summer spill at the dams on July 31 instead of the middle of August.

Jeremy Baumann, director of policy and implementation at the Department of Energy, said the agreement doesn’t commit the federal government to pay for tribal energy projects. Instead, he said the government would provide technical assistance to the tribes as they pursue development of their own energy projects.

“We can’t vary from the competitive rules that apply to virtually all DOE funding,” he said.

Lewiston Morning Tribune: Dam deal’s in eye of beholder article link

January 24, 2019

By Elaine Williams Port of Lewiston commissioners voted to send letter to Washington governor opposing his budget proposal for study. The possibility of breaching the four lower Snake River dams has prompted Port of Lewiston commissioners to weigh in on the budget process in neighboring Washington. The commissioners voted Wednesday to send a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee opposing a $750,000 proposal in his budget. The money would pay to study the repercussions of removing the dams and figure out how much it would cost to mitigate the impact. “(The letter is) the right thing to do,” Commissioner Mary Hasenoehrl said. “I’m not sure how much influence it will have. It points out the importance of Idaho in this whole discussion.” Port of Clarkston commissioners already signed the letter. Port of Whitman County commissioners are expected to follow today and have it delivered to Olympia on Monday. While port commissioners support efforts to save salmon and orca whales, they believe that Inslee’s study is “redundant and duplicative,” according to the letter. The Columbia River Systems Operations environmental impact statement is being conducted by multiple federal agencies, with the cooperation of all Northwest states and tribes. Among other things, the statement will evaluate the dams and assess their economic impact. It also will give stakeholders multiple chances to provide comments. “Given the limited size and scope of such (a state) effort as compared the (federal) process, it is sound to question whether the
recommendations generated by such a study would result in meaningful help for the orcas,” according to the letter. “The (ports) think this study would not be the best use of limited taxpayer resources.” Staff at Inslee’s office didn’t respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

By Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune 
Aug 1, 2020

Federal fisheries, dam and power agencies reiterated Friday their intention to pursue a salmon and steelhead preservation strategy that keeps the lower Snake River dams in place.

The expected move that was hailed by dam defenders and pilloried by fish advocates is likely to lead to another round of fish-versus-dams litigation that has heavily influenced salmon recovery efforts for more than two decades.

The Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a 5,000-page final environmental impact statement that measures the environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of operating the 14-dam Columbia River hydropower system.

Chief among the environmental cost of the dams is the toll they take on salmon and steelhead. The concrete barriers slow the migration of Idaho-born salmon and steelhead during their downstream journey to the Pacific Ocean and expose them to physical injury, predators and disease. Likewise, the dams can harm adult fish returning from the ocean by causing river water to reach unhealthy temperatures.

For years, environmentalists and Native American tribes, including the Nez Perce Tribe, have advocated for breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River in eastern Washington. The breaching advocates contend restoring the river to its free-flowing state would reduce migration delays, boost survival and help mitigate elevated water temperatures.

Just as they did in a draft released last February, the federal agencies said breaching the dams would provide endangered sockeye salmon, and threatened steelhead, spring and fall chinook, the best shot at recovery. But the agencies also said breaching would carry steep economic costs by reducing regional hydropower generation and eliminating grain shipping between Lewiston and the Tri-Cities.

Instead, the government selected a plan centered on spilling high volumes of water at the dams during the spring and early summer when juvenile fish are moving downstream. Water will be directed over spillways daily during times of low electricity demand but allowed to run through hydroelectric turbines when prices and demand for electricity are at their highest. The spill speeds travel time for juvenile fish and helps them avoid both turbines and the series of screens and pipes known as fish bypass systems that have been linked to higher mortality rates.

The EIS found the selected strategy, known as flexible spill, may allow some of the listed species to achieve the 2 percent smolt-to-adult survival rates that is required to stop their decline. It would not, however, achieve the average of about 4 percent needed to build fish numbers.

In a related document also released Friday, the National Marine Fisheries Service said the government’s plan that also includes a host of other actions including habitat rehabilitation, predator control, and operation of conservation hatcheries, would not likely “jeopardize the continued existence” of the protected fish. Nor would the plan adversely affect southern resident killer whales. The endangered whales spend much of their time in the Salish Sea and Puget Sound but also feed on chinook near the mouth of the Columbia River.

The EIS was four years in the making and ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon, of Portland, Ore., after he found the government’s previous plan did not meet the standard of the Endangered Species Act. It was just one in a long string of court rulings finding the government’s salmon plans insufficient.

Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said by sidestepping breaching, the government’s latest plan also falls short.

“We view restoring the lower Snake River as urgent and overdue,” he said. “To us, the lower Snake River is a living being, and, as stewards, we are compelled to speak the truth on behalf of this life force and the impacts these concrete barriers on the lower Snake have on salmon, steelhead, and lamprey, on a diverse ecosystem, on our Treaty-reserved way of life, and on our people.”

Todd True, an attorney for the environmental law firm EarthJustice, said this latest plan is likely to again face legal challenges. He said it is built upon recent Trump administration regulations that “gut both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.”
“The new regulations are already under legal challenge; it seems all but inevitable that this new plan will end up in court too.”

Many salmon advocates are also looking beyond the government’s plan and placing their hopes on a series of regional talks that include both stakeholders and politicians like Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho’s 2nd Congressional. Simpson is believed to be working on legislation that could include restoring the lower Snake River and also revamping the Northwest Power Act to help the fish and the Bonneville Power Administration that is facing tough market conditions.

“Developing an effective plan that truly meets the needs of people and communities, and salmon and ecosystems will require the urgent, active and creative engagement of Northwest-based stakeholders, sovereigns, policymakers and citizens,” said Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Seattle-based Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition.

Dam advocates welcomed the nonbreach approach, saying it will preserve a low-carbon source of electricity and also continue to provide farmers with an economical way to get their crops to market.

“We are pleased to see the agencies support a preferred alternative that balances clean hydropower, efficient navigation, and critical water supplies with ongoing salmon recovery efforts,” said Pacific Northwest Waterways Association Executive Director Kristin Meira. “The Columbia and Snake rivers mean many things to many people in our region, and that includes the role they play as a significant transportation network for freight, the cruise industry and much more.”

The agencies are expected to issue a record of decision in September. The EIS can be viewed at http://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/

Agencies opt for plan that includes increased water spilling at dams to help endangered salmon and steelhead
By Eric Barker, of the Tribune
Feb 29, 2020

The federal government plotted a stay-the-course strategy on as-of-yet unsuccessful efforts to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead and other listed species of ocean-going fish Friday.

The Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration released a draft environmental impact statement on the operation of the Columbia River Hydropower Systems and its effects on salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act. The document, four years in the making and nearly 5,000 pages long, said breaching the four dams on the lower Snake River would lead to the best chance of recovering fish that return to Idaho, eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon — but rejected that option as too costly and disruptive to power generation and commodity shipping.

Instead, the document proposed a strategy built around the concept of flexible spill, where water is spilled at some of the dams at high levels for 16 hours a day, but reduced for the rest of the day to coincide with higher demand and prices for electricity. The strategy was adopted last year and was set to run through next year as an interim measure to cover the time the federal study was being authored. The idea is to use spill to speed travel time for juvenile fish and decrease the number of fish that pass through turbines and fish bypass systems at the dams, a strategy that has shown promise of decreasing dam-related mortality.

The agency’s preferred alternative calls for continuing that strategy into the future but also adds even more flexibility by shifting some springtime flows from places like Dworshak Dam near Orofino to the winter, when the water is more valuable for power production. It also proposes a number of other measures to increase fish survival, including altering flows to discourage predatory birds like Caspian terns from nesting on islands in Columbia River and upgrading turbines the Corps claims will both increase power production and decrease fish mortality. It calls for a program that has some juvenile fish captured and shipped downriver in trucks and barges to start about two weeks earlier. Doing so would help balance the number of fish transported with the number that stay in the rivers.

According to the document, the full slate of actions could increase smolt-to-adult survival rates of Snake River chinook by 35 percent and Snake River steelhead by 28 percent. Those increases would not vault smolt-to-adult return rates into the 2 to 6 percent range with an average of 4 percent that is deemed necessary to recover the fish. However, the agencies determined it would achieve survival rates high enough to satisfy minimum requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

 “I commend the team for its commitment to identifying a preferred alternative that balances the system’s authorized purposes and our resource, legal and institutional obligations,” said Lorri Gray, Bureau of Reclamation regional director. “This is a significant accomplishment made possible by the hard work and strong partnership with organizations throughout the region and among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration.”

An analysis by the Fish Passage Center at Portland indicated that government’s strategy would produce smolt-to-adult return rates that would not meet recovery targets, and that climate change is likely to produce more frequent river and ocean conditions that would lead to population declines.

“The thing I would really worry about is under climate change conditions, the lower end of range of (smolt-to-adult return rates), they are not going to keep the stocks from declining,” said Michele DeHart, director of the Fish Passage Center.

Previous studies by the Fish Pass Center indicate that breaching the Snake River dams and spilling water at dams on the Columbia River could lead to a four-fold increase in fish numbers.

Fish advocates panned the document as insufficient to meet the challenges of fish recovery.

“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” said Justin Hayes, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League at Boise. “It’s the sixth in a string of failed federal plans. It doesn’t waver from the status quo. It tweaks it, and quite frankly we know what status quo has been getting us — fish in decline. We’ve spent $17 billion and it’s not working. We need bold action and this plan doesn’t do that.”

The Nez Perce Tribe has long urged the agencies to breach the lower Snake River dams and has successfully sued the government several times over former plans for not meeting the standards of the ESA. It also cooperated with the federal government as it developed the draft EIS.

“We view restoring the lower Snake River as urgent and overdue — and we are committed to continuing to provide leadership in all forums: from the halls of Congress, to our federal agency trustees and partners, to the courtroom, to the statehouses, to conversations with our neighbors, energy interests, and other river users, to this EIS,” stated Nez Perce Chairman Shannon F. Wheeler. 

Those who support the government’s strategy and want Snake River dams to remain in place were pleased with the draft.

“Breaching the lower Snake River dams is not an option for maintaining the balance in a system that powers our homes and businesses and feeds our communities in so many ways,” said Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association.

According to the draft EIS, replacing power produced by the dams with carbon-free sources would cost as much as $527 million annually and could require as much as $1 billion in investments. Replacing the power with natural gas turbines would cost $200 million a year and lead to a 10 percent increase in the release of greenhouse gases, the report said.

Breaching would eliminate barge transportation on the Snake River and raise shipping costs paid by wheat farmers 7 to 24 cents a bushel or 10 to 33 percent, according to the EIS. If all shipping switched to rail, it would require investments between $25 million to $50 million for new facilities and another $30 million to $36 million to upgrade shortline rail lines.

According to the draft document, breaching the dams would cost about $955 million or about $35.4 million a year over 50 years. But breaching would save the government nearly $79 million a year in dam maintenance costs and $32 million in capital costs. Operation and maintenance costs associated with preferred alternative come to $477.5 million per year, a decrease of about $729,000 compared to current spending.

The agencies have opened a 45-day public comment period and will hold a series of public hearings around the region, including a stop at the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston on March 17 from 4-8 p.m.

The document is available at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/#top.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Strategy calls for Snake River dams to stay, more water to be spilled to help salmon runs

By Eric Barker
Sep 30, 2020

The federal government formally adopted its salmon and dams management strategy Tuesday that relies on spilling water at Snake and Columbia river dams to speed juvenile fish to the ocean but keeps the four lower Snake River dams in place.

The Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a Record of Decision committing the agencies to a plan centered on balancing the needs of Endangered Species Act-protected salmon and steelhead with carbon-free hydropower production and efficient barge transportation on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers.

The plan, four years in the making, centers largely on spilling high volumes of water at the dams for about 16 hours a day in the spring and early summer while prioritizing hydropower production during hours of high prices and demand. It was chosen over several others, including one that would have breached Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams — a strategy long favored by fish advocates, including the Nez Perce Tribe and environmental and fishing groups.

Federal officials framed the decision as one that balances competing interests on the rivers and the various communities and industries they serve.

“This selected alternative provides the best balanced and flexible approach to meeting the needs of the human and natural environment in the basin, both now and into the future. Our decision benefits the public interest, treaty resources and iconic fish species of the Pacific Northwest,” said Brig. Gen. D. Peter Helmlinger, commander of the Corps’ Northwestern Division at Portland.

Dam advocates said the decision to retain the dams and the transportation system on the lower Snake River sets the region up to better deal with climate change.

“The clean power and efficient commerce provided by the system’s hydroelectric dams and navigation locks are key to our region’s ability to reduce our carbon footprint — one of the most important steps in the fight against climate change,” said Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. “We are pleased to see that the Record of Decision supports a more sustainable future while keeping the river system strong and balanced for all needs.”

But salmon advocates rejected the decision as insufficient to meet the challenge of restoring salmon and steelhead. They noted it simply avoids putting the fish at further risk of extinction. According to an Environmental Impact Statement that preceded the record of decision, the spill-centered plan may allow some of the listed runs to achieve the 2 percent smolt-to-adult survival rates that is required to stop their decline. It would not, however, achieve the average of about 4 percent needed to build wild fish numbers.

Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe’s Executive Committee, said salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey face dire threats caused by the Snake River dams and accentuated by climate change. It’s a problem only dam removal can address, he said.

“We view restoring the lower Snake River as urgent and overdue. To us, the lower Snake River is a living being, and, as stewards, we are compelled to speak the truth on behalf of this life force and the impacts these concrete barriers on the lower Snake have on salmon, steelhead, and lamprey, on a diverse ecosystem, on our Treaty-reserved way of life, and on our people,” he said in a written release.

Conservation leaders also panned the plan and said bolder action is required. “The region has made it really clear that we want salmon and steelhead restored to ecologically and economically significant and harvestable levels so the people and wildlife have salmon again, and this plan doesn’t do that,” said Justin Hayes, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League. “This plan sets a really low bar. Limping along under the ESA is different than restoring salmon so the people of the Northwest can be made whole again.

If past is prelude, lawsuits will soon follow. The government’s past efforts to operate the dams while also avoiding harm to threatened and endangered fish have repeatedly been struck down by federal judges.

But instead of pledging an immediate return to court, many conservation leaders called for a new way forward.

“The differences between the plan adopted by these agencies today and the plan the court rejected in 2016 are hard to discern. And the plan the court rejected in 2016 was not materially different from plans the court had rejected in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2011,” said Todd True, the lead attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental lawfirm that has represented fishing and conservation groups. “To say we need a new approach, that we need leadership from our elected representatives, and that we need to find a solution that works for all of us is to state the obvious. And it is equally obvious that there is great urgency to do this — for salmon, for orcas and for the future of our region.”

There are a number of seemingly earnest discussions taking place at the regional level by a wide range of stakeholders. There is Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s Salmon Working Group, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Orca Task Force, the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force, a still-developing plan for the four governors of the Northwest states and tribal leaders to begin collaborative talks, and finally Rep. Mike Simpson’s announced but largely still behind-the-scenes effort at brokering a grand salmon and dams bargain dubbed Power Planning Act 2.0.

“It does feel like there is energy to finally solve this problem but again I think if we are waiting for the federal government to solve it for us, we just saw in the Record of Decision that we are waiting for the wrong thing,” Hayes said.
Wheeler said the tribe is seeking to lead and participate in a variety of efforts to save the fish, including its previously successful litigation.

“We are committed to continuing to provide leadership on restoring the lower Snake River in all forums: from the halls of Congress, to our federal agency trustees and partners, to the courtroom, to the statehouses, to conversations with our neighbors, energy interests, and other river users,” concluded Wheeler.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

A primer on habits, habitat, and health of Northwest chinook, steelhead, and sockeye

By Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune
January 17, 2020

The Snake River has four species of Pacific anadromous fish — spring and summer chinook, fall chinook, summer steel-head and sockeye.

Wild runs and some hatchery runs of all four are protected by the Endangered Species Act, with endangered sockeye having the highest level of protection. The fish were listed between 1991 and 1997, with steelhead the last to be protected. Idaho and northeast Oregon also have a run of coho salmon. This run was reintroduced to the state by the Nez Perce Tribe after being declared functionally extinct in 1986. Coho aren’t protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Spring and summer chinook, which are grouped into a single category, are the first to return in the calendar year. As their name denotes, they return from the ocean as adults in the spring, usually in April, May and June. They spawn in late summer in tributary streams or the upper reaches of main rivers such as the Middle Fork Salmon River and Main Salmon River, once those rivers become smaller and behave more like streams.

Sockeye return as adults in June. These fish are long-distance swimmers, traveling 900 miles and climbing more than 6,000 feet in elevation during their journey from the ocean to the Stanley Basin, where they spawn in big mountain lakes such as Redfish and Alturas. They are the most imperiled anadromous fish run in the Snake River Basin and nearly blinked out in the the 1990s, when no fish successfully made it to their spawning grounds in a handful of years. Federal, state and tribal authorities took the extraordinary step of bringing the fish into a captive breeding program following the perilously low returns. They have since taken a step back from the brink of extinction but still remain endangered.

Steelhead begin returning in the summer months, usually about July. They continue to return throughout the summer and fall. Many overwinter in the lower Snake River and complete their migration in the spring, spawning in tributary streams, typically from April through June.

There are two types of steelhead that return to the Snake River and its tributaries. A-run steelhead are first and are soon followed by B-run steelhead. A-run fish tend to spend just one year in the ocean, although some individuals spend two years. B-run steelhead tend to return after two years in the ocean, although some spend one year there. The B-run steelhead are larger and tend to return mostly to the Clearwater Basin, although some return to the Salmon River Basin. Fall chinook return in the late summer and fall. They spend the least amount of time in fresh water as adults. They spawn in late October and November in the main channels of rivers such as the Snake, Salmon and Clearwater.

All species of Idaho salmon and steelhead, as well as unprotected populations of Pacific lamprey, must pass eight dams on their migration to and from the ocean — the four Lower Snake River dams and four dams on the main Columbia River. The difficulty the fish have passing the dams and the reservoirs they create has been identified as a significant cause of mortality. The degree to which dams place the fish in jeopardy of extinction has been debated for decades and will be explored again with the release of the federal governments environmental impact state on the Columbia and Snake River Hydropower System. A draft of that document is expected next month.

Juvenile migration

Juvenile spring and summer chinook, steelhead and sockeye travel from their natal streams or hatcheries on high river flows that occur in the spring as mountain snow melts. Fall chinook migrate to the ocean in summer months. The fish tend to be pushed to sea with their noses in the current. The impounded rivers slow their travel time substantially. They pass the dams via spillways, turbines or fish bypass systems. Some of the fish are collected at dams like Lower Granite, loaded on barges and taken downstream for release below Bonneville Dam.

Although the fish survive transitioning from one side of the dams to the other in high percentages, often in the 90s, scientists say that fish also succumb to dam related mortality between the dams. For instance, the slower travel times leave them vulnerable to predators for a longer period of time. Some contend the fish also suffer injuries or stress during dam passage that causes them to perish in the Columbia River Estuary or in the ocean itself. Known as delayed mortality, the latent mortality is much debated.

Survival rates for the various species of fish through the entire hydro system of eight dams average less than 50 percent. Barged juveniles survive the downstream journey at much higher rates, near 100 percent, but, depending on species and whether they are of wild or hatchery origin, sometimes they don’t return as well as fish that migrate downstream in the rivers. Barging tends to lead to higher adult returns in years with low spring and summer flows but not as well in years with high flows, an issue that will be explored in more detail in future installments of this series.

Adult migration

When the fish return as adults, they climb ladders at each of the dams. The ladders — a series of steps in side channels around the dams — allow the fish to proceed upstream.

Elevated water temperatures in the Snake and Columbia rivers can impede the upstream migration of sockeye, steelhead and fall chinook. At times, high temperatures cause the fish to delay their migration. In extreme cases, it can cause the fish to die.

Hatcheries

Hatcheries help boost the abundance of salmon and steelhead. Some hatcheries are operated explicitly to produce fish for harvest in both the rivers and in the ocean. Others, known as conservation hatcheries, are operated to boost numbers of wild fish by producing salmon and steelhead with the goal that they will spawn in the wild. Some believe hatcheries pose a threat to wild fish by diluting the genetic traits that have allowed them to survive for thousands of years and making them less fit, despite adding to their abundance. The federal government has looked into this and set standards for harvest and conservation hatcheries that are designed to help protect wild fish.

Adult hatchery salmon and steelhead that return to Idaho beyond spawning needs are available to sport and tribal anglers. By court precedent, the two groups of anglers are entitled to a 50/50 split of fish in excess of spawning needs.

Harvest

Some wild fish also are harvested. Both groups of anglers, through permits with the federal government, are allowed to take a small percentage of wild fish through incidental catch. Sport anglers licensed by states can harvest only hatchery fish and must release most wild fish. Nonetheless, they often hook wild fish, and some of those fish die from the experience.

Tribal anglers are allowed to take some wild fish in seasons that allow fishing methods like gill nets or gaffs, that kill fish.

Habitat

Degraded habitat in fresh-water rivers and streams has also been identified as a limiting factor to Snake River salmon and steelhead. The federal government, along with states and tribes, has worked for decades to improve habitat where it has been degraded. However, the Snake River has vast areas where habitat is in excellent shape.

Survival yardstick

Smolt-to-adult return rates, sometimes called SARs, are the accepted standard by which salmon and steelhead survival through their life cycle are measured. A smolt-to-adult return rate of 2 percent is required for the runs to simply replace themselves. SARs of 4 percent to 6 percent are required to increase abundance and move toward recovery. Smolt-to-adult return rates vary by year, species and origin (hatchery or wild) but in most but not all years fall below the 2 percent threshold.

Survival is influenced by a number of factors. One of the strongest is ocean conditions. When the Pacific Ocean is considered to be in good shape — with abundant prey base for salmon and steelhead and upwelling currents that bring deep, cold water to the surface of the ocean — returns tend to do much better. In times with poor ocean conditions, return rates suffer.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Beyond the river - Experts debate the impact of ocean conditions on overall salmon and steelhead survival

Many variables influence the survival of Snake River salmon and steelhead, but perhaps none more than the hospitality of the Pacific Ocean in any given year.

