In the heart of Boise, Idaho, close to 100 “salmon”
recently tried to run a faux gantlet of four “dams,” mimicking the
difficulties of real-life migration for salmon and smolts swimming
the Snake River to the Pacific Ocean. Costumed volunteers played
the salmon and the Snake River dams: Lower Granite, Little Goose,
Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor. Each dam killed about 25 of the
imperiled fish; only one survivor made it to the ocean. The mock
migration was staged during an Oct. 24 Northwest Power Planning
Council hearing on emergency options for delivering Idaho’s “class
of “95” chinook salmon to the Pacific next spring. Activists wanted
Boise residents to know that next year’s migration might be the
last unless the dams are modified to allow fish to migrate under
more natural conditions.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Extinction was the message.
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