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We must save Snake River salmon and steelhead
Half-measures will ensure the extinction of salmon and steelhead in the Snake River basin, and nothing more.
I have spoken at four or five conferences with Shannon Wheeler, the Vice Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe. And every time I do, I come away a little wiser, and a little more passionate, about the need to recover Snake River salmon and steelhead. And a little more hopeful that we can. When I…
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The river that was
On the Snake River, what was lost and what could still be.
Dean Ferguson and his father Dwight have an annual tradition. They drive to Colton, Wash., a tiny farm town perched on a bench above the Snake River in extreme eastern Washington. They place flowers on the graves of ancestors, then drive another few miles to an overlook across a lake. Here 80-year-old Dwight tells his…
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Snake River salmon: “One of the defining issues for this generation of anglers”
Why we turned over an entire magazine to the removal of the lower Snake River dams The fall issue of TROUT magazine drills down on an issue that is gaining fresh momentum across the Northwest: the effort to remove four dams on the lower Snake River, which would re-open the last best cold, clean habitat…
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Returning rapids
Dams will forever change a river. Sometimes I sit and wonder what certain rivers must have been like prior to a dam’s construction. That typically brings about more questions than answers. What was the river like years before? Were there bigger rapids? What was the fishing like? What did the native cultures lose when we…
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Sawyer Paddles and Oars stands with TU on Lower Snake dam removal
I'd imagine many have heard someone in a fly shop say something along the lines of, "Your fly rod is only as good as your fly line." While I don't know that I've heard it said often, I feel strongly that the same principle applies to the oars rowing your boat. Since 1967, Sawyer has…
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Guaranteed: they will come back
Pacific salmon and steelhead connect the Pacific Ocean to the Sawtooth mountains and persist at 1-2 percent of their historic numbers. Their decline precisely parallels the construction of the four lower Snake River dams
Editor’s note: This is the sixth and final installment in a series of articles showing that removing four dams on the lower Snake River is the last, best hope for wild Snake River salmon and steelhead. Wild Snake River salmon and steelhead are on the brink of extinction, but we can bring these incredible fish…
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