Juvenile salmon and steelhead that survive their downstream migration through the Snake and Columbia river hydrosystem must next survive from one to three years in the ocean, and the first few weeks to months is critical. When ocean conditions are good, the young fish find abundant food and grow more quickly, making them stronger and boosting their chances of survival. When conditions are poor, food is scarce and predators associated with warmer water can be abundant. This diminishes their chances of survival.

Some have postulated that the depressed state of Snake River salmon and steelhead can be traced almost entirely to ocean conditions. Under this view, the effect of the ocean is so powerful that it swamps all other factors. To support this theory, its proponents point to other river systems with fewer or no dams that have also seen salmon declines in recent years.

Others say it is impossible to separate ocean and freshwater conditions when measuring overall survival. This group doesn’t dispute that ocean conditions play a large role in salmon survival, but they say freshwater factors are also important. Many of them say that mortality related to dam and reservoir passage is present and significant in years with both good and poor ocean conditions.

They also point out the humans have no control over the ocean, but they can influence freshwater conditions through a series of actions up to and including breaching of the four lower Snake River dams. Because of this, they say, actions that reduce freshwater mortality in general and hydrosystem related direct and delayed mortality in particular are the best way to improve salmon and steelhead runs. They also note that climate change is projected to produce poor ocean conditions more frequently than in the past, making it even more important to take measures that reduce mortality in fresh water.

Ocean and salmon and steelhead
“When we get really big runs and really small returns, it’s usually the ocean,” said Laurie Weitkamp, a research fisheries biologist for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries at Newport, Ore. “We estimate on average about 95 percent of salmon that go to the ocean don’t come back, so there is a lot of wiggle room. If it’s a little bit higher or a little bit lower, it makes a huge difference.”

The past five years or so have seen poor ocean conditions. It started with the formation of the so called “blob,” a mass of warm water in the North Pacific. Just as it looked as though ocean conditions were returning to a more normal phase, with cooler water and nutrient-rich springtime upwelling, another heat wave developed. Scientists feared another blob, but those conditions have since deteriorated.

Nonetheless, Weitkamp said warmer oceans are likely to persist as a result of climate change.

“The amount of heat the oceans have absorbed, the energy contained within that is gigantic. We will probably have local areas that are cooler, but I think the heat is pretty much here to stay.”

Nate Mantua, a NOAA scientist at Santa Cruz, and Lisa Crozier at the agency’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle agree oceans are likely to be warmer in the future. They both noted there are likely to be some small areas where warming is not has pronounced because of local wind and weather patterns.

“We expect temperatures to increase globally, and we know oceans are absorbing most of the excess heat from this increased greenhouse warming — most of it being 90 percent,” Mantua said.

He said the northern Pacific is also prone to increased acidification as seawater absorbs more carbon. Crozier noted that the northern Pacific hasn’t warmed as quickly as global averages, and that could continue, but she still expects salmon and steelhead from the Columbia and other Northwest rivers will face increased temperatures in the future.

“I would say there is uncertainty in those kind of processes, the decadal timing, but given global ocean (temperatures are) warming at all depths, even the upwelled water will be warmer in the future.”

Those dire predictions mean freshwater habitat is even more important, Weitkamp said.

“We can’t control the ocean, but we can control human behavior and we can control freshwater. Now is when we need to double down to make sure we do everything we can to control freshwater habitat so fish that do go out in the ocean are in good condition.”

She said increasing life history diversity of the fish will be important. Mantua said the same thing. Over the years, human development and actions such as producing massive numbers of hatchery salmon and steelhead and negatively altering habitat have decreased diversity. Essentially many of the fish bound for the ocean are cookie-cutter specimens in terms of their behavior, which diminishes diverse traits that may help fish survive in changing ocean conditions.

For example, he said hatchery fish are increasingly produced from fewer and fewer parents. They tend to be released at the same size and the same time. In the Snake and Columbia rivers, many of those fish are placed on barges and taken downriver to avoid harm via dam passage.

“I think one of the ways you might make life better for salmon in the future is just give them a lot more options on the freshwater side and make those habitats more productive and diverse so that they are hedging their bets in ways that should help reduce the control the ocean has on their total population.”

Although Weitkamp said humans should do more to improve freshwater survival, she hedged when asked if that means taking steps to reduce what other researchers have identified as delayed mortality related to dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. She noted the Fraser River in British Columbia has seen significant declines in salmon and steelhead life cycle survival in recent years.

“They are having the exact same problem, and they don’t have any mainstem dams,” she said.

But others disagree and say if reducing freshwater sources of mortality is key, then the hydrosystem on the Snake and Columbia rivers is one of the biggest opportunities to do so.

Howard Schaller, a retired fisheries research biologist who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said many people have speculated delayed mortality related to dam passage would vanish or be significantly reduced in periods of good ocean conditions but the evidence says otherwise.

He and now retired Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologist Charlie Petrosky have produced several papers on delayed mortality and shown it to be present and significant in years with both good and poor ocean conditions.

“What we saw was the overall life cycle survival rates remained depressed when Snake River salmon experienced cooler conditions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So that notion they would disappear wasn’t consistent with the data, and delayed hydrosystem mortality was still present.”

He said in most years with good oceans, smolt-to-adult survival rates remained below the target of 2 percent to 6 percent, with a 4 percent average, and that those rates for runs that return to Columbia River tributaries such as the John Day River in Oregon, which is above three instead of eight dams, mostly hit those targets.

In fact, he noted that the decline of Snake River salmon and steelhead began in the 1970s after Snake River dams were constructed. That decline happened at a time when ocean conditions were good.

“Not only did we see delayed mortality persist through cool ocean conditions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the decline began in the 1970s when there was still cool ocean conditions,” he said. “The empirical evidence isn’t really convincing that once we return to cool ocean conditions that delayed mortality is going to disappear.”

In addition, he said fisheries managers and others should look to take actions that will benefit the fish in both good and poor ocean conditions, especially in light of the predictions that ocean conditions will be warmer — poorer — more frequently as a result of climate change.

“What in-river management actions can you implement under variable ocean conditions, because we don’t really have any dials to change what ocean conditions are going to look like,” he said.

Those in-river dials are increasing spill at the dams to speed water and fish travel time so they reach the ocean and estuary on the schedule the fish have developed through evolution and to reduce the number of times fish go through turbines or fish bypass systems, which are linked to higher rates of delayed mortality.

“The other option is breaching the four lower Snake River dams, which would provide that benefit for Snake River stocks and would yield conditions that would probably best approximate returning to smolt-to-adult return levels of an average of about 4 percent.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Washington, Oregon mull rolling closures, while Idaho adopts wait-and-see policy

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune
May 27, 2017

Washington and Oregon are poised to implement rolling closures of the steelhead fishery from the mouth of the Columbia River to the mouth of the Snake this summer and fall in an attempt to protect the dismal B-run, projected to be the lowest on record.

On the Snake River from its mouth to Clarkston, anglers would be required to release all steelhead more than 30 inches in length. The two states also are looking to restrict most fishing on the Snake and Columbia rivers to daylight hours only, and to implement the same rolling closures on the lower sections of Columbia River tributaries, where Idaho-bound B-run steelhead often make short detours while in search of cool water.

Protective regulations for the Snake River upstream of the Idaho-Washington state line at Clarkston and the Clearwater River have not yet been set. Idaho fisheries officials are considering adopting regulations similar to those implemented in 2013, when anglers were only allowed to harvest steelhead less than 28 inches in length.

"We have the advantage in Idaho of seeing the run materialize downriver before we fish," said Lance Hebdon, salmon and steelhead manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Boise. "So we'll keep our options open and implement regulations that are appropriate to meet the objectives of ensuring we meet brood stock targets while maintaining opportunity for our steelhead anglers. Length restrictions are certainly on the table, and we'll continue to coordinate management with Oregon and Washington."

Columbia River fisheries managers are forecasting a return of only 7,300 B-run steelhead to Bonneville Dam, including 1,100 wild fish. The fishing restrictions are designed to both protect the wild fish, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and to ensure enough hatchery fish return for spawning.

"Everybody is going to feel some pain," said Ron Roler of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Olympia.

He said Washington and Oregon are adopting a one steelhead bag limit when fishing is allowed. But there will be periods when anglers won't be allowed to keep any steelhead. Federal permits authorizing the fisheries will allow the two states combined to incidentally kill just 22 wild b-run steelhead during the fishing seasons.

Stuart Ellis of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said the Columbia River treaty tribes, including the Nez Perce, haven't yet adopted rules designed to limit take of B-run steelhead during fall chinook gillnet fisheries. But he said the tribal fisheries will be constrained because of the low number of steelhead.

"We will probably have to be a little creative to try to focus fishing on getting the chinook we can get without running into the steelhead limits," Ellis said.

Under the proposal, nontribal steelhead harvest will be closed during the following dates and locations:
•    The mouth of the Columbia River to the Dalles Dam, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31.
•    The Dalles Dam to John Day Dam, from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30.
•    John Day Dam to McNary Dam, from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31
•    McNary Dam to the Oregon-Washington state line, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.
•    The lower reaches of the Cowlitz, Lewis, Wind, White Salmon and Klickitat rivers, as well as Drano Lake, will be closed to steelhead harvest from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31.
•    The lower Deschutes River from Moody Rapids to its mouth will be closed to all fishing from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31.
•    The John Day River, downstream of Tumwater Falls, is expected to be closed from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31.

In many locations, only anglers targeting northern pikeminnow will be allowed to fish at night.

Roller said the closures are designed to be in place at the times B-run steelhead are present in different river sections and intended to reduce the number of anglers targeting steelhead.
"We are in a serious hurt here so we have to take some serious measures to curtail fisheries on steelhead."

Jeromy Jording, biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the record-low flows and elevated water temperatures during the spring and summer of 2015 combined with the warm mass of water off the coast of Washington that year - known as the Blob - is responsible for the dire prediction, as well as this year's poor return of spring chinook. Last year, the collapse of the A-run also was blamed on the poor river and ocean conditions of 2015.

"This is the lowest return we have forecasted I think on record," he said. "Even if you go back into the 1990s, this year would be even lower than anything we observed during that poor period of survival."

Jording said climate change could cause greater frequency of the kind of drought and poor ocean conditions responsible for this year's poor steelhead showing.

"The effects of climate change give us a great cause for concern on how we can expect run size abundance to behave in the future," Jording said.

Orca advocates say dam breaching would improve salmon runs enough to save floundering killer whales

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

Nov. 25, 2018

For the past few years, Idaho’s Snake River salmon and Puget Sound orcas have become linked in the decades-long battle over the fate of the four lower Snake River Dams and whether they should be removed to save the fish.

The orcas, specifically the southern resident killer whales, are in trouble and have been for some time. That came into sharp focus this summer when a member of the J-pod, a subgroup of the Puget Sound orcas, carried her dead calf for 17 days and attracted worldwide media attention.

The whales face food shortages, noise from vessels in the busy Puget Sound and the accumulation of pollutants in their body fat. All three are linked, but what it boils down to is the whales are not getting enough to eat, and what they eat is mostly salmon.

That is where salmon that spawn in the Snake River Basin come in. The whales prefer chinook salmon and feed on a number of different stocks up and down the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada. For much of the year, from spring to fall, the whales prey on chinook that return to rivers that empty into the Puget Sound and Salish Sea, most notably Canada’s Fraser River. But they also leave the inland waters in the fall to travel along the coast looking for salmon, and to a lesser degree other species, before returning in the spring.

One of the stocks the whales target during that period are those that originate from and return to the Columbia River and its tributaries. That brings in the Snake River. Orca advocates have formed a philosophical and strategic alliance with the Snake River salmon supporters who believe breaching the four dams on the lower Snake River will significantly boost the number of salmon and steelhead from the Snake River Basin. They believe, as do many scientists, that breaching will improve Snake River salmon runs enough to lead to their recovery.

Breaching: How much impact?
So how much would dam breaching help the whales? No one can say for sure, but there are two competing scientific camps at odds over which Snake River chinook run is more important to whales. Those who believe orcas are more dependent on fall chinook from the Columbia and Snake river basins tend to see less of a potential benefit from breaching, because fall chinook runs are in better shape than spring chinook runs. And the bulk of fall chinook that return to the Columbia Basin don’t originate from the Snake River.

This is the side that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the agency in charge of overseeing efforts to stabilize and recover both the whales and the fish, has adopted. In its fact sheet about killer whales and Snake River dams, the agency says that fall chinook have done relatively well over the last decade, even though their returns have declined in the past few years because of poor ocean conditions.

“In the last decade more adult chinook salmon have returned past Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River than at any other time since the dam was completed in 1938. NOAA Fisheries has found that hatchery chinook more than compensate for fish lost to the dams in terms of total numbers of chinook available to killer whales,” the agency argues in the fact sheet.

The agency looks at the entire Columbia Basin as a place that is already doing its part to feed the whales and would like to see more improvements from other basins.

“The Columbia and Snake rivers are producing more than half of the chinook on the West Coast. This is a place the whales come because the salmon are here, not because they are missing,” said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for NOAA at Portland.

Milstein said it’s important to work on all of the stocks the whales feed on.

“They all contribute fish to the whales at different times of the year at different places,” he said. “It’s not about one river being critical. It’s about the diversity of the rivers and the stocks they produce, each one with its own life history and timing.”

Those who view spring chinook from the Columbia and Snake basin as more important tend to think breaching could play a meaningful role. Spring chinook are less robust than fall chinook, and those that spawn in the greater Columbia Basin are dominated by Snake River stocks. Breaching the dams would potentially help spring chinook to a greater degree than fall chinook, though it would be beneficial to both runs.

Orcas: chinook specialists
One thing is certain, southern resident killer whales are chinook salmon specialists. It makes up the majority of their all-fish diet, and the whales are not getting enough to eat. To determine how to reverse that, NOAA scientists have tried to measure the relative importance of different West Coast chinook salmon runs so they know where best to concentrate their efforts. In the ranking, scientists looked at three factors: if a particular stock appears in the diet of the whales; if it appears in the diet of the whales during the stressful winter months; and to what degree the stock overlaps in time and space with the whales throughout the course of the year.

Based on this system, fall chinook from the Columbia Basin, including Snake River fall chinook, ranked relatively high — No. 3 on the list. This is largely because fall chinook are available to the whales for much of the year. Southern resident killer whales would be feeding on fall chinook during their broad forays off the West Coast roughly from late fall to about May.

Conversely, spring chinook are less available to orcas for much of the time the whales are off what scientists call the “outer coast.” However, as spring chinook return to spawn in fresh water, the fish congregate or stage near the mouth of the Columbia. It’s a short window for the whales, but some believe because of the density of fish at the time, it’s an important food source.

“The behavior of fall stocks tend to be more coastal in ocean distribution. They are more accessible to the whales for a longer period of time, not just during the spawning migration,” said Mike Ford, director of the conservation biology division at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

“Whereas spring run stocks, especially interior (runs) from the Snake and upper Columbia, their ocean distribution doesn’t really overlap with the whales at all, except for that couple-of-months period when they are returning to spawn,” Ford said. “During that period, they could be quite important to whales.”

When scientists overlaid data on the strength of chinook runs and the health of the whales, they found that during years with good chinook runs, the whales had higher birth rates. In fact, from 2013 to 2015, “there was a baby boom,” Ford said.

Ole Shelton, research ecologist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, said there is more scientists don’t know then they do about how specific stocks of chinook and southern resident killer whales interact. He calls it a “very active area of research.”

But Shelton said scientists know much more about fall chinook runs when it comes to their ocean distribution than they know about spring runs.

“I can entirely believe if Snake River spring chinook, if there were a lot more of them, that it would be healthy for the (killer whale) population. I can also see a scenario where it’s not true. It’s best to do as much as you can for as many stocks as you can and be successful about it,” he said.

For Sam Wasser, a research professor of conservation biology, ecology and physiology at the University of Washington, there is no doubt that Snake River chinook are important and even critical to the whales. Wasser studied blood hormones found in whale feces that among other things indicate pregnancy rates and levels of stress. His team used a novel approach to collect whale feces. They followed behind the whales in boats and used specially trained dogs to sniff out and locate whale feces so they could be scooped from the ocean surface with swimming pool cleaning nets, before they sunk or dissipated.

He found that 69 percent of all detectable pregnancies among the southern resident killer whale population failed, and more than 30 percent failed late in the term or upon or shortly after birth when the risk to the mother is much higher. Stress from a lack of food was likely the reason for the failures, Wasser said.

He and others measured two hormones in the whales that indicate stress. They found that when whales return to the Salish Sea in the spring after feeding off the mouth of the Columbia River, the whales showed low stress. But that changed quickly, likely because Fraser River chinook are scarce in the Salish Sea until mid to late August.

He said winter when the whales are hunting off the coast of the U.S. and Canada is a stressful time for them.

“That is a very rough time for them. It’s cold, they have to thermal regulate, they don’t have big adult salmon going up the mouth of a river, they have all sizes of fish that are harder to catch.”

Following winter, the whales find a fleeting bounty of food in the mid to late spring when they target spring chinook bound for the Snake and Columbia rivers. The stocks of spring chinook that push the farthest upriver are generally the first to show up. They also tend to have higher fat content to sustain them as they push upriver. Snake River chinook dominate the early returning spring chinook from the Columbia Basin.

“The early returning Columbia River chinook are some of the fattiest salmon known,” Wasser said. “That run was massive. It was something our work suggested was very, very important to replenish (the whales) from a harsh winter and also maintain them until the Fraser River chinook run peaks, which is not until the middle of August.

Because the chinook bound for places like the Clearwater and Salmon rivers have so far to go, they have evolved to be larger and fatter than other spring chinook.

“They have to go about 900 miles in migration. They have to come in fat laden and early,” Wasser said. “It seems very, very crucial to these whales. It seems like if there is one run that is really critical, that they could do something dramatic (for), it’s the Columbia River chinook.”

That is why many people look to dam breaching as something that can help the whales. Many whale advocates view it as a potential quick fix. Wasser isn’t among them.

“I’m not saying they should just breach the dams right away,” he said. “I think this is something that really deserves serious study, and up to now, every time you bring that issue up they say we can’t go there. I think it needs to be investigated in a very serious way to see if there is a long-term solution. I stress long-term. There are lots of things we can do in the interim.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.
Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Coalition of fishing and environmental groups indicate they will file suit over federal government’s Snake and Columbia river plans

By Eric Barker
Oct 24, 2020 

A coalition of environmental and fishing groups signaled Friday they plan to return to court in an effort to invalidate the federal government’s latest salmon and dams plan.

The groups, which include the Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers United, National Wildlife Federation and the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue to the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration. They claim the government’s recently completed plan to operate dams and reservoirs on the Snake and Columbia rivers violates several provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

The court-ordered plan that was finalized in September relies on spilling water at the dams to help juvenile fish on their way to the ocean. But it also gives the agencies the ability to divert more water through hydroelectric turbines when electricity demand, and thereby prices, are high.

An environmental impact statement associated with the plan explored the idea of breaching the four lower Snake River dams and found that action would improve conditions for threatened and endangered wild strains of salmon and steelhead. However, the agencies also said that breaching would be too costly, since it would end barge transportation on the river and reduce hydropower generation.

The environmental and fishing groups, along with the Nez Perce Tribe and state of Oregon, successfully challenged five previous plans and said the latest plan differs little from those earlier efforts.

“The oversight of the federal courts has been critical to ensure that our agencies and political leaders commit to salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin,” said Tom France, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. “Restoring the magnificent runs of salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers remains one of the National Wildlife Federation’s highest priorities.”

The federal agencies and supporters of the four lower Snake River dams and the greater Columbia River hydropower system were critical of the resumption of litigation and said it runs counter to calls for regional collaborative salmon recovery talks. Earlier this month, the governors of Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana announced their intention to convene collaborative talks on salmon recovery. Some of the groups that said they plan to sue the government had also lobbied for the talks.

Matt Rabe, a spokesman for the Corps, said the government’s plan, known as a record of decision, should not be viewed as the end point of federal involvement in salmon recovery and that the agencies recognize the call for talks on salmon recovery, energy and economics in the region.

“The Corps does not believe that continued court actions are productive to continuing this dialogue,” he said.

Kristin Meira of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association said litigation “only serves to divide the many entities that must work together, and delay the real work we must accomplish to achieve our mutual goals.”

Kurt Miller of the Northwest River Partners said the groups who intend to sue are singularly focused on dam breaching, are overlooking climate change and its negative impact on salmon runs across the Pacific Ocean, and hydropower’s role in reducing carbon emissions.

“We are hopeful the organizations behind the lawsuit will reconsider and move back to the collaborative process they had previously publicly supported,” he said.

Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League at Boise said the groups’ desire for talks doesn’t mean they are willing to accept a bad salmon and dam plan.

“We are very earnest in our interest in regional collaboration and working to restore fish and make communities whole but as we do that, we mustn’t let the federal agencies produce plans that fail Idaho.”

American Rivers, one of the groups that plans to sue over the salmon and dams plan, recently signed an agreement with the National Hydropower Association in which the environmentalists recognize a role for hydropower in fighting climate change and the industry group agreed to the need to remove some obsolete or damaging dams. Among other things, both sides pledged to work to make hydropower at dams that remain more efficient and to seek funding for river restoration.

Scott Bosse, Northern Rockies director for American Rivers, said the agreement could produce “win-win” situations but that it doesn’t mean his group has changed its view on the best way to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead.

