Can salmon be saved? A free, 15-page report,
Returning Salmon by Restoring Rivers: The Case for Partially
Removing Four Dams on the Lower Snake River, says yes. Prepared by
the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, which includes 230 conservation
groups, Indian tribes and others, the report says breaching the
dams is the best way to help Snake River salmon and steelhead
trout. In the time of Lewis and Clark, 8 million wild salmon swam
the waters of the Snake River; today, this number has dwindled to
5,000. The coalition raises some important issues: Treaties in 1855
and 1856 promised fishing rights to the Columbia Basin Tribes, but
if salmon become extinct, taxpayers will owe the tribes
compensation. The report also says that by removing the earthen
portion of the dams, taxpayers will save an estimated $33 million a
year in maintenance costs. The Clinton administration will decide
the fate of the lower Snake River dams in
December.
For a copy of the report, contact Chris
Zimmer at Save Our Wild Salmon, 975 John Street #204, Seattle, WA
98109 (206/622-2904, ext. 14 or 800/SOS.SALMON) or e-mail:
chris@wildsalmon.org. You can also read the report at
www.removedams.org.
* Keri Watson
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Dams must go.
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