Spawning chinook salmon would be better off if they
didn’t have to swim the gantlet of four dams on Idaho’s Snake
River, says a panel of independent scientists. By testing that
hypothesis with a computer model, the scientists found threatened
spring and summer chinook salmon would have a greater than 80
percent chance of restoration if the dams were breached. The
computer model found that continuing to barge salmon around the
dams resulted in a 50 percent chance of recovery. Only some 32,000
wild salmon remain in the Snake River Basin where there once were 1
million. The scientists’ report is “slicker than a watermelon
seed,” says Jeff Curtis of the environmental group Trout Unlimited.
“The science matches common sense.” Not everyone was as
enthusiastic. Bruce Lovelin, executive director of a barge-industry
coalition, said he was stunned, since “everything we’ve been
hearing was unsure if dam breaching would really work.” Lovelin
says scientific questions still need to be asked. A decision is
coming soon: By the end of 1999, the National Marine Fisheries
Service will choose whether to restore the Snake River or continue
barging salmon.
For a copy of the scientific
report, based on the computer model, “Plan for Analyzing and
Testing Hypothesis,” write to David R. Marmorek, ESSA Technologies
LTD, 1765 W 8th Ave., Suite 300, Vancouver, BC N6J5C6 or
www.bpa.gov/Environment/PATH.
* Rebecca
Clarren
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Damning report on dams.
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