“As far as American Rivers support for removing the Snake River dams, this agreement has no bearing on that whatsoever,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we think the case for removing those four dams has only become stronger over the past year.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Juvenile sockeye from Springfield Hatchery have trouble adapting to release stream

By Eric Barker

November 17, 2017

Hard water at a new sockeye hatchery in southeastern Idaho is proving to be an unforeseen obstacle for both smolts and fisheries managers. Idaho Fish and Game officials believe juvenile sockeye salmon are having a difficult time adjusting from the mineral-rich water they are raised in at the Springfield Hatchery to the extremely soft water in Redfish Lake Creek, where they are released to begin their journey to the Pacific Ocean. The young salmon are surviving at lower-than-expected rates. "A portion of them actually die within visual sight of the release before they even start their out-migration," said Paul Kline, assistant fisheries chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Boise. Others are dying before they make it to the Columbia River estuary below Bonneville Dam. Starting in 2015, biologists recorded poor in-river survival rates for the juvenile fish released from the hatchery. Only about 37 percent of them that reached Lower Granite Dam west of Clarkston survived all the way to Bonneville Dam on the lower Columbia River. Biologists would expect to see survival rates of 50 percent to 60 percent. The poor performance of the juvenile fish that year wasn't a shock, Kline said. It was one of the lowest water years on record, and water temperatures quickly reached dangerous levels for both juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead. Juvenile sockeye from the upper Columbia River also survived poorly that year. The following year saw more normal flows and water temperatures. Survival of sockeye from the upper Columbia returned to expected levels, but the sockeye from Springfield Hatchery struggled even more, with only 13 surviving between Granite and Bonneville. Kline said hatchery managers and fisheries biologists looked at several possible causes before settling on the hardness of the water. Kline said the water at Springfield is fairly hard, but the fish don't have any trouble at the hatchery itself. The water in Redfish Lake, which feeds Redfish Lake Creek, is so soft that Kline compared it to distilled water. Biologists found that the fish produced high levels of the blood hormone cortisol, an indication of stress, after going from the hard water to soft. Softening the water at the hatchery likely would be too expensive - Kline estimated the price tag in the millions. Instead, the department will try a handful of approaches to fixing the problem. Smolts are trucked from the hatchery to the creek when they are ready to be released. During the trip, the department will slowly soften the water in the trucks so the change is less pronounced when they are released. Kline said sockeye smolts raised at the Sawtooth Hatchery, which has medium water hardness, don't have any trouble adjusting to the soft water in the creek. The department also will raise a portion of the smolts at the Sawtooth Hatchery, and it will house others at the hatchery for a short time prior to release as a sort of halfway house between the hard water at Springfield and the soft water in the creek. Kline said the department expected to have challenges during the first few years of the hatchery. "It's growing pains associated with operating a new hatchery," he said. "We are fairly confident that we are on to the smoking gun in respect to these observed water hardness differences." Sockeye were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991 when the run nearly blinked out. In the nine years following listing, only 23 sockeye returned to Idaho, including two years when no fish made the 900-mile trip. But the numbers improved modestly, with more than 900 adults passing Lower Granite Dam in 2008 and a high of 2,786 in 2014, just as the state was completing the $13.5 million Springfield Hatchery. The hatchery releases hundreds of thousands of smolts per year and is working toward a target of 1 million. Fisheries officials expected adult returns to increase when the hatchery came online. Instead they have turned south - just 228 adults were counted at Lower Granite this summer. Salmon advocates said in a news release that sockeye need more than ramped-up hatchery production and said the best thing for the fish and for threatened runs of spring and summer chinook, steelhead and fall chinook would be to breach the four lower Snake River dams.

"Fish and game biologists are to be commended for saving sockeye salmon from the brink of extinction, but increased focus on hatchery production is failing," said Kevin Lewis of Idaho Rivers United at Boise. "Until we address main-stem survival we're missing the biggest opportunity for these amazing fish."

September 18, 2019

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will consider closing steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River and part of the Snake River at a special meeting Friday.

The proposal from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game follows an official downgrade in the forecast for the return of hatchery B-run steelhead. On Tuesday, state, tribal and federal fisheries managers in the Columbia River basin dramatically slashed their forecast for the big steelhead that return largely to the Clearwater Basin. A preseason forecast called for about 8,000 B-run steelhead to return above Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and about 5,300 to make it at least as far as Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.

They now say only about 2,500 B-run steelhead, including 1,300 wild fish, will return to Bonneville Dam. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game predicts about 1,700 hatchery B-run steelhead that have spent two years in the ocean will return above Lower Granite Dam. That is less than is required to meet spawning goals at Dworshak National Fish Hatchery at Ahsahka. They expect about 900 wild B-run steelhead that have spent two-years in the ocean to return at least as far as Lower Granite Dam.

The proposal calls for closing all steelhead fishing, even catch-and-release fishing, on the Clearwater, Middle Fork of the Clearwater, South Fork of the Clearwater and North Fork of the Clearwater rivers, and on the Snake River from the Idaho/Washington state line at Lewiston upstream to Couse Creek Boat Ramp south of Asotin starting Sept. 29.

Washington will consider closing steelhead fishing on the same stretch of the Snake River if Idaho approves the proposal.

Both states had already adopted regulations requiring anglers to release all steelhead longer than 28 inches caught from those river stretches.

The closures would not effect ongoing fall chinook fishing seasons.

By Eric Barker of the Tribune
Oct 15, 2021

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday that he and Washington Sen. Patty Murray will initiate a fast-tracked process seeking ways to replace services provided by the lower Snake River dams.

The announcement is the strongest indication yet that the two powerful Democrats from the Evergreen State are serious about their stated desire to save threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead and that they may eventually support dam breaching.

“We know (the dams) are a salmon impediment, we know that the salmon are on the verge of extinction and we also know they do provide services upon which a lot of folks and our economy depends,” Inslee said. “I believe the way to advance this discussion nationally and in our state is to have a rigorous, robust and fast assessment of how to replace those services if we breach those dams.”

He said Murray would soon announce more details of the process that is expected to produce a report in less than a year.

“We don’t have a lot of time with these salmon, so we are going to put the pedal to the metal to have the best answer to that question as humanly possible by next summer,” he said.

Inslee was participating in a moderated online panel discussion, organized by the Washington Conservation Voters, with Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Vice Chairman Shannon Wheeler when he
made the comments.

Snake River salmon and steelhead have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since the 1990s, and the region has invested about $17 billion in efforts to recover the iconic fish. Actions
like habitat improvement, spilling water at the dams and harvest and hatchery reforms have not yet led to recovery. A recent study by the Nez Perce Tribe found many of Idaho’s spring chinook and steelhead runs are tipping dangerously close to extinction.

Wheeler said Thursday that millions of spring chinook once returned to the Snake River, but this year only about 6,000 wild springers came back to spawn, and the return of hatchery fish was so low it
provided a harvest quota of only about 3,000 fish for the tribe, “which was less than one fish per tribal member.”

“This meant closures of our fisheries,” he said. “When we are closing our fisheries, that is taking away a part of who we are.”

Inslee stopped short of saying he supported dam removal. But Congressman Mike Simpson, a Republican representing Idaho’s Second Congressional District, has concluded the fish can’t be saved with the dams in place.

Last February, Simpson unveiled a $33 billion concept that would breach the dams and make investments in affected communities and industries. His work was enthusiastically backed by the Nez Perce and other tribes of the Pacific Northwest as well as fishing and conservation groups.

But the idea, which lacked key details, was largely rejected by most members of the Northwest Congressional Delegation. At the time, Inslee and Murray politely thanked Simpson for introducing
the concept but said it should not be funded in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. Instead they backed a science- and consensus-based process that includes “all voices” and options, up to and including breaching.

On Thursday, environmental groups like the Idaho Conservation League found encouragement in Inslee’s desire that the process move quickly.

“A lot of good work has already been done on this topic in the region, so there is no need to start from square one,” the group’s executive director, Justin Hayes, said. “I encourage Inslee and Murray to use all that Mike Simpson has already advanced as the starting point, and I hope Inslee and Murray will actually work with Congressman Simpson so that together they can develop legislation that implements these needed actions.”

But dam backers said breaching would push back efforts to reduce carbon-trapping greenhouse gasses.

“It doesn’t make sense to talk about replacing the dams’ services until we’ve fully decarbonized our grid first,” said Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest River Partners. “Gov. Inslee has
called the climate crisis an existential threat to humanity. We know it is an existential threat to salmon, so getting rid of carbon-free resources before the rest of the grid is decarbonized just doesn’t make sense.”

Inslee said more than dam removal is needed to help salmon and steelhead, and fighting climate change will be critical.

“We have so much work to do in so many different habitats for the salmon,” he said. “Everything we do for salmon in the Snake we also have to do in the mid channel (of the Columbia River) so the water
is not too hot that they can’t swim up the river and in the North Pacific so that ocean acidification doesn’t destroy the food chain.”

December 3, 2018

By Eric Barker

This is the second of a two-part series on the suspension of the steelhead fishing season on Idaho Rivers.

The fight over Idaho’s steelhead season is being played out at least partially in the court of public opinion with some people insisting fishing is being shut down over a technicality while others say there is a sound conservation reason for suspending angling.

Idaho is closing the season, effective Saturday, to stave off a threatened lawsuit by five conservation groups. The Conservation Angler, Wild Fish Conservancy, Idaho Rivers United, Friends of the Clearwater, Snake River Waterkeeper, Wild Salmon Rivers and the Wild Fish Conservancy said last month they would sue the state if it didn’t close fishing or agree to measures to protect wild fish. Idaho Rivers United pulled out of the group on Friday.

Idaho’s incidental take permit expired eight years ago, and the federal government has only recently begun to review the state’s application for a new one, which was first submitted in 2010. The permit allows a small percentage of wild steelhead listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act to be killed during the state’s hatchery steelhead fishery.

The new permit is not expected to be approved until March. Without a valid permit, leaders of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and its governing Idaho Fish and Game Commission opted to close the season. They said they would almost certainly lose if a lawsuit were filed and likely have to pay the conservation groups’ legal fees. They also said a judge could force the state to adopt regulations designed to protect wild fish that they believe are unwarranted.

“It’s not a conservation-related issue,” said Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore.

Some of the conservation groups insist closing the season, or adopting more stringent fishing regulations, is needed. The steelhead run is one of lowest on record. You have to go back to 1994 to find a year when fewer steelhead passed Lower Granite Dam, the last dam fish must negotiate before returning to Idaho waters. The 10,600 wild fish that have passed the dam this year make about 22 percent of the overall run.

Conservationists say that number is so low that every wild fish is precious, and extreme steps should be taken to ensure each one survives to spawn.

“Our feeling is with the small number of fish that Idaho needs to do something to reduce encounters,” said David Moskowitz, executive director of the Wild Fish Conservancy. “I think there are a number of things we suggested to the department, and they took those off the table in our discussions.”

In settlement talks, the groups asked the state to take steps such as forbidding fishing for steelhead from boats, banning bait or the use of multiple hooks and treble hooks on lures and not allowing people to briefly remove wild fish from the water for pictures, sometimes called “hero shots.”

Much of the debate boils down to the degree to which wild steelhead are harmed and how many ultimately perish after being caught and released by anglers. It is a difficult thing to measure, and there is a wide range of mortality estimates connected to numerous studies on the issue.

Everyone agrees that fishing does pose a threat to wild fish, even though anglers are required to release them unharmed. Idaho Fish and Game biologists say on average about 3.2 percent of the wild steelhead run dies after being caught and released. They arrive at the number by assuming that about 5 percent of fish caught and released perish and about 64 percent of wild fish in the state are caught during steelhead fishing seasons.

Lance Hebdon said the 5 percent mortality estimate, which has its origins in a Canadian study, is widely used in the Northwest and has been endorsed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, but the federal agency has also said the topic deserves more inquiry.

“We haven’t seen anything specific in Idaho or other studies to suggest 5 percent is not a reasonable average,” Hebdon said.

The other factor in determining overall mortality is to determine the rate at which wild fish are caught and released. Idaho assumes wild fish are caught at about the same rate as hatchery fish.

“I can tell you we have a substantial number of hatchery fish in the environment, and we know the majority of Idaho anglers are targeting hatchery fish,” Hebdon said. “You are going to be able to find people in Idaho that say their catch of steelhead is predominantly wild, but the vast majority of Idaho anglers are targeting hatchery fish and the run is dominated numerically by hatchery fish.”

Some people point to analyses conducted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Deschutes River that showed wild fish are caught at a higher rate than hatchery fish, even though wild fish only account for about a quarter of the overall steelhead run there. In that work, a biologist looked at the number of hatchery and wild steelhead anglers reported catching on the Deschutes River and compared it to the number of hatchery and wild fish that passed over an upstream weir. It found more wild fish were caught than hatchery fish.

Hebdon said he is aware of the work but not aware that it is a published study or endorsed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as an official finding. He also said many steelhead from the Snake River pull into the Deschutes because of its cold water and then ultimately leave. That could boost the number of wild fish available to anglers, even though many of those fish exit the river before passing the weir.

“I don’t know how much credence to give it,” he said.

People like Don Chapman, a retired fisheries biologist and former University of Idaho professor, are critical of both the 5 percent mortality rate estimate and the department’s belief that anglers hook hatchery and wild fish at about the same rate.

“It’s been hypocritical as far as I’m concerned to use an out-of-basin 5 percent figure and then willfully ignore the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (work) on the Deschutes River. It has a multiyear study that shows wild fish are much more aggressive in attacking lures and flies than are hatchery fish. Wild fish are aggressive, and that encounter rate for hatchery fish is irrelevant to wild fish.”

Chapman also said the state doesn’t know how many times wild fish might be hooked in a season. He would like the state to adopt a 10 percent catch-and-release mortality rate and adopt more restrictions to protect wild fish.

“I think we should banish treble hooks. I think we should banish bait because of catch-and-release mortality in the mouth and tongue and I think it’s important to keep fish in the water,” he said. “To me those kinds of things are necessary, and I think Fish and Game should be more willing to shut down a fishery immediately and completely when we see a terrible run coming.”

Idaho’s willingness to let anglers briefly remove wild fish from the water for photographs is another sticking point with people worried about catch-and-release mortality. The state allows the practice, so people can capture memories from their trips. Hebdon said studies conducted by the department show brief exposure to air by wild fish is not a significant cause of mortality. The state has done research on steelhead in the South Fork of the Clearwater River and on cutthroat trout in the South Fork of the Snake River that showed lifting fish from the water did not affect their reproductive success.

A recent study on the Bulkley River in British Columbia, Canada, had mixed results that can be used by both camps in the debate. It found that about 5 percent of caught-and-released steelhead died within three days of the experience. Most perished from deep hooking or hooking in the tongue. The study continued to track those fish and found that about 10 percent did not survive over winter and about 15 percent died prior to spawning.

It also showed that steelhead exposed to air fell back farther down river than steelhead that were released without being removed from the water. However, within two weeks of release the fish exposed to air had resumed their upstream migration and were on par with fish that hadn’t been exposed to air.

“None of the angling-related variables had any apparent long-term consequences on the migration rate, or pre-spawn distances to potential spawning sites,” the authors wrote.

They said that the study suggests anglers should limit air exposure of steelhead to less than 10 seconds and be mindful of water temperatures while handling fish. Higher water temperatures lead to increased mortality.

Idaho proponents of banning removal of wild fish from the water point out the Bulkley is a northern river with much lower water temperatures, especially early in the steelhead season. They say if 5 percent of steelhead there perish after being released, the mortality rate must be higher on the Snake River and its tributaries.

The 10 percent overwinter, and 15 percent pre-spawn mortality sounds an alarm from some Idaho anglers and biologists worried about the effects of catch and release. However, study author William Twardek, a doctoral student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, said researchers don’t know what the overwinter and pre-spawn mortality rate is for fish that aren’t caught and released. He also said that they don’t know to what degree angling was the cause of mortality but said it weakens them.

“They’re not themselves going to kill the fish, but it doesn’t mean it won’t have sublethal impact on the fish,” Twardek said.

LuVerne Grussing, a board member of Idaho Rivers United and avid steelhead angler who lives near Spalding, said the groups involved in the potential lawsuit are not unified in what they think could be appropriate remedies.

“We don’t agree with some of our partners from the coastal areas about potential or possible mitigation that could be done short of closing the season,” Grussing said. “We certainly think if they would just make changes to the regulations a little bit to make it ‘don’t take wild fish out of the water and use only single-barbless hooks’ that would make a big difference in terms of potential mortality.

Many people believe treble hooks — a hook with three points on a single shank — and multiple hooks on one lure, increase the chances of injury to fish and increase the time it takes to release them.

“I can’t imaging that Fish and Game wouldn’t do that as a mitigation factor if it were proposed to keep the season open,” he said.

Fish and Game officials rejected a larger set of potential actions that included regulations that would require single-barbless hooks and forbid removing wild fish from the water, in failed settlement talks. Those measures also included a ban on bait and fishing from boats.

Grussing said Idaho Rivers United doesn’t support a ban on fishing from boats.

“That is just not something IRU ever did,” he said. “They would be opposed to that.”

Tri-Cities group sends letter to president-elect's team asking to put an end to breaching as option

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

December 8, 2016

An irrigation association based in the Tri-Cities is asking President-elect Donald Trump's transition team to consider a little-used provision of the Endangered Species Act to save the lower Snake River dams.

The group wants the incoming administration to convene the so-called "God Squad" and declare that a discredited federal plan that aims to reconcile dam operations with the needs of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead should be the extent of government's fish-saving actions.

Doing so would both eliminate dam breaching as a possible fish recovery alternative and halt a recently initiated environmental impact study that is expected to take five years to complete and include a cost-benefit analysis of the dams. Instead, the government would implement the biological opinion that was rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon of Portland last May. Like four faulty biological opinions that preceded it, the latest one leaves the dams in place and instead relies largely on habitat improvement measures on spawning grounds along with hatchery and harvest reforms and minor changes at the dams, to avoid further harm to the fish.

Darryll Olsen, board representative for the Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association, said the letter was sent now, even before Trump takes the oath of office, to get the issue on the new administration's radar screen.

"Our view is that it's always better to be an initiator than to stand back and wait for things to happen," he said. "If we can get some people thinking about it now, that is our objective. We don't want to go through another multiyear EIS process."

A 1978 amendment to the ESA allows an Endangered Species Committee consisting of several cabinet members to allow listed species to be harmed or even go extinct, thus its nickname of God Squad. The committee has rarely been convened and when it has, committee members have more often opted to save the species in question rather than let it blink out.

Olsen said Snake and Columbia river salmon and steelhead are a candidate for the committee because he believes the efforts to save them and the associated litigation will never end. The federal government has spent an estimated $15 billion trying to recover 13 listed fish species in the basin. He said the way in which the individual species of fish from different geographic areas of the basin where listed, would make recovery nearly impossible.
Olsen also believes Judge Simon to be biased against the dams.

"If there ever was a poster child for this provision it's what is going on in the Pacific Northwest with salmon recovery," he said. The dams produce electricity and allow for slack water transportation between Lewiston and Portland. The reservoirs behind the dam also provide irrigation water for about 60,000 acres of crop lands near the Tri-Cities.

But the dams also harm salmon and steelhead by making it harder for juvenile fish to navigate to the ocean and for returning adults to reach spawning grounds. Salmon advocates have long called for Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the lower Snake River to be breached.

At least one salmon advocate said he would welcome the "God Squad" looking into the issue. Pat Ford at Boise said the public process of the Endangered Species Committee would expose the dams not only as harmful to fish but also as expensive to taxpayers.

"I don't think the new administration will see a reason to do it and if they were to ponder it, I think they would see some reasons not to do it," he said.

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition at Seattle, said the committee would be better off to examine the dams and consider if they should be saved.
"We would much rather see them embrace a full and fair analysis of the cost and benefits of the lower Snake River dams so the fiscal elements could be well understood by the public and explore options for replacing the minimal services the dams provide with alternatives that truly protect and restore salmon and would create jobs and would fairly treat taxpayers both regionally and nationally," he said.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com <mailto:ebarker@lmtribune.com>;  or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

If returns continue to decline, federal officials might take more drastic steps

By Eric Barker
November 5, 2019

The steep decline of threatened Snake River steelhead over the past five years has triggered a review under an adaptive management provision of the federal government’s plan to protect the fish.

Barry Thom, regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, notified officials at the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration late last month the four agencies must quickly complete an analysis to determine if steelhead numbers can be expected to decline even further over the next two years, and if so, what steps can be taken to stop or slow the slide.

The number of both hatchery and federally protected wild steelhead that return to Idaho, eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon have been sliding for the past four years. Numbers are so low this year that officials closed steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River and its tributaries and parts of the Snake River. In addition, bag limits for hatchery steelhead have been reduced on rivers that remain open to fishing.

A provision in the federal plan, known as a biological opinion, that attempts to balance the needs of Endangered Species Act-protected salmon and steelhead with the operation of the dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers, requires NOAA Fisheries to closely monitor fish numbers and potentially take extraordinary measures if those numbers drop sharply.
The plan includes two levels of alarm. The first, known as an early-warning indicator, was tripped by the steep decline of wild Snake River steelhead from a 30-year high recorded in 2014-15 to last year’s return that was the lowest in about 25 years.

“This is supposed to function like a warning indicator in a car,” said Ritchie Graves, who oversees efforts to improve fish passage of Snake and Columbia river dams for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “If your check engine light is on, it doesn’t mean your car is about to explode and burst into flames, but it means you better be paying attention.”

The next level, known as a significant-decline trigger, would require federal officials to consider a number of measures known as “rapid response actions.” They include short-term actions, like increasing the amount of water spilled at Snake and Columbia river dams, and long-term actions, including the last-resort option of breaching of the four Lower Snake River dams.

Graves said one of the reasons the first level of alarm was triggered has to do with the dramatic swing from some of the highest numbers of wild steelhead to some of the lowest in just a few years. The specific trigger that was tripped is based on the steepness of the decline. Other triggers based solely on low numbers were not tripped, he said.

Over the next three months, fisheries officials will be tasked with determining if the steep slope of the decline is likely to persist. Graves said it might be a function of math and timing. The declining trend is based on the previous four years of wild steelhead runs. Although the 2019-20 return is shaping up to be another dud and among the lowest in decades, the high returns of 2014-15 won’t be included in the four-year scale. Graves said that is likely to mean the decline trend will soften even if numbers remain low.

“We are going to be trying to evaluate whether or not we think this stock is going to continue to decline or if it’s going to level out, albeit at a lower level of abundance.”
If they determine the decline is likely to continue to be steep, federal officials may be running out of short-term steps they can take to try to make things better. In his letter, Thom noted that some measures, such as spilling more water at the dams, barging more juvenile salmon and steelhead around the dams and reducing fishing pressure, have already been taken.

“I feel like we have been proactive in that some of the things (our plan) said to do after you’ve triggered, we have already been doing,” Graves said. “I think most of the levers that can be pulled, we are pulling.”

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/low-steelhead-numbers-prompt-review/article_df4ad162-23bd-5fcf-8abb-f07c7897b17d.html

By Eric Barker, Lewiston Morning Tribune

October 9, 2020

The governors of the four Pacific Northwest States pledged in a letter of agreement to work together, and with Native American Indian tribes and regional stakeholders, to rebuild Columbia River salmon stocks.

