Currently browsing… dam removal
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Solution seekers vs. the ‘Refuse to Try’ camp
It’s time for the powers that be to work together to do something big on the Snake River Editor’s note: This article by Rob Masonis, Walt Pollack, and Bryan Jones was originally published in the Spokesman-Review. What do we – a former energy executive, an Eastern Washington wheat farmer, and a long-time salmon advocate and…
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Fresh support for Snake salmon recovery
Long-awaited report shows that replacing the dams’ benefits is possible. Change in the Snake basin is inevitable. Since the completion of the four lower Snake dams in 1975, the river’s salmon and steelhead populations have declined by more than 90 percent—to the detriment of tribes, anglers, businesses, and communities across the Northwest. Throwing new momentum…
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Your Snake Questions – Answered
Here are six frequently asked questions about taking down the dams and restoring critical populations of wild fish in the Basin.
We are experiencing some of our worst returns on record for wild salmon and steelhead. Over the past 25 years, the Snake Basin has averaged less than two returning adults for every 100 smolt. Biologists from Oregon and Idaho, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and various tribes estimate that Snake River dam breaching will…
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Q&A: 1,000 miles from Source to Sea
Two paddlers from the Grand Salmon project talk about their upcoming trip, dam removal, and Snake River salmon.
Libby Tobey and Hailey Thompson are embarking on an incredible trip this summer along with three other athletes and advocates. The women are skiing and paddling over 1,000 miles from central Idaho to the Pacific Ocean as part of a public awareness and advocacy initiative, the “Grand Salmon Source to Sea" project, which aims to…
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Business as usual won’t restore the Eel River
TU promises legal action if the Potter Valley Project continues to harm salmon and steelhead The lower reaches of California’s Eel River flows through the homeland of the Wiyot people. The Wiyot call the river Wiya’t, which means abundance. At one time, the Eel’s salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey fisheries were incredibly abundant. But dams,…
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A watershed moment for the Klamath
Public comment encouraged, critically low salmon and steelhead runs can’t wait On February 25, the long campaign by TU and our Klamath Tribal and conservation partners to restore the Klamath River passed a major milestone when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on proposed decommissioning of the Lower…
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On the Elwha, dams came down, steelhead came back.
Wild summer-run steelhead, once prolific in the Elwha, were functionally extinct before the dams were removed. Six years later, they were back.
Life After Dams Part 1 of a series. This week, we’re telling stories about what happens when dams come out and life flows back in. It’s a vision of what could be on the lower Snake: a free-flowing river and wild fisheries staging a remarkable comeback. It is not always possible to restore wild places…