The letter, released today, outlines their commitment to develop a collaborative process aimed at finding actions that will help the region meet abundance goals set by the Columbia River Partnership Task Force, a group sanctioned by federal fisheries officials that has been meeting for the past three years. The diverse group authored goals that exceed delisting criteria for wild salmon and steelhead runs protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The agreement comes on the heels of the federal government finalizing its plan to manage the Columbia and Snake river dams in a way intended to reduce the risk of extinction of the iconic fish. The federal plan however, is not expected to lead to recovery.

The letter pledges to seek salmon and steelhead abundance that will uphold tribal treaty fishing rights, state fisheries goals, and support river-dependent communities while recognizing clean energy objectives and long-standing goals for reliable and affordable power supplies.

“We wish to congratulate NOAA Fisheries and the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force members for their achievements in setting the goals for abundant and sustainable native salmon and steelhead. We will commit to engaging our tribal and federal partners, and other stakeholders, in this collaborative effort which we fully expect to lead to meaningful actions to achieve these goals,” reads the letter signed by Govs. Brad Little of Idaho, Jay Inslee of Washington Kate Brown of Oregon and Steve Bullock of Montana.

 https://lmtribune.com/northwest-governors-pledge-to-work-with-tribes-others-for-salmon-recovery/article_1f6079ae-0a61-11eb-ad2b-4bbae9d8fef2.html

By Eric Barker of the Tribune Dec 4, 2019

Clearwater River steelhead outfitter Jeff Jarrett summed up the state of Idaho’s famed B-run of steelhead in blunt language at a forum discussion Tuesday. “Life sucks; there isn’t much going on,” he said. “I’ve been an outfitter since 1985; who would have thought we wouldn’t have a season this year?” Jarrett was one of several panelists at an Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association forum, “Salmon, Steelhead and the Outfitting Industry,” at the Clearwater River Casino near Lewiston on Tuesday. The association is holding its annual membership meeting there this week. Jarrett and other outfitters and guides who work on the Clearwater River were idled this year after the Idaho Fish and Game Commission closed steelhead fishing on the river because of low numbers of hatchery steelhead. The closure has hit hard in Orofino, where Jarrett is based. He said he lost about 100 customers, another Orofino outfitter had to cancel about 400 trips and hotels in the town had more than 700 reservation cancellations in October and November. “I just hope one day we get them back. It means a lot to everybody around here,” Jarrett said. “It brings a lot of money and a lot of jobs.” Members of the association are exploring their potential role in reversing the dramatic slide in fish numbers over the past four years that has hammered their independent businesses and the rural communities in which most of them are located. Both are in serious trouble, according to the 60 or so guides in attendance. Despite the hard times, they said they see an opportunity to become more engaged in the regionwide effort to reverse the negative trend and help shape potential solutions. Members of the group advocated for being united in their efforts, as well as reaching out to other interest groups in the region to help shoulder the load. “A lot of us believe this will not be an Idaho solution. It needs to be a Northwest solution,” said Jerry Myers, a fishing guide and retired outfitter from Salmon. “Twenty-five years of science tells us we need a restored Snake River to stop the decline and rebuild our stocks to sustainable levels.” Breaching the four lower Snake River dams was often but not always a part of the five-hour discussion. The group backed retiring the dams in 1998. Aaron Lieberman, executive director of the association, said he believes the members still back the more than 20-year-old resolution. The daylong discussion was designed in part to find ways for the industry to have a role in all of the potential solutions. “The goal was ultimately to reengage the conversation about how the outfitting and guiding industry in Idaho can have agency in determining the future of salmon and steelhead that businesses in rural communities rely on, and to reaffirm our motivation to meaningfully do that,” said Lieberman. The outfitters and guides and members of the public heard from a series of experts, including Ed Bowles, fish division administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; David Johnson, director of the Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management; and Jim Fredericks, chief of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Fisheries Bureau, who painted a grim picture of the status of Snake River salmon and steelhead. Bowles told them while ocean conditions play a major role in fish returns, dams are the biggest human-caused mortality factor for the fish. To highlight the role the dams play, he compared the plight of salmon and steelhead in two rivers — the John Day in Oregon and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. Prior to construction of the dams on the Snake River, spring chinook populations in both rivers were similar in strength. Since the dams were completed, both runs have declined but the fish that return to the John Day River that must pass only three dams on the Columbia have faired much better than chinook returning to the much more pristine Middle Fork of the Salmon River, which sits above eight dams. “The John Day which is below the lower Snake River dams is not ESA listed. It’s had its downturns, but it’s head and shoulders above the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, and the Middle Fork has far better tributary habitat,” he said. Bowles also spoke about the flexible spill agreement implemented by federal agencies that sees much higher spill at the dams, but also gives the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration the ability to curtail spill and produce more hydroelectricity during times of the day when power prices are higher. He said the agreement, forged out of an ongoing lawsuit, is benefiting the fish and also helping to break political logjams. He cited regional collaborative talks like the Columbia River Partnership, Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s Salmon Working Group and Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson’s efforts to recover the fish, including possibly removing dams, as reasons for hope. “All of those need to converge into a thoughtful discussion moving forward,” he said. Many spoke of the need to engage political leaders in the effort. “We desperately need help from state and federal leaders,” said Roy Akins, an outfitter from Riggins and chairman of the lower Salmon River Chapter of Idaho River Community Alliance. “This is about more than just restoring fish runs, this has also become a fight to save our small river towns in central Idaho.” Kristin Troy, an outfitter from Salmon, said the group can take a lesson from ranchers in the Lemhi River Basin near Salmon who worked for decades to restore the river by working together and sacrificing. They were ultimately successful in restoring flows to the river and many of its tributaries that had been dewatered by their own irrigation needs. “I think it’s a people problem,” she said. “We have a self-inflicted sense of paralysis when thinking of systems we created ourselves. It’s so hard rethinking those, but it’s doable. They did it on the upper Salmon.” Little spoke at the end of the forum and restated his opposition to dam breaching and his desire that his salmon working group avoid the topic. The group, comprised of various interests including outfitters, those representing power and agricultural communities, Indian tribes and conservationists, has been tasked with coming up with a set of policy recommendations for the governor. The working group has been meeting for the past six months and has talked about breaching. When pushed by audience members, Little said breaching threatens to dominate the talks. “I was just fearful because of my experience, if that was the No. 1 recommendation, it would have gridlock on that committee and some of the other recommendations wouldn’t come out of there,” Little said.

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

Salmon advocates will launch dozens to hundreds of small craft Saturday during their second annual Free the Snake Flotilla.

Organized by groups like Idaho Rivers United and the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, the event is designed to bring awareness to their campaign to breach the four lower Snake River dams.
"We are just trying to raise more public awareness as to the impacts of the lower Snake River dams and the extreme high cost to society and low value provided by those dams," said Kevin Lewis with Idaho Rivers United at Boise.

The group held a similar rally last year on the Snake River near Wawawai County Park, about 20 miles west of Clarkston, which drew an estimated 300 participants. Lewis expects more people to take part this year.

Participants will meet starting at 8 a.m. at Swallows Park near Clarkston and launch at 10 a.m. They will then paddle downstream to just past the Interstate Bridge for the rally before paddling back to Swallows Park at 2 p.m. After the flotilla, the group will gather at Chief Timothy Park west of Clarkston, where live music will be played and speakers will talk about salmon, steelhead and the dams.

Lewis said the group is aware that the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers is often busy with boat anglers fishing for fall chinook and steelhead. He said the group has filed a water safety plan with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that calls for participants to stop just north of the bridge and not proceed farther into the confluence area, where most of the fishing activity is concentrated.
"We won't go down to the actual confluence itself," he said. "It's going to be upbeat and friendly and not confrontational. We just want to make a statement."

Lewis, a believer that the dams will someday be removed as a measure to aid wild salmon and steelhead - which are listed as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act - said he wants to start a conversation about what needs to be done to help the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley thrive without slackwater.

"I'm convinced looking at economics of the lower Snake dams that their time is limited, their days are numbered," he said. "I'm shifting my thought process to how do we make sure Lewiston and Clarkston stay whole in the process."

More information on the flotilla is available at freethesnake.com <http://freethesnake.com/> .
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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com;  or at (208) 848-2273.

Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

<http://lmtribune.com/northwest/pro-salmon-advocates-plan-to-launch-flotilla-on-snake-river/article_0e47cbbf-ab45-5ade-ac91-fec5d8ac7893.html#comments>

April 28, 2019

By Eric Barker

When U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson announced he has been studying ways to recover Snake River salmon and largely viewing the solution through the lens of dam breaching, it overwhelmed other discussions at an Andrus Center conference in Boise this week. The “Energy, Salmon, Agriculture, and Community: Can We Come Together?” conference at Boise State University Tuesday was billed as a sort of collaborative brainstorming session and discussion on how to recover threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead populations. Conference leader John Freemuth, the Cecil D. Andrus Chairman for Environment and Public Lands at the BSU Andrus Center for Public Policy, said the focus of the conference was not dam breaching — a position supported by many salmon advocates, the Nez Perce Tribe and state of Oregon, but bitterly opposed by grain farmers, ports and power interests. But after Simpson, a Republican representing Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District, said he has been asking “what if” questions framed around the idea of mitigating for the eventual removal of Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams, it was tough to see it otherwise. Simpson, who did not formally endorse breaching, questioned how to make Lewiston whole if the dams were removed, how to help grain growers get their crops to market and how to replace the 3,000 megawatts of carbon-free electricity the dams are capable of producing. He also shared some potential answers. What if grain growers who now rely on barge transportation to get their crops to market collectively owned their own railroad? What if small portable nuclear plants were used to replace the lost hydropower? What if Lewis-Clark State College, the University of Idaho and Washington State University joined forces to create a high-tech corridor in the region to foster job growth? And what if the Northwest Power Act were rewritten to save the financially strapped agency that both markets power produced at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers and funds projects designed to mitigate for the harm those dams cause to fish and wildlife? “Strangely enough, I think the challenges facing the (Bonneville Power Administration) also creates the opportunity for us to solve the salmon crises. The reality is you cannot write a new BPA act — a new Northwest Power Planning Act — without addressing the salmon issue, and you can’t address the salmon issue without addressing the dams,” Simpson said. The question is, what happens now? Simpson doesn’t have a course of action laid out. His spokeswoman, Nikki Wallace, said in the near-term he plans to continue meeting with stakeholders and talking with other members of Congress representing Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana. “He just wants to talk to people and look at options,” Wallace said. Other Northwest members of Congress gave Simpson’s remarks mixed reviews, with some of them outright rejecting his focus on dams and others giving at least tepid support. In a statement, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Simpson’s desire to engage parties on all sides of the salmon and dams debate is the right course to take. “The ultimate solution will be the achievement of a regional consensus that will be taken to Congress for enactment and implementation,” Crapo said. When asked if he was concerned that Simpson framed his “what if” questions around mitigating for Snake River dam removal, Crapo’s spokesman, Lindsay Nothern, said no. “Crapo has said everything should be on the table, and he still feels that way,” Nothern said. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said through a statement he supports talks aimed at finding a solution to the salmon recovery problem, but only with the dams in place. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, said he has spoken with Simpson but believes the cost of dam breaching on the 1st Congressional District is too high. “Since economic indicators and constituent feedback have strongly indicated that dam breaching would not be a viable option for stakeholders in the 1st District, it is even more imperative that alternative solutions receive thorough review,” Fulcher said. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who championed unsuccessful legislation last year that would have protected the dams, said she “vehemently” disagrees with anyone who believes the dams should be removed. One of the most difficult questions Simpson is seeking answers to is how to help farmers in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington get their crops to market without the benefit of barge transportation. At the conference, Sam White, chief operating officer of the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative, expressed interest in Simpson’s train idea but said it might not be enough. “Our growers, that family of farmers, would look at something if we were made whole, but I don’t think one train is going to do that,” White said. In the days since Simpson’s speech, barging advocates have issued statements expressing concern. Nezperce farmer Matt Mosman, president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, said the Columbia and Snake river system is critical to Idaho grain growers. He called barging a low-cost and environmentally friendly way to move cargo that is critical to Idaho’s wheat growers. “In a world with increased concern over carbon emissions, it makes sense to transport more goods by environmentally friendly methods like barging,” Mosman said. He also highlighted the dams as a source of carbon-free electricity, irrigation and water storage and said any discussions about changes to the system of locks and dams must include ways to ensure farmers and others don’t lose out. “We applaud the commitment from elected officials that changes to the river system would occur only if affected parties are made whole and nobody gets left behind,” he said. “Since the Columbia and Snake River System is a major driver to the entire (Pacific Northwest) economy, this standard must not get lost as the discussion moves forward.” Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said federal agencies are in the midst of producing an environmental impact statement and associated biological opinion on the effects dams on both rivers have on salmon and steelhead. “Calls for additional processes and forums that undermine the existing study are counterproductive, not based in science and divert resources from the creation of a credible plan that is best for salmon and the Northwest,” Meira said. Wanda Keefer, manager of the Port of Clarkston, rejected the idea that dam breaching would do much to help Snake River salmon and steelhead and said it would do nothing for listed fish in other Columbia River tributaries. Keefer cited studies that show juvenile salmon and steelhead survive passing from one side of the dams to the other but don’t account for the toll reservoirs take on the fish. “The four lower Snake River dams have a 95 percent or greater fish survival rate. Removing them will move the needle less than would more robust action against terns, cormorants, pelicans and sea lions,” she said. “Removing dams will move the needle less than aggressive cleanup of toxins and garbage in the ocean and reversal of ocean-warming trends, since these fish spend 75 percent of their lives there.” Instead of removing dams and eliminating the carbon-free power they produce, Keefer said the region should tackle climate change. “Dam removal will exacerbate climate change problems — the true source of so many challenges the world is facing today and will experience to a higher degree tomorrow.”

By Eric Barker
Feb 6, 2021

In a bid to recover Snake River salmon and end decades of conflict, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson is proposing a $33 billion infrastructure and community investment strategy that would breach the four lower Snake River dams and reorder much of the fish, energy and commodity transportation systems of the Pacific Northwest.
 
If turned into legislation, passed and implemented according to Simpson’s timeline, Lower Granite Dam would be breached in the summer of 2030 and the river that was swallowed by slackwater 55 years earlier would reemerge. The breaching of Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor dams would follow and the entire stretch of the river would return to its free-flowing state by 2031.
 
The eastern Idaho Republican representing Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District announced his intentions in a recorded video posted to his website Saturday night -- nearly two years after he vowed at an Andrus Center conference in Boise to live long enough to see Redfish Lake once again team with spawning sockeye. His chief of staff Lindsay Slater shared the concept with dozens of stakeholders and the Lewiston Tribune prior to the announcement. 

Mitigation proposed for disrupted economies and communities

According to many fisheries scientists, removing the dams will boost survival of protected Snake River salmon and steelhead and allow the depleted runs to rebuild. Breaching would also help Pacific lamprey, endangered southern resident killer whales in the Puget Sound region and be a boon to fishing economies and cultures from Astoria, Ore., to Stanley, Idaho.

But the loss of slackwater would turn some industries upside down and dramatically reshape the waterfronts of Lewiston and Clarkston. Tug-and-barge transportation between Lewiston and the Tri-Cities would cease and hydropower would no longer be produced on the lower Snake River.
 
Simpson is proposing mitigation for disrupted economies and communities. Lewiston and the surrounding area, along with agriculture, transportation, tourism and energy sectors would receive billions of dollars in funding to help with the transition.  

Read the full story here.

Idaho Public Policy Survey finds mixed feelings on removing structures to aid fish

By Eric Barker
February 1, 2020

A new poll from Boise State University indicates that Idahoans are roughly split in their support for removing the four lower Snake River dams in Washington to save the Gem State’s threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.

The fifth annual Idaho Public Policy Survey, conducted by the university’s School of Public Service and the Idaho Policy Institute, covered several topics, including people’s feelings about the direction of the state, education, growth, and budget and taxes.

On the dams and salmon issue, respondents were statistically tied, with 40 percent in favor of breaching and 38.3 percent opposed. Another 21.7 percent were unsure.

Of those in support of breaching, 16.4 percent were strongly in favor of the action and 23.6 percent were somewhat in favor. Those against breaching included 22.3 percent who said they were strongly opposed and 15.9 percent who were somewhat opposed.

Surveyors asked those opposed to dam removal to choose their strongest reason. The loss of hydroelectric power generation was the top concern at 34.6 percent, but only 1.6 percent named loss of barging as a top reason. Loss of irrigation water was chosen by 15.6 percent of respondents, even though the only irrigation the dams provide is in Washington near the Tri-Cities.

Another 13.7 percent said they don’t believe dam removal will recover the fish, 12.6 percent said it would harm local communities, 8.1 percent said it would be too expensive and 3.3 percent said they didn’t care about salmon. Nearly 7 percent named other reasons and 3.8 percent were unsure of their main reason.

John Freemuth, the Cecil D. Andrus Chair for Environment and Public Lands at the BSU Andrus Center for Public Policy, said attitudes about dam removal haven’t changed much in the state. But he said the follow-up questions can be used by people like Rep. Mike Simpson, who are trying to craft salmon recovery solutions.

Last year, Simpson indicated he was looking at several salmon recovery options that assumed a future without the dams.

“The question becomes are we going to go back and forth on breach or not breach, or are we going to look at the issues that people who are worried about breaching have and see if there is a path forward there,” Freemuth said.

The four lower Snake River dams have been at the center of public policy debates about the best way to recover the fish for more than two decades. Many salmon advocates say breaching the dams would be the best way to boost salmon and steelhead numbers. But doing so would eliminate barge transportation between Lewiston and the Tri-Cities, and reduce the region’s hydroelectric power generation capacity.

The federal government is expected to release an environmental impact statement later this month that looks at several salmon- and steelhead-saving approaches, including dam breaching.

A detailed report on the Idaho Public Policy Survey is available at http://bit.ly/2RMfpGk.

Salmon advocates, feds receive more time to negotiate, weigh breaching

By Eric Barker Of the Tribune

Aug 5, 2022

Settlement talks between Snake and Columbia river salmon advocates and the federal government will continue for at least another year and include dam breaching as a possible fish recovery strategy.

On Thursday, the Biden administration and plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit over the harm federal dams inflict on threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead agreed to extend a stay in court proceedings that has been in place since last October. The parties — which include the federal government as the defendant and the Nez Perce and other tribes, the state of Oregon and a coalition of fishing and environmental groups as plaintiffs — are seeking a “durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels.”

In agreeing to the extension, the government has committed to looking at breaching the four lower Snake River dams and reintroducing salmon above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams on the upper Columbia River.

The federal government operates 14 dams on the two rivers. Dams on the Snake River have been shown to negatively affect survival rates for spring chinook, fall chinook, sockeye and steelhead, all of which are protected by the Endangered Species Act. On the Columbia River, Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams have no fish passage mechanisms and the fish runs above them have long been extinct.

But the system of hydroelectric dams also provide a significant portion of the electricity consumed by residents of the Pacific Northwest and beyond and on the Snake River the dams make it possible to ship commodities like wheat between Lewiston and the Tri-Cities.

Last month, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a draft report that the Snake River dams must be breached if wild salmon and steelhead that return to the river are to be restored to fishable numbers. On Thursday, the administration issued a news release saying extension of the stay will aid in the effort to recover the fish and meet the needs of other stakeholders in the region, including the production of affordable and reliable power and those who use the river for transportation.

Samuel N. Penney, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribe called the extension a significant development in the decadeslong fight to save the fish and honor tribal treaty rights.

“We will continue to speak the truth about what the salmon need, in this moment of tribal unity in the Northwest and across the Nation,” he said in a statement to the Tribune. “Tribes, more than anyone, understand the moment we face: a Columbia Basin salmon crisis, a climate crisis and a crisis of 90 years of tribal injustice imposed by the Columbia power system on Indian people and their homelands, waters and fisheries.”

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, said extending the stay is a hopeful sign.

“We have the best chance of resolving this conflict and developing a long term plan for salmon in the Snake and Columbia river systems that works for communities too if we are talking to each other and working together.”

Chris Wood, executive director of Trout Unlimited, said the decadeslong work of the Nez Perce and other Columbia Basin tribes and the efforts by fishing and conservation groups are starting to pay off.

“For a long time I feel like we have been tilting at windmills and it’s finally beginning to feel like we are making progress in terms of recovering Snake River salmon and steelhead.”

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest River Partners, a group that represents public power utilities, said the people he represents have so far been locked out of the talks that are limited only to the plaintiffs and the federal government. He hopes that will change soon.

“It’s really a big deal for our members,” he said. “We are talking about the potential for huge rate hikes and the loss of reliable power and we haven’t been allowed to engage and it’s not clear we will be invited to engage moving forward.”

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and several other Republican members of Congress from Idaho, Oregon and Washington scolded the administration for what they called its “lack of transparency and political intervention in processes that could lead to breaching the Lower Snake River dams.”

“The recent actions by this administration have sown complete distrust in this administration’s ability to lead with facts, science, and transparency regarding the Columbia River System,” the lawmakers wrote.“These actions will undoubtedly have long-term and damaging effects on this administration’s ability to bring diverse stakeholders together to chart a path forward on species recovery and preservation of the vital benefits of the Columbia River System.”

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/salmon-and-dam-talks-get-another-year/article_5f558f86-d5f1-547e-89a5-d97a917009f0.html

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

By Eric Barker of the Tribune

September 21, 2019

Members of Idaho’s Salmon Working Group continued to feel each other out Friday to determine if, when and how they might eventually tackle controversial issues such as the ever-present question about keeping or breaching the four lower Snake River dams.

Breaching was mentioned during the daylong meeting, but did not dominate the group’s discussion at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office in Lewiston. Instead, group members, after hearing reports from the Nez Perce Tribe, discussed more foundational and mundane subjects, such as how to formulate agendas and what sorts of goals and timelines they should set for their future proceedings.

Near the end of the day, the meeting was injected with passion when the group listened to comments from members of the public. About three dozen activists holding signs advocating for dam breaching filled the room. Those who addressed the group covered the well-known talking points both for and against dam breaching.

Farmer Matt Mosman said the barging system provided by the dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers is vital to his family’s operation on the Camas Prairie.

“The dams to us are extremely important for the transportation of our wheat,” he said. “There is no cleaner or faster way for us to do it.”

Julian Matthews, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe from Pullman, said the current approach of trying to rescue imperiled runs of salmon and steelhead by restoring habitat and reforming harvest and hatchery practices isn’t enough.

“I just don’t see it working. I don’t believe (the fish) are going to come back with the current way it’s being managed. I think it’s really critical the dams are put on the table.”

Fishing outfitter Jason Schultz didn’t comment on breaching but said people in his industry are reeling. Earlier in the day, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission closed steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River and the Snake River near Lewiston.

“I want you to hear my voice and to know I’m scared,” he said. “We need your help and we need our fish back.”

Gov. Brad Little convened the salmon working group and tasked its members, which include anglers, environmentalists, tribal members, farmers, port managers and power interests, to craft a series of policy recommendations aimed at spurring long-running efforts to save the state’s spring, summer and fall chinook, sockeye and steelhead. The runs have bounced up and down since coming under the umbrella of the Endangered Species Act in the 1990s but have turned south during the past three years. Fishing seasons have been scaled back or canceled in response.

The group’s Lewiston meeting was just its third since forming earlier this year. About half the day was dominated by presentations by the Nez Perce Tribe’s fisheries program. Joseph Oatman, a member of the group and deputy program manager and harvest manager for the tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management, told his fellow group members the important role salmon and steelhead play in the lives of tribal members.

He said Nez Perce people once built their diets and economy around salmon, but with today’s poor runs, that is no longer possible.

“We have gone from a time in our history where each and every member utilized about 80 salmon to something that is really less than one salmon per person.”

Emmit Taylor, head of the tribe’s watershed division, detailed the work the tribe is doing to restore degraded salmon and steelhead habitat in wide swaths of Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

“We don’t focus on the river itself, we concentrate on the whole watershed,” he said.

David Johnson, director of the tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management, said the tribe works to fix problems that others have left on the landscape. That includes things like obliterating old forest roads, replacing inadequate culverts and cleaning up mining waste.

He also detailed the tribe’s now two-decade-old endorsement of dam breaching as a necessary fish recovery strategy.

“We still see breaching as the most viable means to restoring those populations,” he said.

During time allocated for discussion, group members debated how the committee should function, who it should seek out for advice and how it might one day deliver a product to Little. They were able to agree on a mission statement: “Develop policy recommendations for Gov. Little through a collaborative, consensus driven, public process to restore abundant, sustainable, and well distributed populations of salmon and steelhead in Idaho for present and future generations, while recognizing the diverse interests of stakeholders throughout the state.”

They now have their eyes set on developing goals and objectives that will help them agree on policy recommendations. But to do so they need to have more discussions and hear from more experts.

They struggled to determine how to decide who they should invite to speak at future meetings and what they should discuss. The group seemed to agree they should hear a report from the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force, a 3-year-old federal effort that has tackled some of the same issues. Many members of Little’s group also serve on the Columbia task force.

The group will meet next in Twin Falls on Oct. 29 and 30.

Group convened by Idaho governor offers recommendations for improving fish runs, and dam breaching isn’t among them

By Eric Barker, of the Tribune
Jan 5, 2021 

In a report that includes about two dozen policy recommendations, Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s Salmon Workgroup stated emphatically that Idahoans want abundant and harvestable populations of salmon and steelhead.

But members of the collaborative group that hashed out the document over the past 18 months acknowledged their policy prescriptions, while likely to be beneficial, are insufficient to reach the lofty goal. Achieving true recovery of Idaho’s prized anadromous fish runs will require work that reaches far beyond the state’s borders, according to the report delivered to Little on Dec. 31 and quietly released to the public over the weekend.

“If we are to enjoy abundant, sustainable and well-distributed populations of salmon and steelhead, more conversations are necessary. More collaboration will be needed. More work must be done,” reads the introduction to the 25-page report. “We encourage a renewed evaluation of these policies over time to ensure that the goals of the workgroups are being accomplished.”

Little convened the group in 2019 and tasked its members with crafting recommendations to help improve salmon and steelhead runs that have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for about 30 years. The runs have performed unusually poorly over the past four years and led to fishing restrictions and some outright closures.

The report recognizes the primary importance of salmon and steelhead to the Native American tribes of the Columbia Basin; the need to make the state’s river dependent industries, communities and economies whole; and the need for even more actions to save the fish and restore their habitat as overarching principles.

Group members discussed dam breaching at length during the deliberations but were unable to reach consensus on the controversial topic. Instead, they supported a suite of recommendations designed to lessen the many negative impacts of dams and reservoirs, improve habitat, make sure hatcheries produce fish for harvest without harming wild stocks, that harvest is managed equitably throughout the Columbia River basin, that species that prey on salmon and steelhead are reduced, and that steps are taken to address climate change and its impact on the fish.

“I think a significant thing that the workgroup talked about and learned and affirmed is that what Idahoans want is to recover real abundance,” said Justin Hayes, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League. “Idahoans don’t want to shoot for the lower bar of (Endangered Species Act) delisting. That is insufficient to meet the needs of Idahoans.”

For example, Snake River wild spring chinook could be removed from federal protection if average annual returns increased from about 7,000 to 33,500. But the workgroup adopted 159,500 as its goal, a target first outlined by the Columbia River Partnership that represents only about 16 percent of the historical average run size of about 1 million fish.

Because the goals are much more robust than those required by the federal government and will be difficult to reach, the group was clear that its recommendations should not be viewed as a recovery plan. Still, many said if they are implemented, the policies would be helpful.

“There isn’t any one measure I would point to and say, ‘By golly, I’m sure glad this is in there, this will make a difference,’ ” Port of Lewiston manager David Doeringsfeld said. “I think you have to take the whole suite of measures there and do (your) best to implement everything that is in the report and I do believe it will make a difference.”

But some members wanted to push harder. Richard Scully, of Lewiston, said the emphasis on consensus and collaboration eliminated the aggressive measures needed to reach the group’s stated goals. The report adopts the goal of achieving a smolt-to-adult return rate of 2 to 6 percent annually, with an average of 4 percent as critical to rebuilding the imperiled runs.“The only way I have seen that can be done is to breach the four lower Snake River dams,” he said. “To me it was very frustrating that the policy recommendation I felt would have the most meaning was one we couldn’t include.”

Joseph Oatman, deputy program manager and harvest manager for the Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resource Management, backed the plan but urged Little to avoid simple endorsement of efforts that have already proven insufficient to lead to recovery. He noted the tribe believes restoring the lower Snake River by removing the four dams and at the same time making investments in communities that could be harmed by the action holds real promise.

“It is one of a very few actions left to try that will provide major, positive improvement for these fish. Therefore, restoring the lower Snake River and ‘making people whole’ remains a focal point for the nation and region to address,” he said.The report is available for review at bit.ly/2MqJtXK.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Letter says removing four lower Snake River dams will chill rivers during the summer, to the benefit of salmon, steelhead populations

October 23, 2019

By Eric Barker

In a letter to Northwest policymakers Tuesday, more than 50 scientists said breaching the four lower Snake River dams is the only action that can counteract warm summertime water in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers that often reaches temperatures that can be lethal to salmon and steelhead.

In the coming years, climate change will continue to worsen the problem of elevated water temperatures in the sunbaked slackwater reservoirs behind the dams, they said.

According to the letter, modeling by the Environmental Protection Agency shows federal dams on the two rivers elevate water temperatures. John Day Dam on the Columbia River causes a rise of as much as 6.3 degrees, and Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River cause a rise of 12 degrees, compared to a free-flowing river.

“The impact of additional heating in lower Snake River reservoirs is clear, and it can drive water temperatures above 68°F for extended periods in late summer and early fall — dangerous for salmon and steelhead,” according to the letter signed by 55 scientists and addressed to the governors and congressional delegations representing Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“Hot water kills cold-water fish. That is what is happening now, when adult salmon try to return home through reservoirs that are too warm for long periods of time,” said Dave Cannamela, a retired Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologist who lives at Boise.

Rick Williams, an independent fisheries scientist who lives at Boise, said breaching the Snake River dams would lessen the problem even if water temperatures continued to sometimes exceed 68 degrees. Such incidences would be much shorter in nature, he said.

“We know these fish can be in sub-lethal conditions for limited amounts of time. When the length of time prolongs, the mortality starts to show up,” he said.

Summertime water temperatures have long been a concern for adult salmon and steelhead that must persist in the water as they surge upriver to spawn in cool mountain streams. The problem is most pronounced for endangered Snake River sockeye salmon that swim up the Columbia and Snake rivers starting in June when water temperatures are starting to climb. Steelhead and fall chinook must also contend with warm water on their return from the Pacific Ocean in July, August and September.

In 2015, a dry and warm winter left the mountains of the Pacific Northwest with meager snow packs that dissipated quickly in the spring. The arid winter was followed by a scorching summer that, when combined with low river flows, heated the water well above 68 degrees, considered a tipping point for salmon and steelhead. Temperatures into the 70s persisted for weeks on end and sockeye perished in unprecedented numbers. About 96 percent of the sockeye bound for Idaho’s Stanley Basin died in the Columbia and Snake rivers. More plentiful sockeye bound for the middle Columbia River died in similar numbers.

That summer’s low flows and high temperatures were well outside of normal conditions, but may not be in the future.

“The extreme conditions faced by migrating adult salmon in 2015 will become more frequent as the climate continues to warm,” the letter said.

The warm water can also cause the fish to delay their migration. Some seek out cool water at places like the mouth of the Deschutes River or in Drano Lake at the mouth of the Little White Salmon River. Others stall at dams because the water used in fish ladders is often drawn from the surface of the river and thus warmer than the deep water the fish sometimes travel in.

Officials at the Army Corps of Engineers have added mechanisms at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams that feeds colder water drawn from depth to the fish ladders.

Federal officials have also used cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir on the North Fork of the Clearwater River to mitigate temperatures in the Snake River. The action is considered a partial success but one that doesn’t provide much cooling beyond Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.

The scientists wrote that those efforts are insufficient to address the problem and they fear an environmental impact statement under construction by the Corps, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration, collectively known as the “action agencies,” will not adequately address the problem.

However, they pointed to modeling that showed if the Snake River dams had not existed in 2015, the cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir would have provided enough cooling for sockeye and other anadromous fish to survive.

Matt Rabe, a spokesman for the Corps at Portland, pointed to the cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir and efforts to cool fish ladders at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams as measures the federal government is taking to address the problem. He also said the lower Snake River often exceeded the threshold considered safe for salmon in July and August even before the dams were constructed.

Michael Milstein, a spokesman for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of preserving and restoring threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead, said his agency agrees summer water temperatures are an important issue and noted most of the sockeye that died in 2015 did so in the Columbia River and not the Snake River.

“We have worked with the action agencies on improved information and management of temperatures through the hydrosystem,” Milstein said. “These include new instrumentation at dams, systems to cool and reduce temperature differentials at fish ladders and improved temperature models to inform the EIS process.”

Letter says removing four lower Snake River dams will chill rivers during the summer, to the benefit of salmon, steelhead populations

October 23, 2019

By Eric Barker

In a letter to Northwest policymakers Tuesday, more than 50 scientists said breaching the four lower Snake River dams is the only action that can counteract warm summertime water in the lower Snake and Columbia rivers that often reaches temperatures that can be lethal to salmon and steelhead.

In the coming years, climate change will continue to worsen the problem of elevated water temperatures in the sunbaked slackwater reservoirs behind the dams, they said.

According to the letter, modeling by the Environmental Protection Agency shows federal dams on the two rivers elevate water temperatures. John Day Dam on the Columbia River causes a rise of as much as 6.3 degrees, and Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River cause a rise of 12 degrees, compared to a free-flowing river.

“The impact of additional heating in lower Snake River reservoirs is clear, and it can drive water temperatures above 68°F for extended periods in late summer and early fall — dangerous for salmon and steelhead,” according to the letter signed by 55 scientists and addressed to the governors and congressional delegations representing Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“Hot water kills cold-water fish. That is what is happening now, when adult salmon try to return home through reservoirs that are too warm for long periods of time,” said Dave Cannamela, a retired Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologist who lives at Boise.

Rick Williams, an independent fisheries scientist who lives at Boise, said breaching the Snake River dams would lessen the problem even if water temperatures continued to sometimes exceed 68 degrees. Such incidences would be much shorter in nature, he said.

“We know these fish can be in sub-lethal conditions for limited amounts of time. When the length of time prolongs, the mortality starts to show up,” he said.

Summertime water temperatures have long been a concern for adult salmon and steelhead that must persist in the water as they surge upriver to spawn in cool mountain streams. The problem is most pronounced for endangered Snake River sockeye salmon that swim up the Columbia and Snake rivers starting in June when water temperatures are starting to climb. Steelhead and fall chinook must also contend with warm water on their return from the Pacific Ocean in July, August and September.

In 2015, a dry and warm winter left the mountains of the Pacific Northwest with meager snow packs that dissipated quickly in the spring. The arid winter was followed by a scorching summer that, when combined with low river flows, heated the water well above 68 degrees, considered a tipping point for salmon and steelhead. Temperatures into the 70s persisted for weeks on end and sockeye perished in unprecedented numbers. About 96 percent of the sockeye bound for Idaho’s Stanley Basin died in the Columbia and Snake rivers. More plentiful sockeye bound for the middle Columbia River died in similar numbers.

That summer’s low flows and high temperatures were well outside of normal conditions, but may not be in the future.

“The extreme conditions faced by migrating adult salmon in 2015 will become more frequent as the climate continues to warm,” the letter said.

The warm water can also cause the fish to delay their migration. Some seek out cool water at places like the mouth of the Deschutes River or in Drano Lake at the mouth of the Little White Salmon River. Others stall at dams because the water used in fish ladders is often drawn from the surface of the river and thus warmer than the deep water the fish sometimes travel in.

Officials at the Army Corps of Engineers have added mechanisms at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams that feeds colder water drawn from depth to the fish ladders.

Federal officials have also used cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir on the North Fork of the Clearwater River to mitigate temperatures in the Snake River. The action is considered a partial success but one that doesn’t provide much cooling beyond Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.

The scientists wrote that those efforts are insufficient to address the problem and they fear an environmental impact statement under construction by the Corps, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration, collectively known as the “action agencies,” will not adequately address the problem.

However, they pointed to modeling that showed if the Snake River dams had not existed in 2015, the cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir would have provided enough cooling for sockeye and other anadromous fish to survive.

Matt Rabe, a spokesman for the Corps at Portland, pointed to the cold water releases from Dworshak Reservoir and efforts to cool fish ladders at Lower Granite and Little Goose dams as measures the federal government is taking to address the problem. He also said the lower Snake River often exceeded the threshold considered safe for salmon in July and August even before the dams were constructed.

Michael Milstein, a spokesman for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the federal agency in charge of preserving and restoring threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead, said his agency agrees summer water temperatures are an important issue and noted most of the sockeye that died in 2015 did so in the Columbia River and not the Snake River.

“We have worked with the action agencies on improved information and management of temperatures through the hydrosystem,” Milstein said. “These include new instrumentation at dams, systems to cool and reduce temperature differentials at fish ladders and improved temperature models to inform the EIS process.”

Watco Companies VP oversees rail lines serving north central Idaho and southeastern Washington

By Elaine Williams
July 15, 2017

One of the biggest questions in the debate about removing the four lower Snake River dams is whether rail could haul the grain that's now barged to Portland and transferred onto ocean-going vessels headed to the Pacific Rim.

The answer is a qualified yes, said Ted Kadau, vice president-commercial of Watco Companies, the largest short-line rail company serving the region.

Watco would move grain out of the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, Palouse and Camas Prairie, if necessary, Kadau said. "But we also understand that the river is a critical transportation component." Any transition wouldn't happen overnight. Watco would have to add new infrastructure to handle the increase in volume.

It's unknown whether transportation prices would rise, Kadau said. "I can't tell you that, because I don't know how that would all shake out," Kadau said. "As it stands today, rail rates to the destinations that the barge goes to are higher than the barge, and that's why it moves by barge."

Kadau has quietly monitored the back-and-forth about the river in his more than 10 years working for Watco in Lewiston, as part of Watco's neutral stance on the issue. Watco is doing well with its existing volume, he said.

As much as Watco might gain from the demise of commercial river traffic, it backs the great number of its customers who depend heavily on the river, he said. "(Barging) is a very efficient, very economical form of transportation. We are very supportive of our customers."

BUSINESS PROFILE talked with Kadau about the health of Watco's operations in the region, the commodities it moves and why the public sees trains running so infrequently.

Business Profile: How profitable is the Great Northwest Railroad?

Ted Kadau: We originate here in Lewiston and we interchange with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific Railroad at Ayer in southeastern Washington, so cargo can get to or come in from anywhere in the nation served by rail.

If you've got a railroad that's 85 miles in theory, it would be nice if you could move 8,500 carloads each year. We move 16,000. That then gives you the revenue to reinvest in your line, and we do a great job of that. It's a very healthy, very sustainable railroad.

The rail line between here and Ayer is relatively young because a lot of it was rebuilt when they dammed the river (in the 1970s). They had to move it up the side of the bank, because when they dammed the river, the water level rose. Most railroads have been around for 100 years or more. You have a substantial amount of ongoing maintenance you have to do. You have to put in new ties. You have to put in new rail. You have to put in ballast (stones). You have to go in and fluff the ballast up. You push it underneath the ties. Moisture is a huge enemy of a rail line. Water gets in. It freezes. It thaws. It cracks.

BP: What kinds of commodities do you move on the Great Northwest Railroad?

TK: Clearwater Paper is our largest customer. The second-largest customer is Idaho Forest Group. Then it kind of flows from there.

For Clearwater, it's basically chemicals and pulp that are used in paper production. We also do outbound products for them. We move peas and lentils for Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-op and scrap metal for Pacific Steel & Recycling. We do some magnesium chloride for Envirotech Services at the Port of Lewiston. They use it in the wintertime for ice melt on the roads and for dust control in the summertime on dirt roads.
We bring a substantial amount of fertilizer into Central Ferry in Whitman County.

We now have McGregor and CHS Primeland over at the Port of Wilma, and we do a significant amount of traffic into their (fertilizer) facilities as well.

Typically our crew will leave Lewiston at 3 p.m. and they will be pulling into Ayer at 9 that night. They will make an entire turn in a 12-hour shift. They will leave town, take cars to Ayer, deliver loads or empties and bring back loads or empties into town.

BP: How well does the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad do?

TK: We operate two lines of The Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad - the north line and the south line. We lease the south line from the Union Pacific. The north line is owned by the state of Washington and we contract with the state to operate the line for them. On the south line we interchange with the Union Pacific and The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad at Wallula, Wash., on the Columbia River. On the north line, we interchange with the Union Pacific at Hooper, Wash.

The PCC is about 200 miles in total, not including about 50 miles between Hooper and Wallula where we have trackage rights on the Union Pacific's main line. You want to do about 15,000 cars a year, and we're at about 4,000 cars. Our partnership with the state of Washington is very critical on that railroad. We do put quite a bit of our own revenue into that railroad as well.

On the PCC, we operate a fleet of hopper cars and move grain from small country elevators in places such as Thorton, St. John, Endicott and LaCrosse in Whitman County and Spofford, and then shuttle the grain to a barge facility at Wallula. The grain is taken out of the rail cars and loaded onto a barge headed to Portland, where it's transferred to ocean-going vessels headed to the Pacific Rim. The fleet of hopper cars includes cars owned by the PCC and the state of Washington. We deliver and receive cars at Walla Walla from another short line railroad that serves a section of rail between Walla Walla and Dayton.

If the crop is great and we get enough moisture, it's a wonderful year on the railroad. If we're in a little more of a drought condition like we have been the last few years, it makes things a lot more challenging.

BP: As busy as Watco is in this area, it doesn't seem as if you see trains very often. What can you share about that?

TK: We run down on Snake River Avenue in Lewiston all the time to CHS Primeland's barley-loading facility. I get a lot of comments from people who say, 'I didn't even know you guys ran down there anymore.' Part of that is by design. We run down Snake River Avenue at 3 a.m. because it's a heavily populated area. A lot of people use the park. We try to avoid people. Unfortunately, where trains tend to interact with the public the most is at railroad crossings, and sometimes that's not always a good thing. In the railroad industry, safety is our No. 1 priority, above profitability, above customer service, above everything is safety. It's very easy to hurt someone or kill someone. We do everything we can to be safe.

No summer season is planned in drainage except for Lochsa River

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune, June 13, 2017
 
Idaho fisheries managers pulled the plug on spring fishing in the Clearwater Basin on Monday after giving the beleaguered season a brief second life.

The four-day-a-week season on sections of the Clearwater and its South and Middle forks that ran Thursdays through Sundays will not reopen this week, nor will it open there later this month for summer chinook. The Lochsa River is the lone exception in the basin. It is scheduled to open to summer chinook harvest June 22.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologist Brett Bowersox at Lewiston said the run returning to the Clearwater Basin continues to show lower-than-average survival between Bonneville and Lower Granite dams - so poor that the state's share of the harvestable surplus already has been exhausted. The closure also will help ensure hatcheries get an adequate number of spawners, known as broodstock, to produce the next generation of springers.

"We are still wanting to protect our ability to get brood, and the most recent information we have showed we needed to shut down even the jack fishery to protect that brood stock," said Bowersox.

Spring chinook season opened on the Clearwater and its tributaries in late April, but high water and cold flows apparently delayed the run. Fearing a shortage of spawners, the department closed fishing on the Clearwater River and its tributaries and on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers May 22.

Fishing resumed June 3 following a spike of adult chinook passing Bonneville Dam. However, fisheries managers shrunk the number of river miles open in the Clearwater basin and they restricted harvest to jack salmon only - those under 24 inches long.

Anglers harvested 77 jacks and released 170 adults during the season's brief second life.

Fishing on a short section of the lower Salmon River and on the Little Salmon River will resume Thursday. Bowersox said flows on those rivers are dropping and the fishing conditions should be improving. Anglers caught and kept just six adult chinook on the lower Salmon River last week.

"I suspect fish should start moving in the Salmon River quite a bit more than they had been," Bowersox said.

June 4, 2019

Eric Barker Idaho Fish and Game officials have closed spring chinook fishing on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers, bringing an unexpected early end to the disappointing season. Agency officials shut down springer fishing on the Clearwater River and its tributaries last month after they calculated too few adult hatchery fish would return to meet spawning goals at hatcheries. That season was over before the annual run hit its stride. In contrast, fishing proceeded on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers for a few weeks while the fish were actually present and anglers harvested more than 600 chinook over the past two Thursday through Sunday fishing periods. Fishing was expected to be even better in the next installment scheduled to begin Thursday. But that changed Monday when Fish and Game biologists used genetic sampling to test the strength of the run. Previous predictions were based on data from tiny electronic tags carried by a percentage of adult hatchery chinook. The second level of testing revealed the run was not as strong as originally predicted, and anglers had all but exhausted the harvestable surplus during last week¹s open fishing period. Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the department at Lewiston, said the genetic-based run prediction indicated about 9,102 adult spring chinook bound for Rapid River Hatchery passed Bonneville Dam. When buffers are applied to account for fish that die before reaching Idaho and for those that successfully make the journey but are neither caught nor show up at the hatchery, the forecast dropped to 3,654. Rapid River Hatchery needs to collect 2,353 adult chinook for spawning, known as brood stock, leaving only 1,302 to be split between tribal and sport anglers, or about 650 for each group. Through Sunday, sport anglers had harvested 622 hatchery chinook from the two rivers near Riggins, leaving only about 29 for the next fishing period. Unfortunately, using the best data we have, we think the right thing to do is shut this entire fishery down so we can meet brood needs. Hopefully, the adults we collect for this year¹s brood stock will make a difference in future fisheries, DuPont said in a weekly update posted to the agency’s website. Kerry Brennan, a part-time guide at Riggins and owner of the Little River Bait and Tackle Shop, said the abrupt closure caught the fishing community there by surprise.
It¹’s kind of a sudden thing, he said. We were not expecting a real long season but we were expecting it to be a little longer than this. Salmon fishing lends an economic boost to Riggins even if the season is less predictable than the fall and spring steelhead seasons. It’s a drag for Riggins, Brennan said. None of us are entirely dependent on salmon fishing but, man, it¹s sure nice. It’s fast and furious. The last few years it’s been tough, but we usually get a couple, three weeks out of it, maybe a month. We were hoping things had kind of bottomed out there and would come back around and get better. Evidently we weren’t at the bottom and now I hope we are. If this ain¹t the bottom, it’s going to be pretty scary. DuPont said poor ocean conditions, which led to reduced survival, are likely the biggest reason the run was so small. But he also noted that in 2017 when most of this year¹s returning adult chinook migrated to the ocean as juveniles, those from Clearwater hatcheries faced high saturated gas levels because of flow regimes exiting Dworshak Dam. One of the power units at the dam was down for repairs and the Army Corps of Engineers had to spill more water than normal. Water plunging over spillways at the dam created supersaturated gas in the water that can harm juvenile fish. DuPont said fish that were released into the North Fork of the Clearwater River, just downstream of the dam, returned at a lower rate this year than normal. It makes me think when we released those fish in supersaturated water, it had an effect, he said.

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

November 15, 2015

A pair of studies funded by two Northwest environmental groups conclude the four lower Snake River dams are needed neither to keep the region's commerce moving nor its lights on.

Carried out by Anthony M. Jones of the Boise economic consulting firm Rocky Mountain Econometrics, the first study targets navigation on the lower Snake River and notes commerce made possible by the dams has been in steady decline and at best can only hope to stabilize at a fraction of former levels. Jones writes that container traffic on the lower Snake River has been eliminated and petroleum products have nearly disappeared. With new competition from rail, he said wood products and wheat and barley are down from historic levels, but may stabilize at current levels.

"The long-term high forecast for tonnage on the lower Snake River looks to be about 2.7 million tons," he wrote, and noted the low forecast is similar.

The study was released before the Port of Lewiston announced this week that a small amount of container traffic would return to the river.

At the high point of river transportation, when more goods were shipped by barge and the price difference between rail and river shipping was greater, barging produced a benefit of about $20 million per year. He said based on current shipping prices and river transportation tonnage, those who choose to move products by barge instead of rail save about 2.4 cents per ton, or about $7.6 million annually.

Jones calculated it costs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about $227 million a year to maintain the dams, and attributed about $17.8 million of that to the transportation system. When the $7.6 million barging benefit is divided by the operation costs, it works out to about a 43-cent benefit for every dollar spent.

However, that calculation doesn't include the massive amount of money spent annually, $782.3 million last year, to mitigate the harmful effects dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers have on salmon and steelhead. Jones attributed 25 percent of those mitigation costs to Snake River dams, which lowered the barging benefit to 21 cents for every dollar spent.

"Container traffic is gone, petroleum is gone, wheat and barley is down by a third from decades ago," he said. "The products being shipped have either stopped outright or are in a state of decline, and the operation and mitigation costs are going up at something like 5 percent a year. That is not a pretty picture in the business world."

Put another way, he said "the cost is so high, if you shut the dams down today you would save enough money to pick up the (rail) shipping costs of everything that moves on the lower Snake River and still have money in the bank."

By his calculations, the corps could save about $10 million a year by removing the dams and paying farmers the $7.6 million they now save a year by using the river for transportation.

Jones also found that the small percentage of the Northwest's hydroelectric power produced at the dams could be easily replaced. In fact, he said the Northwest has a surplus of power today. Removing the dams would still leave the region with a healthy surplus of energy, he said. He even calculated that residential power bills would decline by 6 cents a month if the ongoing maintenance costs to turbines at the dams were eliminated by breaching.

The navigation study was funded by Idaho Rivers United of Boise, and the power portion was commissioned by Save Our Wild Salmon at Seattle. Both groups advocated for breaching the dams. Kevin Lewis, conservation director for Idaho Rivers United, said dam supporters and the corps have been saying for decades that the dams provide a benefit to the region.

"These reports and others clearly show that such assertions are less than honest," he said. "And while we've been enduring the government's rhetoric, endangered wild salmon, Puget Sound orcas, and Northwest fishing communities have suffered as collateral damage."

Lt. Col. Timothy Vail, commander of the corps' Walla Walla District, recently said the dams "provide a great return on investment" to the region and the country. Not surprisingly, the groups and the corps use different numbers to arrive at their conclusions. According to Vail, the dams cost only $62 million to operate and maintain and provide $200 million a year of carbon-free electricity.

"As we face future challenges with optimizing fish recovery, ensuring the efficient flow of goods through the Snake River navigation channel and providing low-cost energy, I am confident that, with the support of the American people, we will continue to ensure the Snake River dams provide outstanding value to the nation," Vail said in an October news release.

The navigation study is available at http://bit.ly/1j026xc and the power study can be found at http://bit.ly/1lnSiyT.

(Correction: The transportation report was funded by the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, and the energy report was funded by Idaho Rivers United.)

For more information on these two reports, click here to view the SOS/IRU press release.

Analysis says removal of lower Snake River dams would net $8.6 billion; critics call report a ‘slap in the face’ to agricultural economy

July 31, 2019

By Eric Barker of the Lewiston Morning Tribune

A new economic analysis indicates that the benefits that would be derived from breaching the lower Snake River dams as a means to recover threatened salmon and steelhead populations outweigh the costs.

The “Lower Snake River Dams Economic Tradeoffs of Removal” was compiled by ECONorthwest for the Seatle-based Vulcan Inc., a company founded by Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft. It acknowledges substantive costs associated with breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams.

Those costs included making it more expensive for grain growers to get their crops to market and the loss of power generated at the dams. However, the study says the benefits of reducing the extinction risk for Snake River salmon and steelhead, combined with increases in river-based recreation over reservoir recreation, plus the jolt of spending and jobs that would accompany the work to physically remove the dams, would exceed costs by $8.6 billion.

“The Snake River dams provide valuable services; however, a careful exploration of the range of economic tradeoffs on publicly available data suggests the benefits of removal exceed the costs, and thus society would be better off without the dams,” wrote project director Adam Domanski of ECONorthwest in the report’s executive summary.

Domanski said people are willing to pay as much as $40 a year more for electricity if it means salmon and steelhead would be saved. He said dam removal pencils out even at the modest cost of about $8 more a year in electricity costs for the average household. The report acknowledges that replacing the power generated at the dams could lead to a modest increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Kerry McHugh, manager of corporate communications for Vulcan Inc., said the company has a history of tackling complex issues and noted the last rigorous look at the costs and benefits of the dams was done by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2002.

“Our goal in commissioning the report is to inform the public on this important regional issue,” she said.

The Bonneville Power Administration that markets electricity generated at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers would lose revenue if the dams were breached, but the agency would also experience lower costs to maintain the dams and reductions in costs associated with mitigating for the harm the dams cause to fish.

While the costs associated from a loss of barge transportation would be steep, Domanski said they could be mitigated. Grain shippers would likely switch to rail or truck, or a combination of both, to get their crops to ports at the Tri-Cities, Portland and Seattle. That would put strains on the rail and highway systems and investments would be required to increase the capacity of those systems, according to the report. Shippers within 150 miles of the river system would pay more in fuel costs and shipping rates, and the region would see more traffic on highways, an increase in trucking-related accidents and more wear and tear on highways.

“The policy challenge should be trying to figure out a way to mitigate or compensate those costs,” Domanski said.

Dam removal would increase survival of juvenile salmon and steelhead as they migrate to the ocean and, in the long run, increase spawning habitat for fall chinook, according to the report.

The study was panned by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newman, both Republicans representing eastern Washington, as well as agriculture and shipping groups.

Those groups issued this joint statement: “This privately-funded study is a slap in the face of our state’s agricultural economy. It is another example of Seattle-based interests seeking to disrupt our way of life in central and eastern Washington.

Increases in carbon emissions, higher electricity bills and billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements that would be needed for irrigation and transportation hardly come across as a ‘public benefit.’ This report, like many others before it, fails to consider the consequences of dam breaching for communities and industries throughout the Northwest.”

The value of the dams, some of which have been in place for more than 50 years, versus the harm they cause to wild populations of Snake River spring, summer and fall chinook, steelhead and sockeye salmon has been a contentious issue for nearly three decades. Salmon advocates have long pressed for dam removal and say it is the surest way to save the fish that are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Conversely, dam advocates say the dams are not primarily to blame for salmon and steelhead declines and removing them would be too costly. The federal government is in the midst of a yearslong look at the issue and is expected to release an environmental impact statement and economic analysis on the issue next year.

Among the highest costs associated with breaching identified by the ECONorthwest study would be replacing the carbon-free hydro power produced at the dams, as well as the cost to actually remove the dams and to restore the formally impounded areas, according to the report.

But it found that a system of locks at the dams that allows barge transportation between the Tri-Cities and Lewiston that is used by many but not all farmers to get their crops to oversees markets operates at a loss. It also said the irrigation system the dams provide, mostly near the Tri-Cities, could be upgraded without substantial costs.

Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said dam removal would “devastate towns, businesses and families,” in the region. She said the region should wait for the federal government’s analysis of dams and salmon before passing judgment.

“We are nearing the end of a tremendously thorough, science-based effort to work toward salmon recovery in the Columbia-Snake River System,” she said. “Federal agencies are already studying the river system, and that includes breaching Snake River dams. With findings expected in early 2020, it is prudent for all of us to keep our eyes on the prize — science-based salmon recovery — and not get distracted with advocacy reports that have the appearance of, but not the facts of, science.”

Officials at the Port of Clarkston criticized the study for giving short shrift to the economic benefits of the cruise boat industry in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and said the fish can be saved without breaching the dams.

“Fish and dams are both critical to our valley and the Pacific Northwest,” Port Manager Wanda Keefer said. “We do not need an either/or approach to these issues. We need solutions that support salmon recovery, carbon-free hydropower, low-carbon and safe river transport, and recreational opportunities for all ages.”

Sam Mace, of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, said the study is valuable for the benefits that it shows would come with dam breaching, but she said it excluded some of the most obvious.

“The study doesn’t take into account all the additional jobs that would be created in central Idaho and coastal communities and communities up and down the river from restored salmon. There are a lot of other benefits the study didn’t take into account,“ she said.

Diminishing fish returns on the Snake-Columbia river systems are sparking renewed calls for taking out the dams

By ERIC BARKER, October 22, 2017

More than a decade ago, the looming effects of climate change convinced one of the most respected salmon biologists in the Pacific Northwest to change his position on dam breaching.

Don Chapman, who had taught many of the fisheries biologists in the region as a professor at the University of Idaho, ruffled fins when he took a job consulting for the hydropower industry and staunchly backed keeping the lower Snake River dams.

It was a position in contrast with the beliefs of many of his former students, who endorsed breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams as the best thing that could be done to save endangered sockeye and threatened spring and summer chinook and steelhead.

Chapman later changed his stance, saying that a warming climate with the dams in place was one obstacle too many for the fish to overcome. That was 2005, and nothing that has happened in the intervening dozen years has eroded the strength of his argument.

"It's the biggest threat they are facing, it's what I call the fifth horseman of the apocalypse and it's coming galloping at us," he said recently in a telephone interview from his home in McCall.

Dam breaching on the table
The northern Pacific Ocean, which naturally flips between conditions that are alternately good and bad for salmon, is in the midst of a bad spell, and salmon and steelhead runs are in decline. The bountiful returns of hatchery fish of the recent past and modest gains made by protected wild fish have been replaced with returns that led to truncated fishing seasons, a decline in wild fish abundance and renewed calls for dam breaching.

Scientists say climate change, by altering weather patterns, has made the bad cycles worse and the good times less so. To wit: the infamous "blob," a mysterious mass of warm water off the coast of the Pacific Northwest that started to form in 2013 and gained full strength in 2015, before fading last year. It hammered juvenile salmon and steelhead, robbing them of critical food sources and making the ocean more habitable to warm-water predators from the south.

Just as the blob was hitting its most damaging phase, an unusually dry and warm Pacific Northwest winter was followed by a scorching summer. Rivers saw record or near-record low flows and soaring water temperatures that devastated sockeye salmon in particular.

The hostile fresh water conditions and the blob also hit Snake River steelhead and spring and summer chinook. The 2016 return of A-run fish - composed primarily of steelhead that entered the ocean a year earlier during the peak of the bad conditions - tanked. This year, a disappointing spring and summer chinook run ended fishing seasons early, and now A-runs and B-runs are faltering.

In August, steelhead seasons that allow anglers to catch and keep the hard fighting sea-run rainbow trout were canceled in favor of catch-and-release regulations. Harvest, with lower-than-normal bag limits, was restored last week following a late push by mostly A-run steelhead destined for the Snake, Salmon, Grande Ronde and Imnaha rivers.

Climate scientists have said the hostile conditions seen in 2015 could become commonplace in the coming decades.

"I think this summer in many ways was a climate change stress test on Northwest salmon habitat," Nate Mantua, a climate and fisheries scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Santa Cruz, Calif., said in 2015. "You could see which runs were especially vulnerable to a situation with much higher temperatures, much reduced snowpack in our mountains and about average precipitation for Northwest watersheds."

All of which begs the question, in the face of a warming climate and what appears to be a period of bad ocean conditions, is the strategy employed by the federal government over the past two decades to save Snake River spring summer chinook, fall chinook and steelhead up to the task?

Chapman and many others say no and that removing the dams remains a critical step to preserve the wild fish.

"The more fish that we deliver in as good a condition as possible to this poor ocean the better," said Joseph Bogaard, executive director of Save Our Wild Salmon in Seattle.

The federal government is expected to take a new look at dam removal. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon of Portland all but ordered it to do so when he overturned the federal government's latest plan to reconcile dam operations with the needs of the fish.
Simon is directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along with its partners, the Bonneville Power Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to subject the dams to National Environmental Policy Act scrutiny via an environmental impact statement and has asked all options be on the table.

Habitat work still needed
Much but not all of the salmon recovery efforts of the past two decades focused on juvenile fish. Billions of dollars have been spent on efforts to improve spawning and rearing habitat in headwaters of the basin and to make changes at dams so the fish can pass them at higher rates of survival and in better condition.

There has been some success. Cooling flows released from Dworshak Reservoir on the North Fork of the Clearwater helped to mitigate temperatures for juvenile fish in Lower Granite Reservoir. But the cooling effect largely dissipates by the time the water reaches the downstream side of Lower Granite Dam.

Removable spillway weirs have made it easier for the fish to find their way over the dams, but the warm slackwater reservoirs remain and they are increasingly hurting returning adults.

Even so, many say the focus on headwater habitat work was and remains desperately needed. David Johnson, director of Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries, points to legacy land-use practices such as clear-cutting and road building that have degraded fish habitat in parts of the Clearwater and Salmon river basins. The tribe has worked with money provided by the Bonneville Power Administration on things like replacing old culverts with bigger pipes that allow fish to reach formerly blocked spawning grounds, obliterating old logging roads that cause erosion, restoring flood plains that keep water cool and filter out sediment, and planting brush and trees along denuded stream sides.

"Using the (Bonneville Power Administration's) fish and wildlife program to improve juvenile habitat on those streams was a great opportunity and it was a good thing to do, you can't deny that whatsoever. The hatchery programs coming into full swing like they have, provided harvest for folks and made it a reality like it wasn't really in the 1980s and 1990s," Johnson said. "It's just, boy the things we are seeing - it's really kind of scary things that are happening - and it's scary to me because it's going to take a huge lift for our country and our society to kind of address it."

As proof for the need for bold actions, some point to poor salmon returns to areas where the habitat is in pristine condition. Rick Williams, an independent fisheries scientist based in Eagle, cites the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. Spring and summer chinook runs there have produced an average smolt-to-adult return rate of 0.9 percent since 2000. That is below the 2 percent needed for the run to simply replace itself annually and well below the 4 to 6 percent biologists say is needed for the runs to grow.

Ritchie Graves oversees efforts to improve salmon passage on Snake and Columbia river dams for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said salmon recovery to date, combined with previous good ocean conditions, helped boost the runs far above the numbers seen when the fish were listed.
That could change quickly and he compares it to the hit savings can take if you lose a job or suffer serious expenses.

"If you know you are going to have withdrawals on your bank account you better have more money in there to begin with," Graves said. "All that means is you can withstand one or two or three bad ocean years before getting down to the lower level."

But he also believes continuing to work on spawning habitat is important. There have been years when the capacity of headwater streams to support more spawning adults and their offspring has been in question. A good run might lead to more spawning and more juveniles but in many cases those juveniles must compete with each other for limited food and space in their natal streams.

"A lot of the habitat work is aimed at removing those problems so we have capacity of generating more smolts," Graves said.

More may be needed and he acknowledged that fresh water remains the focus over dam removal. But Graves doesn't dispute breaching would improve fish survival.

"Dams are not good for fish. My agency has never said dams are good for fish. We have worked to try to minimize those effects the best we can. Will fish be better off without dams? I think the answer is yes but how much better?"

A recent study, still in draft form, by the Fish Passage Center determined that dramatic increase in spill at Snake and Columbia river dams would produce a 2 to 2.5 percent increase in Snake River spring and summer chinook and breaching the lower Snake dams combined with increased spill in the lower Columbia would garner up to a fourfold increase in fish returns.

When good ocean conditions have aligned with good water years, many wild fish stocks have exceeded the 2 percent smolt-to-adult return levels. But Williams said salmon recovery policies can't rely on the best of conditions.

"This is like a big slot machine. When it comes up all sevens or cherries everything works but how often can you count on that? At the other end of that, there is the possibility of coming up with all Xs."

His prescription calls for employing fixes that empower nature, not those like hatcheries that substitute technology for natural processes. That means doing things such as dramatically increasing spill at Snake and Columbia river dams and planning for a future without the dams on the lower Snake River.

"My gut feeling is if nothing is changed on the lower Snake River dams the Idaho fish won't persist long term."

By Eric Barker

July 26, 2019

Nez Perce follows suit with two groups by suing over water quality agreement in regard to Hells Canyon dams. A recent deal between environmental regulators in Oregon and Idaho that promised to advance Idaho Power’s attempt to relicense its three-dam Hells Canyon Complex is facing a pair of lawsuits. This week, the Nez Perce Tribe and the environmental groups Pacific Rivers and Idaho Rivers United challenged, in two separate lawsuits, Oregon’s water quality certification of the dams for what they say is a failure to provide fish passage and adequately insure water quality standards for temperature and mercury will be met. The Nez Perce Tribe filed suit against the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in Oregon’s Marion County Circuit Court while the environmental groups filed their case against the agency in Oregon’s Multnomah County Circuit Court. Idaho Power is seeking a new 50-year license for the dams that were built between 1958 and 1967. The dams provide 70 percent of the power the company sells to 530,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. When they were built, the dams lacked adequate fish passage and wiped out 80 percent of the spawning habitat for Snake River fall chinook and eliminated other salmon and steelhead runs from reaches above the projects. To compensate, the power company agreed to fund salmon and steelhead hatchery programs downstream of the dams. But the reach above the dams remains identified as critical fall chinook habitat and, despite its degraded habitat and water quality, could one day see reintroduction of the fish. The company’s original license to operate the three-dam complex expired in 2005. Ever since, the company has been in the process of seeking a new license from the Federal Energy Regulator Committee and operating on temporary licenses issued on a year-to-year basis. Key to getting a new license is securing state water quality certification stating the dams are in compliance with section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act and Idaho and Oregon state water quality standards. For years, the two states that share a border along the Snake River in Hells Canyon took different approaches to water quality certification. Oregon had insisted that the dams be outfitted with fish passage equipment that would allow salmon, namely fall chinook, to migrate upstream. Idaho, on the other hand, opposed fish passage measures or the reintroduction of threatened fish species above the dams. Last month, the two states hammered out a water certification agreement that did not include fish passage at the dams but called for the company to spend $400 million on projects designed to improve aquatic habitat and reduce water temperatures on tributaries to the Snake River. Each state’s departments of environmental quality then issued water quality certifications to Idaho Power, allowing the recertification process to proceed. The lawsuits by the tribe and environmental groups contend that Oregon’s certification violates both the Clean Water Act and Oregon statute. Oregon law requires all dams to provide fish passage unless exempted. Neither the state nor the federal government has issued the company an exemption. Rick Eichstaedt, a Spokane-based attorney representing the environmental groups, said they chose to file in Oregon because of the state’s strong fish passage law. Both the tribe and environmental groups also claim slack water behind the dams leads to the conversion of mercury to methylmercury that accumulates in the flesh of fish, which poses health risks to people who eat the fish. They also said the certification does not include concrete assurances that water quality standards for temperature and mercury will be met over the course of a new 50-year license. “The tribe has consistently advocated for the adoption of 401 certifications for this project that are protective of the tribe’s treaty-reserved rights and resources due to the central role water quality plays in the protection of those resources,” said Shannon F. Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, in a news release. “This in turn helps protect the health and welfare of the tribe’s citizens who exercise their treaty rights in waters within Oregon.” The dams are within the tribe’s historic territory and tribal members once fished for salmon, steelhead, Pacific lamprey and white sturgeon there. The environmental groups say their members enjoy fishing for salmon and steelhead and have a mission to protect and restore rivers, anadromous fish runs and water quality. “Idaho Power has failed to protect the rights of Idahoans in sustaining the important fisheries of the Snake through the proposed actions on the dams it operates,” said Nic Nelson, executive director of Idaho Rivers United at Boise. “Compliance with water quality standards is not optional, and we must take action to preserve the integrity of this river system.” Jennifer Flynt, chief public information officer for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Simpson speaks at two-day conference in western Washington

By Eric Barker
July 8, 2021

SHELTON, Wash. — Rep. Mike Simpson was the only member of the Northwest congressional delegation to attend the first day of the Salmon and Orca Summit here, where all involved expressed the need for urgent action to save the two species intertwined in the culture and natural history of the Pacific Northwest.

The Republican from Idaho has largely been alone since he introduced his $33 billion salmon and dams concept back in February but has won the support of tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Simpson’s idea, built on breaching the four lower Snake River dams and investing in affected communities and industries, has received scant support from his colleagues in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Some Republicans, like Reps Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse of Washington, have attacked the plan, while key Democrats like Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have given it a cool reception. Murray and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sent aides to the two-day conference but did not attend in person.

The Nez Perce and Shoshone Bannock tribes of Idaho, where most Snake River fish are from, have been Simpson’s most ardent supporters, and they in turn have lobbied for and won more tribal support, first from other Columbia River tribes, then the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and now the National Congress of American Indians.

The Nez Perce and the Squaxin Island Tribe are playing host to the two-day conference attended by dozens of tribes and designed to garner further political support for the plan, or something like it.

“It’s a challenge politically,” said Leonard Forsman, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe of Washington and president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. “We have to keep pushing. We have very little time here. We do have the issue of the dams being in Washington, so we need the Washington delegation to get engaged.”

Snake River spring chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Analysis by the Nez Perce tribe shows 42 percent of wild chinook populations that spawn in the basin have returned so few spawners over the past four years that they are in are in danger of going extinct, and a study by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates climate change and warming oceans could drive the fish to blink out by 2060.

Hemene James, a member of the Coeur D’Alene Tribal Council, summed up the high stakes of salmon conservation, describing how dams built decades ago blocked salmon from returning to the homeland of the northern Idaho tribe he represents.

“My people are relegated to getting fish out of the back of a truck,” James said. “All of you who have salmon should be freaking out. Excuse my language, you should be crapping your pants because you don’t want to end up like us.”

Orcas and chinook stitch together otherwise disparate parts of the region. Snake River salmon spawn up to 900 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River in mountain streams that feed the Salmon, Imnaha, Tucannon and Grande Ronde rivers. The country is wild, semi-arid and high above sea level.

The whales, also known as orcas, call the Salish Sea and Puget Sound home but make hunting forays up and down the West Coast of North America, dipping as far south as California and pushing north along the coast of British Columbia.
In the late winter and spring, the two animals often occupy the same waters, the outer shelf off of the mouth of the Columbia River. The chinook, fat after spending two to three years in the ocean, are staging for their upstream journey toward natal spawning streams. The whales are there to feast on the rich and oily flesh of the fish and fatten up after a lean winter.

Both are in trouble. The whales, which number just 74 animals, are listed as endangered. Snake River spring chinook are threatened and have struggled over the past five years. Fewer than 30,000 spring chinook returned to the Snake River this year. While that represents an improvement over the abysmal returns of 2019 and 2020, it is still less than 60 percent of the 10-year average and dominated by unprotected hatchery fish.

Both animals are sacred to the tribes of the Pacific Northwest, who often refer to themselves as salmon people.

“Our history, culture and our lives are intertwined with the life and health of the salmon, the Columbia River and its tributaries and the natural and cultural resources that they sustain,’’ said Virgil Lewis Sr., vice chairman of the Yakama Nation.

Many scientists have concluded the Snake River salmon and steelhead can’t be recovered with the four lower Snake River dams in place. The federal government has determined dam removal offers the best chance for the fish to achieve recovery, but has opted for less costly and controversial measures.

Shannon Wheeler, vice chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe and organizer of the summit, said those other measures, such as habitat restoration, predator control and changes at the dams have proven insufficient.

“A lot of those dials have been turned to the fullest, so there is a need to turn some of the bigger dials. That is what breaching is. Breaching is turning one of the biggest dials out there,” Wheeler said.

Last month, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians passed a resolution in support of Simpson’s Columbia Basin Initiative. On Wednesday, the Nez Perce Tribe announced the National Congress of American Indians recently backed a resolution supporting Simpson’s effort.

“It should be clear to the Administration and Northwest delegation that Tribal Nations across America stand united on the need to remove these obstacles that are choking our rivers and causing the extinction of salmon and orca,” said Fawn Sharp, NCAI president, in a news release. “We can no longer stand by and wait for action. Now is the time to ensure that there are resources available to make real changes. Now is the time to restore the Snake River to its free-flowing nature. Now is the time, Mr. President, to honor the treaties that your nation made with ours.”

Simpson spoke at the conference, twice coming to the brink of tears, and said the tribes are instrumental in the effort to win broader support. “The key to this whole thing is you all,” he said. “The Endangered Species Act requires me, I believe, to try to find a solution to this problem, to try to make sure we can actually recover these salmon. What I have learned and come to understand is it’s more than that for you. While you want to restore salmon for the same reason I do — we should not let them go extinct — but you are trying to preserve a history, a culture and a religion. Those are powerful motivating factors.”

Simpson said while a plan to save the fish looks like it may not be included as part of a bill to invest up to $1 trillion in the nation’s infrastructure, he still hopes it can win support before the next election. If the Republicans win back a majority in the House of Representatives, Simpson said any bill forwarding his concept will face long odds.

“I think this would be very hard to pass in a Republican House, so I think this needs to be done in the next year,” he said. “So it’s a lot of work to do.”

If the plan doesn’t move forward in the short term, Wheeler said it would be a setback but not a defeat.

“We are going to continue this fight. We have been fighting for a long time, and we are not going to go away.”

The conference continues at 8 a.m. today.

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/tribes-call-for-action-on-salmon-dams/article_e46b2649-cfea-51b0-a2f0-e1d722a0b4fa.html

May 1, 2019

By Eric Barker

Process would examine how to help farmers and others if breaching were someday approved

A boat makes its way up the Snake River toward Lower Granite Dam in this June 2018 file photo. The budget passed earlier this week by the Washington Legislature includes more than $700,000 to study the effects of dam removal. Washington will lead an as-of-yet undefined process looking at how to help farmers, shippers, utilities and others if the four lower Snake River dams were removed to help recover threatened chinook salmon populations and Puget Sound orcas that feed on them. The final two-year budget passed by Washington legislators this week included $375,000 each in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 for Gov. Jay Inslee’s office to contract with a “neutral third party” to set up and run the process. The Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration are collectively writing an environmental impact statement on the operation of federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers and how they affect threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. The document, a draft of which is due to be released next spring, will include an alternative that looks at removing one or more of the four lower Snake River dams. Instead of trying to determine if the dams should be breached, the Washington process will focus on learning how the state’s residents and businesses may be harmed by breaching and what can be done to mitigate that harm. For example, breaching the dams would eliminate the barge transportation many wheat farmers rely on to get their crops to overseas markets. It would also make it more difficult for farmers near the Tri-Cities to draw irrigation water from the river, and it would eliminate the dams’ ability to produce carbon-free electricity.

If the federal agencies were to recommend dam breaching, something only Congress can authorize, Washington officials want to be prepared to advocate for appropriate mitigation, said J.T. Austin, a senior policy adviser to Inslee.

“This is an opportunity for folks who have interests along the river to come together and talk about impacts of a decision around the dams,” Austin said. “It’s more of bringing together the Washington voices. We could use what comes out of that work group to help inform the Washington position, or input, on the federal process.” For example, Jim Cahill, a senior budget assistant for Inslee in the Office of Financial Management, said the group will likely examine the degree to which grain growers who use barges could switch to rail and how the rail system may need to be upgraded. How the information will be gathered is still to be determined, but Austin said the idea is to have it led by someone without a stake in the outcome. “Our intent is to get a third-party, neutral facilitator for that conversation. It would not be the governor’s office, and it would not be any agency that might have an interest in the outcome,” she said. “We want to have the conversation on neutral ground.” Even so, the process is rife with controversy even before it begins. Many Republicans in the Legislature opposed the $750,000 price tag for the effort that grew out of recommendations from Inslee’s orca task force. Three groups of orcas in the Puget Sound region are listed as endangered. They feed largely on chinook salmon and often forage off the mouth of the Columbia River in the late winter and early spring. Rep. Mary Dye of Pomeroy, a farmer and staunch supporter of the dams representing Washington’s 9th Legislative District, said the breaching mitigation study was killed in the House but came back to life during “closed door” budget negotiations from which Republicans were excluded. Dye said she is not interested in seeking common ground that may lead to dam removal. Instead, she said salmon recovery efforts should should focus on habitat recovery, properly funding hatcheries, controlling predators and reducing commercial gill net fishing. “This is just to build political momentum for dam removal in my opinion,” she said. “This is all politics and all optics.” Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association said the federal process is sure to include an economic analysis that will ask many of the same questions the state intends to pursue, and state money would be better spent on things that directly benefit both salmon and orcas in the Puget Sound region. “If there is an extra $750,000 available to recover those three orca pods, there are many unfunded or underfunded habitat projects that would have a direct benefit to those three pods,” Meira said. Sam Mace of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition doesn’t see the work as duplicative. Mace said the federal government’s environmental impact study will not likely go into great detail about how to mitigate harm caused to people by dam removal. “We don’t want a process that just researches the issue more. We want something that is looking at the ‘what if’ questions, and that hasn’t happened in a substantive way with all the affected interests at the table,” she said. “If those dams come out, what are the transportation investments we need? Where do we need rail line upgrades? What does it cost to upgrade the irrigation system at Ice Harbor Dam to keep farmers farming?” Congressman Mike Simpson is asking some of those “what if” questions. Simpson raised eyebrows at a Boise salmon conference when he said he has been meeting with stakeholders and looking at possible ways to save Snake River salmon. Many of Simpon’s questions are based on a future without dams. Simpson plans to continue meeting with people who would be affected and talking with other congressional Republicans, such as Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Dan Newhouse. The two Republicans representing eastern and central Washington oppose dam breaching as a way to save salmon and orcas.

Lewiston Morning Tribune: Washingtonians say they'd take salmon over the dams, poll finds By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

March 31, 2018

Washington residents favor salmon over dams and wouldn't mind if their power bills increased modestly as a result of breaching, according to a poll paid for by groups pushing for removal of the four lower Snake River dams.

Fairbank, Maislin, Maulin, Metz & Associates surveyed 400 Washington residents, including 150 in eastern Washington, for the poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and American Rivers. When asked if they preferred saving wild Snake River salmon or the four dams in eastern Washington, with no mention of dam removal in the question, 60 percent of respondents favored salmon, 22 percent favored the dams and 19 percent said they didn't know.

In a similar questions, respondents who were told transportation on the lower Snake River has declined 70 percent in the past two decades, the dams produce just 4 percent of the electricity used in the state and that dams have reduced salmon runs, 53 percent said they support removing the dams, with 28 percent strongly in support and 22 percent somewhat supportive. Of those opposed to dam removal, 19 percent were strongly opposed and 13 percent somewhat opposed.

Respondents also said they would be willing to pay more for electricity if the dams were breached. When asked if they would be willing to pay $7 more per month for electricity in exchange for restored wild salmon runs and improved water quality via breaching, 63 percent said yes and 33 percent said no. Of those willing to pay more, 39 percent said they would be very willing and 24 percent said they were somewhat willing. Those who said no included 22 percent who were very unwilling and 11 percent who were somewhat unwilling.

If electricity where to increase just $1 a month, 74 percent said they would back breaching with 64 percent very willing and 11 percent somewhat willing. In contrast, 18 percent said they would be very unwilling to pay more and 5 percent said they would be somewhat unwilling.

When given a brief description of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' bill that would keep the dams in place and "prevent any new measure for aiding wild salmon," 26 percent said they support her legislation and 62 percent said they oppose it.

"This poll confirms what we've known all along: Northwest residents are more than willing to do what it takes to save our region's wild salmon", said Todd True, senior attorney for Earthjustice at Seattle, in a news release. "Studies show we can affordably and efficiently replace the declining benefits of the lower Snake River dams without increasing electrical bills by much more than a dollar a month. The poll confirms that a large majority of people know salmon are worth this and more."

True is a lead attorney in a long-running lawsuit that the groups who funded the poll have waged against the federal government's strategy for balancing the needs of 13 protected stocks of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin and operation of the government's hydropower system on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The groups support breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the lower Snake River.

John Freemuth, a public policy professor at Boise State University who specializes in public land and resource management policy in the West, said polls such as this can often serve as a jumping-off point that allows people to talk differently about controversial issues. He cited a poll on attitudes held by Idahoans about wolves prior to their reintroduction in central Idaho in the mid 1990s. The survey conducted by the University of Calgary in 1989 showed 53.3 percent of respondents favored what was then still just a plan to reintroduce wolves to the state. Freemuth said the surprising findings helped change the debate about wolves.

"I think it did show people that people were a little beyond just the myth of the wolf as evil. It created a space for people to talk more about how to manage them," he said. " I think polls can do that. It's what people do with the information that matters."

A summary of the poll results and questions is available at https://bit.ly/2GXnrVI.

Congresswoman backing legislation to revive 2014 proposal on fish, dams struck down by federal judge

July 1, 2017

By Eric Barker
   
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is pushing legislation that would revive a 2014 salmon-and-dams plan previously struck down by a federal judge, and nix court-ordered spills at dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

If passed and signed into law, it would make the government's latest plan - which attempts to reconcile operation of the dams with the needs of threatened and endangered fish - valid through 2022.

Known as a biological opinion, the existing plan was completed in 2014 and set aside last year by U.S. District Judge Michael Simon at Portland, Ore. At the time, Simon chastised officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bonneville Power Administration for failing to come up with a plan that better meets the needs of wild salmon and steelhead.

"The Federal Columbia River Power System remains a system that 'cries out' for a new approach and for new thinking if wild Pacific salmon and steelhead, which have been in these waters since well before the arrival of Homo sapiens, are to have any reasonable chance of surviving their encounter with modern man," Simon wrote at the time.

Instead of a new approach, the legislation co-sponsored by Republicans Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington and Greg Walden of Oregon, along with Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader, would lock the 2014 plan in place and eliminate a 2018 deadline to replace it.

The new bill also mandates that nothing that could restrict electrical generation at any of the dams or navigation on the Snake River be implemented without the consent of Congress. That provision would seem to block Simon's order earlier this year that additional water be spilled at the dams starting next spring to help juvenile salmon and salmon survive their annual migration to the Pacific Ocean.

In a news release, McMorris Rodgers, who has served as chairwoman of the Republican caucus since 2013, said the bill would help keep energy prices low.

"Hydropower provides 70 percent of our energy in Washington state - much of which is produced on the Federal Columbia River Power System," she said. "The (system) ensures people in eastern Washington have access to clean, renewable, reliable and affordable energy every single day - all while achieving record fish returns. There is still work to be done, but dams and fish can coexist, and the (system) proves that."

Salmon advocates said the bill is an attempt to circumvent the law and to wipe out proven techniques that have boosted salmon survival rates.

"The clear purpose is to prevent the implementation of the court's spill injunction. Although the bill doesn't say that and the press release doesn't say that," said Todd True, an attorney with the environmental law firm EarthJustice at Seattle. "So there is a big effort here to hide the ball and that is unfortunate."

True said the spill-blocking provision appears to go even further. Simon ordered the federal government to write an intensive environmental impact statement on the dams under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act. That effort, which is scheduled to wrap up in 2022, is likely to include a number of potential alternatives that might help the fish. But True said the bill forbids even the study of actions like dam breaching or additional spill that could lead to reduced energy output or navigation.
"This is a wolf in sheep's clothing," he said. "It looks like it is aimed at short-circuiting the (EIS) process the court has ordered."

Supporters of the dams said the bill, by eliminating the need to write a new biological opinion by the end of next year, gives federal scientists more time to concentrate on the environmental impact statement. The lessons learned from that effort, they say, will help shape a biological opinion for 2022 and beyond.

"I think it makes sense to say 'let's get the (National EIS) process done first and have the benefit of that information to develop a new biological opinion instead of trying to develop one in 2018,'" said Terry Flores, executive director of Northwest River Partners.

NOAA given until 2013 to come up with detailed plan

By Eric Barker of the Tribune The Lewiston Tribune

In the wake of their third straight legal victory, salmon advocates are calling for the federal government to take a hard look at dam breaching as a vehicle toward Snake River salmon recovery.

"We think that is a starting point of what the Obama administration should do; they should commit to take a close and in-depth look and to us that means scientific, economic and engineering," said Pat Ford, executive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition in Boise.

Although the coalition made up of conservation and fishing organizations has worked hard to keep dam removal as a viable option in the public debate over salmon recovery, the government has not seriously weighed the pros and cons of breaching since it was dismissed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that wrapped in 2001. Instead the corps backed a combination of habitat improvement projects and technological fixes to the dams. That strategy was endorsed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency in charge of salmon recovery.

Two weeks ago federal Judge James Redden of Portland, Ore., ruled the details of a 2008 plan using that strategy remain too ill-defined and uncertain to pass muster with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. He is allowing the plan and its habitat-improvement measures to stay in place through 2013 but wants NOAA Fisheries to come up with a more detailed plan by 2014.

Although Redden did not say a more defined plan relying solely on the same strategy would fail, he strongly suggested it would and ordered the government to consider "more aggressive" actions like dam breaching and reservoir draw down.

It is unclear if the NOAA Fisheries will simply try to fix the plan, known as a biological opinion, by providing more details on future habitat projects and the fish survival benefits that can be expected from them or if it will look for a new strategy. Barry Thom, deputy regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries at Portland, said officials have not decided how the plan will be fixed but said he was encouraged Redden is allowing it to stay in place for the next two years.

"I think the judge recognized it does have beneficial effects moving forward. I think that is definitely a positive from our standpoint but we are disappointed the judge didn't just come out and agree with all of our arguments."

He noted by the end of 2013 the plan will have been in place for six of the 10 years it was designed to cover and there will be pressure to prove it is working.

"The federal government will need to tighten the certainty behind the benefits and how the benefits accrue to the fish," he said.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is calling for a regional discussion that seeks a new path forward. Oregon joined with the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition and the Nez Perce Tribe to challenge the government's 2008 salmon and dams plan.

Brett Brownscombe, one of Kitzhaber's natural resources policy advisers, said the talks should involve not only the plaintiffs and defendants in the case but other regional interests.

"He (Kitzhaber) wants to play a meaningful role in advancing a new way forward," Brownscombe said. "That is going to start with having conversations with relevant stakeholders in the region."

Brownscombe said he doesn't expect that conversation to start with breaching.

Supporters say they didn’t have a fair chance to participate in discussion on Snake River dams and salmon recovery

By Eric Barker Of the Tribune
Apr 1, 2023

A U.S. government listening session Friday was dominated by speakers in favor of breaching the four lower Snake River dams.

More than 50 people told representatives of the federal government that the river should be restored to its free flowing state to recover wild salmon and steelhead, compared to just three people who said the dams are vital to the region’s economy and should be retained.

Breaching advocates said the science backing dam removal is clear, that it is necessary to honor tribal treaty rights and that services provided by the dams can and should be replaced. They said salmon are keystone animals important to a wide range of other species from orcas in the Puget Sound to trees in inland forests.

“Federal leadership needs to recognize the dire need for regional planning and investment that will lead to lower Snake River dam removal now and in this decade,” said Tess McEnroe, a rafting guide on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area.

The Middle Fork is one of the state’s pristine, high-elevation streams that fisheries experts say will remain cool even as the climate warms and serve as a vital refuge for wild salmon and steelhead. But while working there over 16 summers, McEnroe has seen fish numbers dwindle.

“I would like my future grandchildren to see the Columbia and Snake rivers, and its hundreds of other tributaries, swollen with the red backs of these fish just as it used to be 100 years ago,” she said.

Julian Mathews, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe from Pullman, said his ancestors gave up claims to a vast territory in the 1855 Treaty in exchange for promises their way of life would be protected.

“We ceded 15 million acres of land and retained rights to hunt, fish and gather and to me the agreement is not being upheld by the government,” he said.

The three-hour, online session was organized by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and is tied to settlement talks over a long-running lawsuit centered on threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and federal dams in the Columbia River basin. The dams have fish ladders but scientists say the slackwater they create impedes migration of adult and juvenile fish and is a leading cause of mortality. Studies show too few wild salmon and steelhead survive from smolts to adults for the runs to grow.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Nez Perce Tribe, Oregon and a coalition of environmental and fishing groups. They have won multiple rounds of the litigation that dates back more than 20 years but have not yet been able to convince the government to breach the dams.

That could be changing. The administration has said business as usual will not recover fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. As part of the settlement negotiations, it has committed to considering recovery thresholds higher than those needed to remove the fish from ESA protection and it has said it will explore dam breaching.

Last year, a NOAA Fisheries report said breaching one or more of the dams, along with a suite of other actions, is needed to recover the fish to healthy and harvestable levels. Last week, President Joe Biden said he is committed to working with tribal and political leaders of the Pacific Northwest to recover the fish. Biden specifically named Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who backs breaching and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who along with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said last year breaching offers the best chance of recovering the fish but shouldn’t be done until the power, transportation and irrigation made possible by the dams is replaced.

Breaching the dams would end tug-and-barge transportation of wheat between Lewiston and downriver ports, eliminate about 900 average megawatts of hydroelectric generation and make it more difficult for irrigators near the Tri-cities to access water.

Several speakers cited the work of Simpson, Murray and Insee, who have committed to varying degrees of mitigation to solve the problems created by breaching. Speakers also extolled the economic benefits a recovered fish population would bring to the region from the mouth of the Columbia at Astoria, Ore., to tiny inland towns like Riggins.

“The importance of these fish and the outfitting & guiding industry to these rural Idaho communities cannot be overstated,” said Aaron Lieberman, executive director of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association. “Yet fishing outfitters and guides and their communities continue to helplessly watch the downward arc of Idaho’s anadromous fish.”

The few people who spoke in favor of the dams said they play a central role in the region’s prosperity and are key to fighting climate change.

“It is critical that we maintain a healthy hydro system which is the backbone of our low carbon emissions electric grid,” said Jennifer Jolly of the Oregon Municipal Electric Utilities Association. “Breaching four highly productive dams with state of the art fish mitigation would be a huge setback for our nation’s decarbonization efforts just when we’re beginning to implement the groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act. The massive level of electrification required to fuel clean vehicles, clean buildings and clean manufacturing, incentivized by the act will require more hydropower, not less.”

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest River Partners that represents community-owned utilities that get much of their electricity from the federal hydropower system on the Columbia and Snake rivers, said after the meeting that dam supporters didn’t get a fair chance to participate.

“I personally don’t believe, given who I heard speak, that these people were selected on a first-come, first-serve basis. I believe it was a curated list. I think it was intentional and if it wasn’t intentional it was incompetent. At the end of the day millions of customers my organization represents were completely left out.”

Matt Philibeck, a commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the speakers were selected according to the order in which they registered earlier this month. The session, which was not publicized by the government, was limited to three hours and speakers were given three minutes to talk. A second three-hour season will be held Monday but all of the speaking slots are full. An additional meeting will be held May 25 but it is not yet open to registration.

https://www.lmtribune.com/local/anti-dam-overtakes-listening-session/article_ead7c07e-869b-590a-9960-beada90a6535.html

McMorris Rodgers, Newhouse act days after Biden commits to bolstering salmon

By Eric Barker Of the Tribune
March 24, 2023

Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her colleague Rep. Dan Newhouse, both of Washington, introduced legislation Thursday to protect the four lower Snake River dams.

The move comes just a few days after President Biden said he is committed to working with Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho and Washington senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, to save Columbia and Snake river salmon. Biden did not say he supports dam breaching and of the politicians he mentioned, only Simpson has publicly backed the idea.

McMorris Rodgers and Newhouse are both Republicans who represent districts that are home to one or more of the four dams.

“I am growing increasingly concerned about President Biden’s openness to breaching our dams,” said McMorris Rodgers in a news release. “From his administration’s recommendation to rip them out — without any scientific evidence to back it up — to his desire to work with anti-dam advocates, it’s clear our dams are in danger.”

The Biden administration has not recommended breaching the dams. But last year, NOAA Fisheries, the agency in charge of protecting threatened and endangered salmon, released a draft report saying wild Snake River salmon cannot be recovered to healthy and harvestable levels without breaching. The “healthy and harvestable” standard is a much higher threshold than recovering the fish to the point they can be removed from federal protection.

For example, delisting criteria call for consistent returns of 33,500 wild Snake River spring and summer chinook to their spawning grounds. The healthy and harvestable level, set by the NOAA-convened Columbia River Partnership Task Force, is about 98,000 wild spring and summer chinook returning to the Snake River. Historic returns were exponentially higher.

Two years ago, Simpson, who represents Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District, released a $33.5 billion plan that would breach the dams and invest in affected communities and industries across the Northwest. Newhouse said Simpson and others have not been honest about the dams and their effect on migrating salmon and steelhead.

“The Four lower Snake River Dams are integral to flood control, navigation, irrigation, agriculture, and recreation in central Washington and throughout the Pacific Northwest — to put it simply, we cannot afford to lose them,” he said in a news release. “Yet President Biden, Governor Inslee, Senator Murray, and Representative Simpson have been misleading the American people with unscientific information in order to breach these dams, putting our communities at risk.”

Wild Snake River salmon and steelhead have been under the protection of the Endangered Species Act since the late 1990s. During that time, their numbers have gone up and down from year to year but they remain far from recovery. In 2021, the Nez Perce Tribe released an analysis showing 42% of wild spring chinook populations and 19% of wild steelhead populations in the Snake River basin have reached the quasi-extinction threshold — an analytical tool used by the federal government to assess the risk. The threshold is tripped when a population of fish has 50 or fewer spawners return to natal streams for four consecutive years.

Last year, about 200 wild spring chinook returned to the Tucannon River in the state’s southeastern corner and in McMorris Rodgers’ district. This year, the state is expecting only about 20 wild fish. An expected low return of spring chinook to the entire Snake River basin this year is expected to constrain fishing for hatchery spring chinook in the Columbia River.

The dams turn the river from a free-flowing stream into a series of slackwater reservoirs. While they have fish ladders and other facilities allowing salmon to pass up and downstream, studies have shown the dams delay juvenile fish during their migration to the ocean, expose them to predation from other fish and birds and induce stress and injury that lead to lower survival.

Removing the dams would reduce mortality of juvenile and adult fish and according to some studies boost returns by four-fold.

But it would come at a steep price — the loss of about 900 average megawatts of hydroelectric power that would complicate the region’s effort to convert fully to carbon-free power. It would also end some irrigation near the Tri-Cities in Washington and stop tug-and-barge transportation between Lewiston and downriver ports — making it harder for farmers to get their crops to overseas markets.

Simpson’s dam breaching concept acknowledges the benefits provided by the dams and seeks to mitigate the losses through investments in infrastructure and economic development. He shot back at his fellow Republicans via a statement and called their legislation a “Hail Mary attempt.”

“If the choice is between flushing Idaho’s upper Snake River water downstream for four dams in Washington state, I choose keeping Idaho water for Idahoans,” he said. “Each year eastern Idaho sends almost a half million acre feet of irrigation water downstream for salmon recovery — that is water that is not being used to recharge our aquifer, not being used for irrigation, and our salmon are on the verge of extinction.”

The bill, known as the Northwest Energy Security Act, which was also introduced as a Senate bill by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, would essentially codify the federal government’s 2020 Supplemental Biological Opinion on operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System. That document acknowledged that breaching would be beneficial to salmon and steelhead but concluded lesser actions, like spilling water at the dams, improving inland habitat and other reforms, would be sufficient to prevent extinction of Snake River sockeye, spring and fall chinook and steelhead.

The Nez Perce Tribe, Oregon and a coalition of fishing and environmental groups sued the federal government over that plan, charging it fails to meet the level of protection required by the Endangered Species Act. That lawsuit was put on hold more than a year ago, when the parties agreed to enter mediation. They have until this summer to reach an agreement.

Shannon Wheeler, vice-chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said the tribe is ready to work with anyone to not only save salmon but also build a stronger future for the region.

“We have come to the table and want to talk about what the energy system looks like, what the transportation system looks and what we want the Pacific Northwest to look like. We want it to grow and prosper and for salmon to grow and prosper,” he said. “Things like this don’t give (salmon) recovery much of a chance.”

https://www.lmtribune.com/local/bills-unveiled-to-save-snake-river-dams/article_21d645b8-54d6-58e2-a7e0-8bb001c77914.html

July 8, 2018

by Eric Barker

Battling growing competition and looking at

costly upgrades, Northwest power agency is

trying to right its ship. Could dam breaching

be a solution?

The Bonneville Power Administration is one of a few self-funded federal

agencies that operates like a private concern, but difficult market

conditions are eroding the business model it's depended on for

decades and threatening to upend its future.

In response, the agency is looking at cutting its fish and wildlife

budget, among other measures. That could have an impact on the

effort to recover salmon and steelhead runs protected under the

Endangered Species Act. But some environmentalists say the agency

could save money, improve its financial standing and help fish by

walking away from costly future upgrades to the four lower Snake River

dams.

The agency is also trying to shore up its finances by reducing its debt

ratio and maintaining its credit rating while making needed investments to infrastructure, coming up with new products like reliable power for noncontract customers and better meeting the needs of customers.

Cheap renewable energy like wind and solar produced in California and

the southwest, along with conservation and the low cost of abundant

natural gas, have driven down the price of wholesale electricity and

disrupted the market for surplus electricity.

The agency once counted on selling its surplus electricity to places like

California for a nice profit, which it used to keep its own rates low. But

with prices and demand both down, Bonneville has often been forced

to sell its surplus electricity at a loss. It has also had to raise the rates

it charges regional customers by about 30 percent in the past decade.

Those customers are locked into long-term contracts and are now

paying well above the market price. For instance, Bonneville sells its

power for roughly $36 a megawatt. On the spot market, which

fluctuates constantly, the price is often around $20 a megawatt, or

even lower.

Agency officials such as BPA administrator Elliot Mainzer are diligently

seeking ways to right the ship, particularly prior to the expiration of

those contracts held by small and large utilities in the Pacific

Northwest. Utilities managers are naturally eyeing the cheaper prices

elsewhere. Most of the contracts expire in 2028, but negotiations for

renewal are expected to heat up in the next three to four years.

"The trend would not allow them (BPA) to be a competitive power

supplier when the next set of contracts are signed," said Scott Corwin,

executive director of the Public Power Council, a coalition of publicly

owned utilities that use BPA power. "It's an important matter for

Bonneville to get control of their costs and turn the trajectory of what

have been significant rate increases over the last several rate periods."

BPA markets power it produces at 31 federal hydroelectric dams and

energy produced at the Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear plant

in Washington. According to its website, it provides about 28 percent of

the electricity used in the vast Pacific Northwest region and maintains

about three-quarters of the transmission lines in its service territory.

Customers include big public utilities such as Cowlitz Public Utility

District and tiny rural cooperatives like Clearwater Power and Idaho

County Light and Power.

Clearwater Power, which supplies electricity to homes and businesses

in parts of north central Idaho, is keeping a close watch on BPA's

efforts to curb costs as well as its rates as the so-called 2028 contract

cliff approaches.

"Our cost of wholesale power is about 42 percent of our monthly bills

for our members," said David Hagen, Clearwater Power general

manager at Lewiston. "It's impacting us. We are concerned about the

trajectory Bonneville is on. With rate cases every two years and rising

rates depending on the year, it's a concern, especially when you

compare it to what the wholesale market is right now."

Hagen said it's too early to say if Clearwater will seek to reduce the

amount of power it purchases from Bonneville in the next contract and

replace it with other sources. But it's a possibility. It's also a possibility

other, much larger utilities will seek to diversify from Bonneville, which

could raise rates on those who remain customers of the agency.

"I'm guessing we are going to have to make a decision in 2023 or 2024

about those contracts," Hagen said. "Until we know all the terms and

the pricing, it's going to be very difficult to make a decision."

The fact that Bonneville customers are at least mentally shopping

for better deals has the agency worried. Mainzer said power from BPA,

even at a higher price than the volatile spot market, still has value, but

he knows rising agency costs and prices are a looming problem.

"We are not strictly competitive on pure price point basis," he told the

Northwest Power and Conservation Council earlier this year. "I would

say that I still think there is tremendous value in the product. I think

right now that when you unpack all the different elements of the

Bonneville product - it's carbon free, it's dispatchable, it's firm reliable

components and everything else that comes with BPA - I still think it's a

tremendously valuable product, but if that (price) spread opens up

more I think we are going to face some significant problems."

Anthony Jones, a Boise economist, thinks the agency's above-market

rates pose a serious danger. The more utilities choose to reduce their

Bonneville purchases, the more the prices will rise for those who

remain.

"Big utilities are saying, 'Why don't I cut back on my big contract with

BPA and buy at least part of my power on the open market.' It's risky,

sure, but if you are willing to assume some risk, there is the potential

to do some big savings," he said. "That is a huge problem for BPA. BPA

has sort of a fixed level of costs and spreads those costs over its known

demand, over customers. If customers cut back, some costs have to be

spread over fewer people, and that means higher rates for the

remaining customers. It's called a death spiral in economics. It's

descriptive and it's true."

The agency also faces liquidity problems and scrutiny from credit

rating organizations. To help make ends meet and to avoid further rate

hikes, the agency has burned through much of its reserves and used

the lion's share of its credit. Mainzer told the Northwest Power and

Conservation Council it has spent about $800 million of its cash

reserves and $5 billion of its $7 billion federal borrowing capacity. He is

trying to maintain at least $1.5 billion in credit and enough cash to

fund each of its division for at least 60 days. The agency is seeking

nonfederal sources of credit to relieve some pressure.

Bonneville officials are also attempting to retire debt, but at the same

time the agency needs to continue to invest about $900 million

annually in upgrades to the dams and transmission system.

It all adds up to stressful times for the agency that's mission is to be

"an engine of economic prosperity and environmental sustainability,"

for the region.”

Mainzer said the agency can't get out of its predicament with cost

cutting alone and must find new revenue by continuing to sell its

surplus electricity, a difficult task given the market.

The agency's costs include debt payments to the federal treasury and

its considerable fish and wildlife obligations. With little control over the

wholesale market, the agency is seeking to control what it can - its own

budget. That will mean a nearly $30 million cut to its $300 million fish

and wildlife budget for fiscal year 2019, in addition to cost-saving

measures at its other divisions. This comes at a time when the return

of Endangered Species Act protected wild salmon and steelhead runs

have been declining. Last year, the return of wild B-run steelhead was

alarmingly low. By some accounts, fewer than 500 wild B-run steelhead

returned to the Columbia River systems. Another estimate by the Idaho

Department of Fish and Game puts the still-unconfirmed number at

about 1,000.

Whichever is right, it's a low number. Spring chinook returns are far

from robust this year, and biologists are not expecting steelhead to

make much of a rebound this fall.

By law, the agency must give equal consideration to providing a

reliable power system for the region and to helping fish and wildlife

populations affected by the construction and operation of dams in the

Columbia River basin. To meet its fish and wildlife obligations, the

agency's fish and wild program pays for a plethora of projects including

hatcheries, habitat improvement in places like Idaho's salmon and

steelhead streams and work designed to ease passage of adult and

juvenile salmon at the dams.

The fish and wildlife budget jumped in 2008 when the agency

negotiated the Columbia Basin fish accords that gave states and tribes

a boost in funding in exchange for them not pursuing litigation over the

impacts of federal dam operations on salmon and steelhead. Those

accords expire this year and are expected to be renewed but for a

shorter time span than the original 10-year agreements. Oregon and

the Nez Perce Tribe did not sign on to the accords.

The fish and wildlife program is undergoing review and cuts are

coming. Thus far, the agency is trying to trim fat without hurting the

projects that most help threatened and endangered fish. It will do that

by looking to slash things like research, monitoring and evaluation,

how much it pays researchers and fisheries managers to attend

scientific conferences, and training. It will also look at cuts to programs

that can't demonstrate success when it comes to improving fish runs.

"We are really trying to make sure the investments we retain are the

highest biological value," said Bryan Mercier, executive manager of

Bonneville's Fish and Wildlife Division. "We are not going to do

anything that puts us in jeopardy of meeting our ESA obligations."

The agency has indicated that any additional costs, such as spilling

water at the dams, needs to be made up with cuts elsewhere. Water

spilled at the dams is counted as a cost in the form of forgone revenue

because it doesn't run through turbines.

Fisheries officials who receive funding from the fish and wildlife budget

are both sympathetic to the position the agency is in but also looking

to make sure the agency meets its mitigation obligations.

"They still have a responsibility under the Northwest Power Act to

mitigate for the effects of the hydro system and to give equal

consideration to fish as the power that is produced. That still needs to

be their standing direction," said David Johnson, director of Nez Perce

Tribe Department of Fisheries Resource Management.

Some activists have suggested the agency walk away from the four

lower Snake River dams that need costly turbine upgrades in the

coming decades and are responsible for a significant portion of the

agency's fish and wildlife costs. Breaching the dams is the cornerstone

strategy of many Snake River salmon advocacy groups.

Critics are skeptical that selling more power when the market is

depressed can succeed.

"Good luck and at what price?" said Linwood Laughy of Kooskia, who

worked with economist Jones, journalist Steve Hawley and producer Jim

Norton to write a white paper on the issue.

The men say the agency should consider divesting the four dams,

which could pave the way for their removal. According to their

reasoning, breaching would save money by eliminating the needed

upgrades and reduce mitigation costs associated with the dams.

Buried in the agency's five-year strategic plan is this line: "And through

the Columbia River System Operations Review, BPA and its federal

action agency partners will produce a recommendation on the future of

the lower Snake River dams after completing a comprehensive

analysis."

The single sentence is devoid of details, but for some it is loaded with

foreshadowing regarding the agency's commitment to the dams and

the costly upgrades they will need in the next few decades.

"I read that and said the lower Snake River dams are clearly in their

sights, and I think they should be," Jones said.

Jones sees the dams as something that can relieve some of

Bonneville's financial pressures. The aging dams need turbine

rehabilitation that could cost $1 billion-plus, according to Laughy's

calculations. The dams are responsible for a large chunk of the fish and

wildlife mitigation payments Bonneville is required to make. Work by

the Fish Passage Center indicates breaching the dams could lead to a

fourfold increase in Snake River salmon and steelhead runs.

"It would actually be cheaper to save the fish than to pretend the dams

aren't damaging the fish," Jones said. "Realistically those particular

four dams are just very high-priced assets. They generate 53 percent

of their power April to June when nobody needs the power and prices

are down around $5 to $10 a megawatt and their remaining power the

rest of year, and they really don't supply much. Regardless of how well-

intentioned they were when (the dams were) put in, they are just not a

good fit for the Northwest market."

There is no indication the agency is contemplating a future without Ice

Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams.

Officials say the dams serve as an important backup source for

renewable energy sources. When the wind doesn't blow and the sun is

covered by clouds, the dams can be used to take up the slack.

"The way I view those dams, which have very high concrete survival

rates (survival rates for juvenile fish passing them) by the way, are

very significant in the region for us in integrating renewables such as

wind and solar," Mercier said. "They provide a ton of flexibility for us to

provide reliability in the region. They are four giant batteries, and those

batteries are critical to the operation of a reliable system."

In response to written questions submitted to the agency, BPA

spokesman David Wilson said Bonneville plans to invest about $500

million in the lower Snake River dams over the next 20 years. Most of

that will focus on equipment that is not directly related to power

generation, such as turbines.

Based on the investments, the agency calculates power produced at

the dams will cost $13 to $14 a megawatt hour.

"The cost of production is lower than even the most pessimistic

replacement power forecasts over the same time period, making the

projects cost-effective resources," Wilson said.

Study says it's possible, suggests renewable energy sources that could
replace dams By ERIC BARKER of the Lewiston Morning Tribune Apr 4, 2018 A study commissioned by the Northwest Energy Coalition shows that a combination of renewable energy sources, conservation and better management of energy use could replace electricity generated by the four lower Snake River dams without significantly increasing costs or emissions. The group says the study can be used as a template for federal officials who are in the midst of a court-ordered look at how to
operate the dams and recover wild salmon and steelhead populations. That look is expected to include a dam-breaching analysis. "The study shatters the myth that replacing the lower Snake River dams and restoring our wild salmon would compromise the reliability of our power system and cause major increases in rates and greenhouse gas emissions," said Nancy Hirsh, Northwest Energy Coalition executive director. The group is described as "an alliance of about 100
environmental, civic and human service organizations, progressive utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia" on its website. Many salmon advocates have called for Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the lower Snake River to be breached. Doing so would restore that portion of the river to free flowing and eliminate the harm they cause to both juvenile and adult fish as they migrate to and from the ocean. Many stocks of wild Snake River salmon and steelhead are protected by the Endangered Species Act. Critics of breaching, including officials at the Bonneville Power Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have said dam removal would be too costly, in part because it would reduce electricity generation at the dams that likely would have to be replaced by natural gas-fueled energy plants. A 2016 BPA fact sheet said switching to low greenhouse gas emission hydropower, produced at the dams with electricity from natural gas generators, would increase emissions by 2 million to 2.6 million metric tons per year. That is equivalent to adding 421,000 passenger cars to the region's highways annually. In addition, it said switching to natural gas would increase power costs by $274 million to $372 million per year. The same BPA report suggested wind and solar power are too unreliable to be counted on as replacements for the hydropower produced at the dams. For example, on calm or cloudy days, the report said, other sources would be needed to make up for the lack of renewable generation sources and hydropower produced at the dams is exceptionally suited to do that. The dams also are remarkably reliable, according to the BPA report, and able to generate power quickly at times of peak demand or
when other generating sources unexpectedly go offline. The report also indicated the dams are important for keeping the region's transmission lines operating reliably and efficiently. But the new analysis, conducted by Keegan Moyer of the independent consulting firm Energy Strategies, says a combination of wind and solar generation in combination with conservation, storage and managing electricity consumption to transfer some use to parts of the day when demand is lower - known as demand response - could replace power generated by the dams within the next 10 years. Doing so would not require construction of new natural gas plants, according to the report, and would be just as reliable, possibly more reliable, and provide the same benefit to transmission lines. Under one scenario, replacing the dams with renewable sources and conservation could cause a 1 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions and cost ratepayers an additional 4 cents per day. If states like Washington and Oregon were to institute measures such as a tax on carbon use, the analysis says greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced. The study did not factor in the actual cost of breaching the dams, estimated at $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion by the BPA in its 2016
report. But Northwest Energy Coalition spokesman Sean O'Leary said his group released a report in 2015 that showed breaching costs would be outweighed by forgone future expenditures on the dams, such as the expense of refurbishing hydroelectric turbines and annual salmon and steelhead mitigation programs. "In that study we did look at the cost of dam removal and the associated savings or avoided costs. At that time, the avoided costs were greater than the costs of dam removal, providing a net benefit." O'Leary also said the study only analyzed the level of renewable sources and conservation needed to replace power generated at the dams. He said the federal government's ongoing analysis of the dams, and possibly breaching them, may well produce a mix of renewables and conservation that performs even more efficiently and at an even lower cost. "We hope they will seize on that opportunity to do that extra examination to see just how good we can make this," he said. The study is available at www.nwenergy.org.